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.
An interesting development on the aftermarket side of things has graced our desks, as Öhlins has released a “suspension control unit” (SCU) that upgrades the electronically adjustable suspension on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S so that it becomes a semi-active suspension system. Whhhaaaat??! So, if you’re the proud owner of a pre-2013 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S, and you think that your electronically controlled Öhlins suspension is no longer boss, now that Ducati has released its Sachs-powered “Skyhook” semi-active suspension pieces on its new batch of Multistrada sport-tourers, there is a remedy for your motolust.
Bad for the Economy, This is not good for JOBS in a hurting economy. This not only effects the after market exhaust manufactures but also the folks that make power commanders and fuel optimisers and the fuel intake filters and distributers, Not to mention small shops that install and tune these fine American machines, won’t American Motorcycle Sales drop? what do you think?. These are multimillion dollor businesses. This only hurts are chances for recovery especially when you look at the opositions veiw its only a “nuisance” try to create a job with that. PLEASE VOTE “LIBERTARIAN” We can’t trust this Two Party System to Fix Anything!
Hey straight pipers, THANKS! A moderately “loud” bike that gets the attention of cagers is fine and not the problem here. It’s the straight pipe HD riders that are ruining it for everyone by being selfish and completely inconsiderate. Anything that causes hearing damage going down the street is completely absurd! I know, I live in MKE and deal with it all summer long. Hey str8 pipers, quit being a complete douchebag and get with the program! 99% of the population hates you, and sooner or later it will catch up to you!
By “American Motorcycles” I assume you mean Harleys. Harley Davidsons come from the factory with EPA and Carb compliant exhausts. Several years ago, Harley stopped selling illegal exhausts. If you look at their online parts catalog you will see that their Screaming Eagle exhausts are 50 state or 49 state compliant. This bill doesn’t effect Harley at all. The only business this will effect is those that have been selling or installing competition only exhaust on street bikes. As the article mentions this bill only makes California law match a 20+ year old Federal law. I have no pity for business that based their business model on breaking the law.
“I have no pity for business that based their business model on breaking the law?”
“99% of the population hates you?”
Nice.
I’m with Motorcycle Stop when he says “VOTE LIBERTARIAN.” There are too many laws. So what if someone is a douche? They’ll learn. It must be nice to be so squeaky clean, JSH. I guarantee you are a hypocrite and break the law daily. Drive above the speed limit… ever? I wager you do daily. The reason states don’t regularly enforce these exhaust loudness requirements is that cops have better things to do like ticket you when you’re jamming down a street 20 miles an hour over the speed limit.
I posit that both you and Greg are the douchebags.
Additionally, I am unaware that one of the ten commandments is “thou shalt not annoy people.”
Some bikers like their bikes loud because they feel they are more “visible” to the cagers who wouldn’t otherwise “see” them. Instead, the car drivers hear them. If a jerk keeps revving his motor over and over, where are you? Out to dinner? Walking down the street? In a bar? At a bike rally? I live in a town that has one of the largest rallies in the nation and I could care less about the douchebags that rrr-rrrr-rrrrrrrev their motors one weekend a year. It’s a small price to pay to keep the government off my back.
Let me ride. Let me be.
Get a life.
Oh, I’ve never owned a Harley.
Sorry trent, but straight pipes should be illegal and 99.99% people, animals, and plant life will agree with me. Can I legally go down your street at 2am with a blow horn screaming at 140dbs? (But if you give me your address, I’ll see how you like it) No. Can you legally drive a car around without a muffler? No. Should someone be able to inflict hearing damage to you when you’re walking down the sidewalk? No. It’s common sense and sooner or later, as you know with smoking bans, the majority will get their way, and minority douchebag element will be eliminated.
Yes. You are sorry, Greg. A very sorry individual indeed.
You reply with threats, “Can I legally go down your street at 2am with a blow horn screaming at 140dbs? (But if you give me your address, I’ll see how you like it)” Bravo, man. Your retort wouldn’t get you a spot in a middle school debate team. Your logic would involuntarily force Mister Spock to smack you upside your head it’s so bitter.
Your 140 dBA (decibles A-scale, not “dbs”) is an egregious overstatement of the loudness of straight pipes. The Iron Butt Assn. (if you are unaware of their endurance rides, check them out) limit dBA to105. According to their site, “tests of motorcycles with straight pipes (no muffler) have produced noise levels of approximately 125 dBA.” Far off from your arbitrary 140.
Their tests are done in compliance using SAE J1287 standards, the sound test procedure approved by the Society of Automotive Engineers. It is the same procedure employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Using this algorithm, an increase of 15 decibels to 140 translates to about seven times louder than 125.
If I am to understand you, and I am scared to try, you are arguing that if you don’t like hot chili, you want to shove something seven times hotter down my throat to prove that the hot chili you already don’t like is bad. Are you the reincarnated soul of a Nazi scientist?
Regardless, if you must come to my city of Austin to toot your horn (that’s funny) at 140 dBA to prove a point (seemingly the one on the top of your head), go for it. Ride down 6th street downtown where I work any time after noon and toot away. If you must do it at 2 a.m., be my guest. You will only be one more jerk we see every day.
If you live in a neighborhood where guys are blowing by with excessively loud motorcycle exhausts, either 1) they know who you are and don’t like you – a strong possibility – or 2) you moved into a neighborhood filled with douchebags like you.
No, I won’t be on the debate team either, but that is by choice. I am a smartass on purpose. You are just an ass.
I’ll let you have the last word here, Greg, as I am positive you will only continue to come off as the ignorant and vengeful man you’ve shown yourself to be so far for reasons I do not care to discover. Have a good life. It looks like you need it.
So you called me an ass and a douchebag and say I’m “vengeful”?!!! Did I call you anything? Nope. And I’m the middle-schooler? Anyway, 125, 140dBA (didn’t look up the official abbreviation for decibels, sue me), what the hell’s the difference, it was a simple estimate based off a 1979 Who concert. Blah, blah, blah, you wouldn’t like a straight pipe bike going down your street at 2am, right? That was my point. Easy enough to comprehend?
This is hilarious though…….
“If I am to understand you, and I am scared to try, you are arguing that if you don’t like hot chili, you want to shove something seven times hotter down my throat to prove that the hot chili you already don’t like is bad. Are you the reincarnated soul of a Nazi scientist?”
You just pissed away your entire argument, your straight pipes actually force hot chili down my throat, but simply by you riding past me is sure to cause hearing damage 125dBA. See the logic? Ever heard of Godwin’s law? Well, you are guilty of upholding it (not really something to be proud of), that is CLASSIC! Here you go, read up……http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
Also, you admit that straight pipers are douchebags?? Hmmm.
Anyway, trent, I don’t think you’re a smart ass at all, actually.
BTW I’ve been to Austin several times, great city. But with any place, there’s always going to be an asshole or two.