In case you missed the story last week, Kevin Schwantz is preparing to race in this year’s Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race. For the race, Schwantz will be riding on a team formed by Yukio Kagayama, who in addition to having raced in the MotoGP, World Superbike, and British Superbike Championships, is also a previous Suzuka 8-Hour winner with the Suzuki Endurance Race Team (also joining the three-rider team Noriyuki “Nitro” Haga). Releasing a Q&A about his team’s Suzuka 8-Hour entry, Kagayama-san walks us through how the team came together, what equipment the riders will use, and his outlook on the team’s competitiveness.
A single-cylinder hooligan-maker, the KTM 690 Duke is 330 lbs (curbside without fuel) and 67hp of two-wheeled fun, and we hope that the Austrians bring the KTM 690 Duke R our way as well. While we are on the topic of things missing from KTM’s American line-up, a decent supersport is painfully obvious, yet we can’t see the folks at KTM following the paths of other brands. That’s where our friend Luca Bar comes to mind with his latest concept: the KTM RC4. Using the KTM 690 Duke platform and its LC4 engine, Bar has designed a super-single full-fairing sport bike that takes the Austrian company’s “Ready to Race” DNA and applies it to an idea that is not all that disimilar to the Ducati Supermono.
When I sat down with Claudio Domenicali at the Ducati 1199 Panigale R launch, the now-CEO of Ducati Motor Holding was still just the General Manager of the Italian motorcycle company. Four weeks after our interview though, Gabriele del Torchio would leave Ducati for Alitalia; and Domenicali, a 21-year veteran of both the racing and production departments of Ducati, would take his place at the top of Italy’s most prestigious motorcycle brand. After reading our interview from Austin, Texas after the jump, I think you will agree too.
That Yamaha is working on a seamless gearbox is no secret, with Yamaha’s test riders currently racking up the kilometers around tracks in Japan. Recently, however, Spanish magazine SoloMoto published an article suggesting that Yamaha has already been using its new seamless gearbox since the beginning of the season. My own enquiries to check whether Yamaha was using a seamless gearbox or not always received the same answer: no, Yamaha is not using the seamless gearbox. To test this denial, I went out to the side of the track on Friday morning at Jerez to record the bikes as they went by.
After a very public father/son break-up between Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr., a steroid-ring scandal involving Paul Sr., and finally a bankruptcy proceeding, it appears that Orange County Choppers is the impossible to kill multi-headed hydra of doom that we all knew it was, as the custom chopper shop is once again headed to the small screen and recruiting some talent, on and off the show. Looking for “someone who will work alongside Paul Senior, running the shop and helping build some of the best custom motorcycles in the world,” OCC says it will be back on television with a new show later this month. Please for the love of god, will someone give this man the attention he craves so dearly??! Or, just shoot us in the face.
We love us some concept bikes here at Asphalt & Rubber, and we have featured more than a few pieces of stunning design and imagination on our pages. Though, we can’t remember the last time one of these works of art were brought to us by a legitimate racing team, but that is what we have here with the Team Alstare Superbike Concept. A nod to the former Suzuki team’s return to the World Superbike Championship as the Ducati factory squad with Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini, Alstare has enlisted the help of designer Serge Rusak of Rusak Kreaktive Designworks to ink the shape of its futuristic Superbike concept, while Tryptik Studios handled the 3D modeling prowess.
If you didn’t watch Thursday’s pre-event press conference for MotoGP at Jerez, it is worth a viewing right to the end (assuming you have a MotoGP.com account). Building off the news about the NBA’s Jason Collins coming out as gay in a self-written feature in Sport Illustrated, my good colleague David Emmett had the courage to inquire about the culture and acceptance of the MotoGP paddock for homosexual riders. For the sake of accuracy, after the jump is a full transcript of David’s question, as put to riders Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Stefan Bradl, and Scott Redding, as well as those riders’ responses to David’s inquiry.
News that Suzuki plans on returning to the MotoGP Championship in 2014 should be old information for dedicated Asphalt & Rubber readers, and the Japanese company’s inline-four race bike was already spotted doing test laps last year by the eager eyes at Cycle World. Well the American print-mag has another set of eyebrow-raising high-quality photos of the 2014 Suzuki GSV-R to mull over from the Motegi race track, along with some technical insights provided by the venerable Kevin Cameron.
A surprise addition to BMW Motorrad’s 2013 model line-up, zie Germans have announced a new middleweight adventure-tourer, the 2013 BMW F800GS Adventure. Like its larger predecessor, the BMW F800GS Adventure is a more travel-ready and off-road capable build of the recently updated BMW F800GS motorcycle. Featuring a larger windscreen, panniers, and a bigger fuel tank capacity (2.1 gallons larger, for a total of 6.3 gallons of fuel), the BMW F800GS Adventure keeps the same 85 hp, liquid-cooled, 798cc, parallel-twin engine found on the F800GS, as well as the same chassis configuration. Pricing in the US will be $13,550 for the base model BWM F800GS Adventure.
Former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz has certainly been in the news a bit these past few months, mostly for his involvement and falling out with the Circuit of the Americas and the Americas GP, but also more recently for his comments regarding Dani Pedrosa — we also sat down with Mr. Schwantz in Austin, and the Texan gave us some sobering insight into the future of American road racing. As if all that wasn’t enough, Schwantz is making a return to two-wheeled racing, and has entered the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race with Team Kagayama racing alongside Noriyuki Haga and team owner Yukio Kagayama.
