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.
That is gorgeous.
Oh hummina! But for the street I’druther the GSXR-600 motor. 8^) Been on suzuki’s for 30 years…it’s a habit.
Nice looking, but the front part never worked on a Tesi and I doubt it will on this one.
Gives no feed-back under braking and cornering.
Where’s the dotted line I sign on???? droooool
Well I think they bit off too much, for a racing program. It is going to be tough enough to sort the front end out, without adding the monkey motion rear suspension with the crackpot shock. Does look cool though.
Cool looking bike. But the picture of the front looks like it would have clearence issues. It looks like the steering mechanism would touch, albeit during extreem lean angle, but would still be close. I’m assuming that cant be the case, but I wonder how close it gets.
If there is a motorcycle version of the spank bank, that bike belongs in it.
Looks pretty damn nice.
I have been dying to test ride a bike with hub center steering. If anyone in the New England area has a Bimota Tesi 3D floating around, hit me up :)
So maybe one of the more experienced track riders might be able to sort this out for me: Concerning feedback. It seems to me that feedback is largely the vibrations, instabilities, and flexing the wheel and fork system experience during maneuvers. But if the HCS system eliminates the inherent flex and wobble of the fork design, then what information is there to feedback? There’s no feedback because most of the stuff that caused feedback ahs been solved. Seems like it would be a feature, not a bug. but I don’t have the experience, so someone correct me.
And that bike is freakin amazing.
No Chrome the feed back is information on the asphalt and rubber interaction. Go racing. Get experience.
I concur with most of the sentiments. I’m a bit behind on the texting world though, as I don’t know what the BBQ is at the end of the original rant. God, I feel so lucky to have been a biker the last couple of decades!!!
But where are the reflectors ?
OMGWTFLOLROFLCOPTERBBQ I would whore myself out to a hundred thousand fat chicks just for a chance to ride that gorgeous beast.
And BBQdog, the current Tesi/Vyrus design actually works quite well, the few teams that have raced them (one is currently racing in a British twin series I believe) all say the feedback is definitively there it just isn’t that same as the feedback you get from typical forks, its more through the frame and pegs than the bars but they all say that once you reconfigure your mind its very predictable and brilliant to ride.
Anyways OMGWTFBBQHAXLAZORPEWPEWPEWPWNXOREATMYHAXUNUBCAKE!! (longest one I could remember)
The front end isn’t (that) new. The Bimoto Tesi is well sorted. That bike was raced at Daytona, in the “twins” class more then ten years ago. Leon Haslam’s dad, Ron, raced a center-hub steering bike with a factory Honda 500 motor back in the 80′s. This was in GP’s against the best. The engineering is well sorted. That being said, the Elf Honda that Haslam rode did indeed have a problem with the front strut grounding at extreme lean angles. Good luck to Vyrus – I lover everything about the bike.
Gorgeous. But:
1. The same reason that Moto2 teams weren’t willing to stray from the conventional last season – that tight budgets/sponsorship limited ability to take risks on “unconventional” tech – still seems to apply to the 2011 season. As much I’d like to see this bike on the grid in 2011, don’t know how likely that’ll be.
2. Don’t know if Vyrus has been able to overcome it, but the prevailing wisdom/shortcoming about the hub-center design had always been, as many here have already mentioned, lack of feel from the front-end. Obviously, this would be critical. On the other hand, this design is supposed to all but eliminate front-end dive under braking, so…
3. Hard to tell without the fairings removed, but it seems like the engine is perhaps being used as a fully-stressed component of the “chassis,” in a way similar to the the Ducati GP10, GP11. While most, if not all, Japanese supersports are labeled as having their engines as fully-stressed members of their frames, they nevertheless all have conventional twin-spar (full-length) frames; none have just the headstock and swingarm pivot members a la the Ducs, with the engines entirely replacing the lateral spars. So, the question is, is the “stock” CBR600RR engine being used in Moto2 able to provide sufficient structural integrity/performance as a stand-alone mid/main frame if indeed Vyrus is using such a set-up?
The lack of feel from the front-end comments aren’t giving the top racers in the world enough credit. These riders get on bikes that are complete one-offs so they are given new “stuff” all the time.
The good riders adapt to whatever they’re riding at an insane pace. The great riders not only adapt, but provide accurate feedback to the engineers for improvement. Both types of riders will do just fine with this front-end.
The frame seems to be a derivative of the Tryphonos (which was a derivative of the original Tesi). The Tryphonos used an i-4 motor & the frame goes underneath the engine and then upward (vice versa of the Tesi).
Lean angle? Should not be a problem from a construction perspective as well as the above adaptation. Action photos of a Tesi twin:
http://ridethetorquecurve.blogspot.com/2010/05/alturnative-tuesday.html
Vyrus 986 M2 Moto2 Race Bike Breaks Cover at Verona – It's Time to Breakout the Kleenex – http://aspha.lt/8d #motorcycle
Sure is Purdy!!
Although these systems can completely eliminate dive under breaking, it’s my understanding that some brake dive can actually be tuned into the system.
As far as the rear suspension, I don’t see a problem. It’s just a linkage turned sideways for packaging. Like with any shock linkage, if it’s designed right, it’ll work.
The engine is stressed, but looks to be reinforced by machined billet side plates that incorporate the swingarm mounts.
My big concern for the bike is with aerodynamics. Although I think this would make a beautiful street bike, that front end snorkel looks anything but slippery, and that’s going to be huge on the straights.
BBQdog: you would know it gives no feedback how? Ever ridden one? Me either, so until you sling a leg up on one or I do. I’ll trust the manufacturer over you. The build ‘em you just read and drool.
and where may the exhaust exit be ?
neverminnd.. found them…seem to double as a rear hugger….. gas tank/airbox “hump” must be brutal on the family jewels…
Wonder how they address the front tire change issue? To change a front tire on the Tesi 3D is at least a 2 hour job!
“you would know it gives no feedback how ?”
First hand from somebody who’d driven a Tesi during many BOTT races …..
And it was a person who has tested many of the best bikes around.
Not that I have a horse in this race, but BBQdog that’s technically second-hand information.
For what it’s worth, the reason you see riders from WSBK struggling with the jump to MotoGP is because the GP bikes react and give feedback differently than the Superbikes. Riders get used to what they ride, I think anyone who rides their bike on a regular basis, and swaps bikes with a mate have experienced this phenomena first-hand, now take it to another degree and you’ve got the problem with hub-center steering.
You see this in racing too, where the engineers do the setup that the computer says will be faster, but the rider doesn’t like it and wants a different setup that THEY can go faster on instead.