Ducatisti: do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is that the market for motorcycles 500cc and up is down 17% worldwide for the first quarter of this year, which means the “good” news is that Ducati is only down 5% for Q1 2013. Not exactly the start out of the gate that Audi was hoping for its newly acquired two-wheeled brand, but what are you going to do? Western Europe is a mess, with Spain and Italy continuing to go down like a…well, you know. While we don’t enjoy the misery of motorcycle brands, the fact that Ducati Motor Holding is now under the Audi AG umbrella means that we get far more detailed quarterly and yearly reports from the two-wheeled marque, and we’ve got the digits after the jump.
Mission Motors tweeted out something interesting just a moment ago, a link to a new website for Mission Motorcycles. Teasing there a photo of the Mission R, it would seem that the electric superbike that does competitive AMA Supersport lap times at Laguna Seca, is finally set to come to production. It seems we won’t know everything about the new Mission Motorcycles project until June 3rd, though we can speculate pretty accurately on what the A&R Bothan spy network has been telling us. Expect to see the Mission R electric superbike in street legal trim, honed even further than when we rode the machine back in August last year.
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.
Let me prefix this by stating I’m a big fan of Vale and I can’t be happier he’s joined forces with Ducati for this MotoGP season. Results thus far aside, the marriage is epic on its own. Also, I ride a Ducati myself (an S2R) and have always admired the brand as a whole.
But seriously, this mix of VR46 graphics and the Monster lines couldn’t clash more. I’m happy how it’s turned out on the Desmosedici and I’m sure there will be livery available for the 1198-esque super bikes, but for nakeds like this, this isn’t working imo.
.02′s
ducati IS the italian harley-davidson… where merchandising matters more than the motorbikes.
Sad to say that I have to agree with Keet there. Ducati’s become such a brand whore over the last few years…
Ducati might be a brand whore, but to compare them to Harley really isn’t fair. Ducati actually invests in R&D, improves their bikes, develops new tech, everything an actual motorcycle company does. Harley, on the other hand, well, we don’t need to go into detail on that one. They couldn’t even put the XR1200 on par with a Buell Lightning.
As to the paintjob, the yellow parts make me want to vomit, but the white actually looks pretty good.
It was only a matter of time. I wonder why it took them so long to create the new graphics. Which in the case of Rossi’s 46 is rather appaling. Hope they change it further down the road
If you would want something like this go to the sticker shop and let them
make someting like this. You can always take it off and it will safe you
a lot of money.
Looks like a McDonald’s Ducati. The Catsup and Mustard graphics might work on an 1198 (and help sell a few to those who need a good reason to buy the soon to be obsolete model), but on a Monster?
Additionally, it would seem both more logical and more profitable to have Rossi tune a machine (different clip ons/ergos/suspension tweaks?) than to have him in charge of the graphics.
almost as pukey as the Rever Corsa/Christian Audigier Monster “collabo”
Boy the 69 looks great, but the Vale version is straight up fugly!
I’m a fan of Rossi and what his contributions to the sport, as well as the bikes he helped develop and the technology that we end up benefiting from. However, every time I see the yellow and red combo, it reminds me of McDonald’s ,and I end up jonesing for super-sized french fries.
Ducati's First Valentino Rossi Branded Motorcycle – http://aspha.lt/c4 #motorcycle
Danm NoBody & mrbubbles, they beated me to it. lmao.
Anyways, yes…whats with the McDonald’s paint colors combo ?
I think the real contribution of Rossi will become obvious with the next gen superbike they work on. And maybe there we’ll even see a “Rossi Button” with the settings of the champ. But I think the real context of cooperation between Rossi and Ducati will be the re-orientation of the italian machines, bringing them closer to “mainstream” –a “civilian” version of what he is now trying to achieve with the GP11. It will be a pity if the whole “Rossi Experience” proves nothing more than some expensive “McDonald” versions of existing models. But I remember Burgess saying that the Rossi – Ducati affair would last 6 years. If that statement was not an error, it means Rossi and the Reds will keep together longer than his racing with the marque.
Something MUST be wrong with me. I’ve been a vocal critic of these clashing colors, but for some reason I find it just shouty enough on this monster as to be kinda cool. It’s not too much, just a little bit. Maybe it works better for me on the Monster because there’s not miles of fully faired paint?
I don’t know, but I authorize you all to flame me mercilously.
It’s not what I expected from Vale. Usually his graphics appeal to me, but maybe this time Aldo Drudi could not put his master craft to work
That looks silly at best. 46 on a street non-sport bike? Good that Ducati doesn’t make scooters …
Yuck!!