Ahhhh the Spondon ART…
Design looks a bit simple to me, but looking forward to see how it will do at TT.
How about actually delivering some Commandos??
Doesn’t look as good as the NRV588, that’s for sure. And yes, those Commandos need to get delivered. Starting to look like the revived Norton is nothing but a vanity brand for someone who doesn’t know how, or care, to deliver a product.
I don’t get it. What does Norton make anyways? That rotary engined bike was interesting at the least. Who owns Norton? It seems kind of like the Hasketh racing garages of old, except with more ineptitude. Another prancing pony for some rich bloke, eh? Those Commandos do look nice but I’ll bet I’ll have a Panigale paid off before ever even having a realistic option at one. Maybe they’ll beat that crazy American made sport tourer to market…
I hope Kawasaki eats everyone alive at the TT and in WSBK. They’ve been the anus far too long.
Indeed, in 10 years they will be a Zombie like Hesketh or they sold the name to China (and we will see it on mopeds which are sold in building centers). An 80s frame with a boring Design might work with at least fascinating engine but with one from Aprilia… that just crates something nobody was waiting for.
This might have been one of the the reasos that made Terreblanche leave Norton after 1/2 year.
You can blame the EPA for the delay in the US getting Commandos, not Norton. Our shop is supposed to get them in June, just as they have been saying all along.
As for the TT bike, it think it is pretty cool, but a bit of a disappointment after all the talk of a proprietary V4 for MotoGP. I guess this is at least a good place to start.
What happened to them working with the Spanish engineering firm? Inmotec, I believe?
The Inmotec was just too slow to develop its bikes. Despite how long the 800 era was, they still couldn’t get their bike together for even the Valencian GP last year.
I know they were developing their own machine, but I thought I heard rumor of Norton working with either them, or some other Spanish engineering firm.
No you’re right, Norton an Inmotec were linked at one point in time. I dont’ think that relationship lasted much longer than the rumor though.
The rotary design is a very good one. So it was embarrassing the last TT, but so what?!? Learn from your failures and make it better. How they managed to make something with 4 times LESS moving components less reliable than a conventional engine is beyond me. They should grow some balls and make something new and unique, not another RSV4 repli-racer.
Norton is too good of a brand to be represented by this.
Nothing new here, boring..
With an Aprilia engine, just how the hell is this a “new” Norton in any way?
Tom, +1. To call this a Norton is a joke.
The strangest announcement I have heard in years ….. I mean I am trying to be excited, but I just cannot fathom what is it supposed to do for them. On contrary, I think it must be quite embarrassing for them, definitely hard to see how there could be any sort of benefit to Norton from this release.
Aprilia board must be having good times ….
Just as an aside here folks, Spondon is owned by the same bloke that owns Norton, so in a round about way, this is in fact all Norton except for the motor.
Indeed, Stuart Garner owns both Norton and Spondon as RSVDan states. So the fact that this bike uses a Spondon frame is in that respect sort of a no-brainer. Jensen nailed it on the head when he said “the new Norton is surely a byproduct of the firm’s heavily rumored MotoGP entry”. This bike has CRT written all over it. It’s been written somewhere (MCN perhaps) that Garner and Norton were not happy with the original V-4 that was being developed for Norton, so hence…not too big of a surprise that they are using an Aprilia motor now. I agree with many who feel this bike is not really in the spirit of what a Norton should be. But…perhaps it is merely a starting point to what may someday develop into a completely Norton built machine…engine and all. Nonetheless…I wish them the best of luck at the TT.
The thing I find hilarious about this conversation is the fact people are complaining about Norton using an Aprilia motor, when in fact, up until a couple of years ago, Aprilia weren’t even using power plants of their own manufacture, but one of Austrian make! Did that make those bike any less brilliant, exotic, or Italian? HELL NO! This bike is a stepping stone, and I applaud them for having the balls to attempt it.
Like RSVDan I do not understand what’s the fuss about the Aprilia engine being used in this bike. But what I really do not understand though is what’s all the fuss about the new Norton 961 bike. It’s totally over priced and is definitely not a looker. And as a blast from the past bike it sucks too. That kind of money buys me a real “entry” level NYC Norton Seeley. The real deal. Or I’d buy a new Triumph for less than half the money. Which does look the part. Please let me know what you all think. I must be going mad….
I think the fuss is simple to explain: people want to see new Norton motorcycles that are pretty close to 100% Norton, that have the heart and soul of a Norton, that have a Norton-designed and/or produced engine. I totally understand why they are using an Aprilia engine in their TT racer, and I’m fine with that. And despite some disappointment, I’m sure others are too. But it would be cool to one day see such a machine with a motor designed by or built by Norton.
You think all this fuss is bad…can you imagine when MV Agusta was reborn by the Castiglioni’s if the F4 was powered by a Japanese I-4?? Yeeeeeaah…there would have been hell to pay.
I know for a fact that the chassis was actually built by Roger Allmond. They gave him the Aprillia frame and an old Spondon frame and he cut them up and matched them both together and worked an 80 hour week to do it. He also made the tank and modified the Spondon swing arm to fit. Shame they don’t give him a bit of credit really, lot of work and very clever!