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 know people keep talking about how it’s Britton-esque in that it’s ‘frameless’, but I see a little Buell in there too with the upper frame bit being doubling as the airbox.
I’ve got a question that’s been bugging me though: I still don’t see how it’s considered a monocoque design. I thought to be considered such, the pretty outside has to be structural as well…
the frame/airbox, is one structure made out of one piece of cast aluminum, that is your monocoque right there. it is the best engine out there in superbikes for sure. though i think with the higher in the rpm torque delivery, it might not be as good on the street than the 1198 was. we still have to see how fast it builds the rpm’s, i am just basing this on numbers.
awesome bike!
Hope they tested it thouroughly, but that airbox doesn’t look very solid to me.
These pics reinforce what I’ve been saying the past 6 months. As someone who prefers to do all my own maintenance, this piece of machinery turns me off. I have no desire to pay a local shop $85/hr for a lot of hours of tedious work. This thing is way too complex for self servicing. It’s way too complicated for shop servicing. It could take 3-4 hours to do something simple that might take 30 minutes on an I-4. Pretty much have to take the whole bike apart to do anything beyond changing a spark plug. Maybe it is a fantastic track bred bike, but for the street… Forgettaboutit.
Total cost of ownership will put this in with luxury cars.
@Bob:
Look twice…u still can change plugs and do valve checks and adjustments w/o having to split apart frame and engine.
AND…UNLIKE my SV1000N wich to remove and replace the engine is an involved procedure + special tools…this Ducati seems pretty str8 forward to me… 4 Nuts and is all loose ? There may be more to it but i can’t see on first sight.
Honestly…i thought there was going to be more fasteners conecting the frame/engine complex.
Got to agree with Bob. We wont know till its out, but remember there is no other frame, trellis or anything to get in the way. Course you have cable, but thats standard.
To take the engine out might be slighty tricky. Still, it dosnt look that bad…
Masterpiece! but Rossi didn’t liked much ?
Guys, keep in mind, when you remove the engine, the front and back halves are now separate pieces with nothing connecting them in the middle but wires. You now have disconnect all the wiring to get 2 whole pieces to carry to the corner of the garage instead of being able to roll it as a rolling chassis that uses an actual frame. Need to change out the worn timing chain guides? It looks like you have to unbolt multiple covers and remove othe components. This whole engine assembly is layer upon layer of stuff to take apart to get to something. Need to synch the throttle bodies? They’re buried inside the tight little airbox. Everything between the front and rear wheels looks like an absolute PITA to maintain. All I have to say to furure owners is I hope you have a large and available limit on your credit card because the labor to get these worked on by a shop will send you to the poor-house.
I have to agree with Bob, and to add something I noticed. How in the HE!! do you change the Air Filter. It looks like it requires a complete tear down of the front end!!!
Beautiful bike, and great ideas. (@ thneves: at the level any mortal would ride this bike I doubt you would notice the problems Rossi had/has)
But no thanks, I’ll keep my Aprilia. :-)
@Bill:
On plain sight…thru the hole under the “fuel tank”. No rocket science there…i think ?
I think u guys are grabbing the torches and pitchforks up too soon.
I can symphatize when the time comes to unload the engine…but other than that…i think is pretty much the same as any other run of the mill late model superbike…TONS OF CRAP in the way to get to any component.