Stefan Pierer’s acquisition of Husqvarna continues to baffle me. You will note I say Pierer, and not KTM, bought Husqvarna, since the Austrian CEO used Pierer Industrie AG in the transaction as a means to help side-step European antitrust issues. After all, we can’t have Europe’s largest dirt bike manufacturer, nay largest total motorcycle manufacturer, gobbling up even more brands in the two-wheeled world. But, I digress. Developing three road bikes (Husqvarna Nuda 900, Husqvarna Strada 650, & Husqvarna Terra 650), with three more concepts waiting in the wings (Husqvarna Moab, Husqvarna Baja, & Husqvarna E-G0), it is with even more confusion that we learn that Pierer & Co. intend to kill the Husqvarna Nuda project and its other street siblings.
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.
I like it. They should do it.
If they do it, I’d rather see an under-slung exhaust like the RC8. I doubt they’ll do it though. Can the 1050 engine push out liter bike horsepower?
WSS the 4′s get 600cc and twins get 750cc and triples get 675cc. In WSBK the 4′s get 1000cc and the twins get 1200cc wouldnt 1100cc triples make more sense????
…And it joins Performance Bike’s rendering in December 2009, and MCN’s article with accompanying render stating why “Triumph’s next bike will be a Daytona 1050!” back in 06 I think.
It won’t happen as Triumph want to get the most out of their bikes. All the others have had and continue to lead long product lives.
Building Litre Sports bikes is like the 1950s policy on Nuclear Warfare – the only way forward is to build more and better – I don’t believe Triumph want to be sucked into that – the litre class is too fast paced for them to throw money at continuously.
I certainly wouldnt buy that. The Daytona and Speed Triple look much better seperatly.
OMG!!!! I need a napkin. I just creamed myself.
PLEASE MAKE THIS!!! Just like the phote,… no changes, make her light, make her powerful. Monoblock calipers, snarlin’ Triple with the diminutive front end of the 675!!!!
I will sell a kidney for this.
“Building Litre Sports bikes is like the 1950s policy on Nuclear Warfare – the only way forward is to build more and better – I don’t believe Triumph want to be sucked into that – the litre class is too fast paced for them to throw money at continuously.”
Precisely. A good friend of mine is a designer that has worked on several of the most recently Triumphs, as well as some still in the pipeline, and while every designer in Hinkley is chomping at the bit to build this bike, John Bloor has no interest whatsoever in going down that road. There have been attempts by the designers to temp Bloor into building this bike, but don’t expect it to happen. Triumph is doing a very nice business right now selling what they do, which is much more than most companies can say at the moment.
Ducati 1198+aprilia RSV4=Triumph Daytona 1050..so ugly
No idea to create all new bike, hah???always cut, copy and paste from other brand…what a shame…huh..
The 1050 motor is getting a bit long in the tooth now. Can’t see what would have to be a performance led bike competing with that engine. It would cost a fortune to develop & struggle to be competitive in a declining segment when Triumph are nicely turning over a profit doing what they do. Not really a good business proposition so don’t hold your breath
Build it and they will come. Beautiful.
The tail section is way out of proportion with the front of the bike, giving an unbalanced appearance. It will need a sbk spec 1100cc 3cyl to be competitive. The 1050 is a great mill, but not on the mark with the 1198 and liter 4cyls. I’m not positive they need to develop a whole new motor – depending on cylinder spacing there may be room for essentially overbored cylinders to achieve the extra displacement. That along with associated flow and tuning updates might just allow it to be competitive.
Keeping at the front of the sportsbike power wars may be cost prohibitive, but it is necessary to continue development overall. The S3 and Tiger are also due for a refresh and could benefit from a few extra cc to compete with the ducati streetfighter, new Z1000, ducati multistrada etc.
Someone take this “thing” to the back of the Barn, shoot it on the forehead and put it out of it’s Misery, PLEASE! Oh, don’t forget to shoot TWICE that danm 1050cc Dinosaur too, fricking thing is been around too long already.
OH, And Triumph, get your collective heads out of your asses and design a usable Daytona 1200 Triple. Quit it with the LAME BS that “we simply can’t compete with Japan Inc when it comes to the 1Ks”… yes u can, woosies.
Do things your way, like u have done so far… there’s no need to replicate the Japanese OEMs (4cyl, 200hp, 350lbs anorexic bikes, BUG eyed(R1), PUG faced(CBR1000RR), etc. Think throwing a Daytona 675R and a Sprint GT(minus the 1050 engine) into a blender and WUALA !!
Bring a sharp tool out similar to the 675 but more usable and less track oriented and easier on the human “frame”.
Ok, im done bitching…lol.
“Building Litre Sports bikes is like the 1950s policy on Nuclear Warfare – the only way forward is to build more and better – I don’t believe Triumph want to be sucked into that – the litre class is too fast paced for them to throw money at continuously.”
same thing was said about the 600 class, but that hasn’t stopped them
Ironic, very ironic….
Visordown are reporting this:
http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news-new-bikes/125cc-triumph-range-in-the-pipeline/16598.html
If it’s true, Triumph are shunning the ultra competitive Litre class for the ultra competitive micro bike market….
If true….dang, i just got biotch slap silly. THANKS Triumph.
An 1100 would make more sense, fitting between the 1000 fours and 1200 twins. I doubt the’ll make one though.
actually, build it and they WON’T come. bloor knows this to be true. segment downturn not withstanding, i’d have to think anybody who is for this bike must be fairly new to motorcycling (or at least to the brand?). triumph already went down this road a little over 9 years ago when they redesigned the 955 for ’02 (remember the brief switch to a DSS?). been there, failed that. don’t think it was their goal, but it began getting compared in the US and UK rags to the then current class of liter bikes. iirc, it didn’t necessarily get panned badly in the reviews, but it certainly didn’t measure up to bikes like the then GSXR1000 (which was taking the world by storm and only in it’s 2nd model year). now fast forward the open class after nearly a decade of homologation that is the collective “arms race” of motogp, wsbk, bsb, and ama, then start comparing that to this theoretical ’12 1050 daytona. the D1050 would be a 21st century supersport that has basically trickled-down NOTHING. so keeping with the suzuki comparison, if an ’02 GSXR is basically a dinosaur in comparison to an ’09 GSXR (the most recent year of US import), then what would a ’12 daytona be to a ’12 GSXR…? if i’m not mistaken, the 1050 engine (like many triumph mills) still uses removable cylinder liners. i mean, this is laughable to japanese engineers. the 1050 was long in the tooth the instant it debut.
NORM G said it.
LOL, Why is it (or seems like it is) always like that ?…As if Triumph is playing catch up with the other OEMs when said OEMs already shifted to a higher level of the same “Game”…? For crying out loud….just to make a point, when the others had already and were using RAM AIR/CAI for decades Triumph was still using an airbox sucking HOT AIR from UNDER THE TANK, what the hell ?
How did they ever created the ‘Tona 675 ? Total FLUKE ? Even it is starting to look like is been around for ever now. Don’t mess with success ? YEAH, that’s a doble edged one right there…