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.
What the…
WTF
That sucks!!! But that’s what the Japanese get they build boring bikes anyways……
Wow. That’s some serious bullshit right there. I wonder if that’s a gov attack on Ducati engineered by a Japanese moto manufacturer
I had to look those photos over very closely. For a moment, I thought this was a Photoshop hoax.
Me too Dave.
What? That isn’t a bad photoshop? OMG
Remember what Australia did to the 916?
http://www.ducatinewstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Ducati-916-in-Oz-2.jpg
In other news, the Japanese model has got some tasty wheels on it. Daddy likes.
“a larger plastic clutch cover”
What’s the reason behind this mod? (Loud clutch?)
The “old” dry clutch was definitely loud, by moron standards, but this is a wet clutch. I don’t get it. luckily that is real easy fix.
I feel like tearing that ugly thing off of the Panigale
It’s also the first time I see pictures of the Panigale with passenger footpegs!
Has anybody seen passenger footpegs or seats on the European/Amercian version?
Could they not have added a 1198 style exhaust at the least
916 line is still the sexiest moto ever. This is jap model is still way better than 999 but the 916 rules
@frenchie .. Even better it has passenger foot pegs yet no passenger seat….
This is like bad porn.
It’s like Ducati was so disgusted, they didn’t even want to put any effort into making a nicer can. Can’t blame ‘em!
Well sadly I see this and think it could happen here. People continue to roll around with volume controls in their right hands and make sure everybody looks at them as they ride by. The non-riders will be sure to support anything that makes those “noisy” bikes quiet. Never mind we already have the DOT standard in place but not enforced. Their solution will be a new law with a lower DB and a tamper proof system. So be sure to piss off every non-rider around you with your race pipes you fitted or drag pipes and you can bet we will eventually get punished too.
@Jensen: Those are the non-s model wheels, so unfortunately for the Japanese they don’t even get fancy wheels to offset all that ugly.
Dave, I live in Australia and have never seen a 916 with that headlight.
Nick, that’s because the single headlight 916 didn’t last long here, the huge public uproar saw the twin headlight come back. Every owner who had one did the swap the moment they got it home lol.
Well I just lost all respect for the Japanese . . . **** :-( !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Japan completely ugly-fies the Ducati 1199 Panigale to lower noise levels: http://t.co/jHjzFHoF
Why is anyone surprised? Japan-spec bikes, even those from the big four in Japan, have often been neutered. The land of 80 crank HP CBR600RR’s.
Hey at least it isn’t France.
This must be Pearl Harbor for Italy.
@Greg: “Well I just lost all respect for the Japanese . . . **** :-( !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Don’t be silly. Japanese riders don’t want it this way; Japanese LAWMAKERS do.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting seeing a Panigale in the flesh. Now, not quite so much. The way they chopped that exhaust onto the bike is just tragic. I suspect there will be a thriving business for aftermarket exhausts for these bikes here. (I live in Tokyo.)
I would imagine it wouldn’t be the most difficult thing to just remove that extension and do a remap. Am I off base here?
Is the government there often this strict about regulating exhaust/engine noise?
Well, Ducati have capped the existing exhaust ends and, likely, have removed the muffler baffling. If you just removed the extension, you’d wind up blowing your unmuffled exhaust straight into the bodywork. Probably not a great idea.
The government is growing ever stricter with regard to noise regulations. Clubs of bōsōzoku have done a very good job of reducing public support for motorcycles/scooters in general. Many a night I dreamed of having an EM pulse rifle that I could use to shut those bikes down. God, they were horribly loud. (It’s less of a problem now.)
There are regulations in the works that could have certain vehicles limited to only 68 dB(A) output in a few years.
It’s really a heat thing, they can’t take the heat… ; )
Funny thing about Ducati. They sell in europe- and thus go through type approval. However, you import one, and apply the same same tests to it – it WILL fail on noise. Ducati makes machines which are dubiously type-approved, and violate the rules of the territories in which they’re sold!
My own Multistrada – sold in the UK – does not pass the noise requirements that are required to pass EU type approval.
They’ve been doing dodgy things with their noise emissions for quite some time.
I like it…
@superdave
Yeah the first time I heard a 1198 fire up it sounded so burly I had to take a look to see what kind of aftermarket cans were on it….much to my surprise it was the stock exhaust. Ducati always finds a way to sneak it past, for this I commend them.
Japanese bikes are almost always quiet as hell stock, hell even my recently purchased RC51-SP2 sounds like the Jetson mobile until you hit red line with stock exhaust. This shall be fixed shortly :)
There was a time when, if you wanted to sell skis in Japan they had to have been tested by a Japanese world ski champion, of which there were precisely zero.
Its just a restrictive practice. Especially given all the catering bean can sized exhausts on all and every performance Japanese car.
Or is it the 2013 R6 in mock up?
A bummer, but how many people will keep the stock exhaust anyway? And the aftermarket will fix the tuning too. It’s just gov’t BS, no matter what country it’s in.
Its not April Fool’s day?
@ James Sharpe
As an owner of a late 90′s gsxr, I see nothing wrong with big round exhaust can. A round exhaust can has been a sportbike design trademark since the dawn of the sportbike in the mid eighties. It has only been in the last 5 years or so that shorty “GP” style exhausts have been in vogue. It reminds me of old Ducati 888′s and 951′s.
I like it too…
it all unbolts and can be changed for standard parts…. better than no approval to start with
Just getting around the legistlation
It isn’t country-wide, fyi. It’s just in major Japanese cities. They don’t even allow some of their locally manufactured sportbikes in these cities, btw (or at least that was the case when I lived there). Pretty sure the standard, non-neutered 1198 is still legal outside these city limits, though don’t quote me on this just yet.
Now I understand why my CBR 250 R is pig ugly. They don’t have feeling for it.
Bullshit! When I ever see the cops go after the bosozukus on their clown penis bikes 250cc and smaller, then I’ll take this seriously. But then again, most of you have no idea how insulting the Japanese motorcycle test is. Seriously, the mindless bullshit that is required to robotically finish the course is insulting.
I’m not surprised. I honestly can’t believe how Ducati managed to get the 1199 approved for the European market. It is the loudest thing I have ever ridden and arguably the loudest production bike ever built. Furthermore, the seat gets awfully hot sometimes, due to (part of) the exhaust running underneath. Sadly, the newly designed system did not (and probably could not) solve this annoying problem.
@Filip
I have heard this is a big complaint from folks that were going to buy the Panigale for their everyday sport bike. A couple reviewers said in slower traffic they had to keep lifting off the seat because they though the fairing was on fire.
I personally have no interest in toasting my wedding vegetables.
I have ridden other under the seat exhaust style Ducatis and never had this problem, I wonder why a header with a heat shield gets so hot?
No offense, but as Ducatisti, we wouln’t expect GXSR-ist to recognize the design travesty.
Personally I just think Ducati missed an opportunity to design something more innovative. They were just simply lazy…
@Tom: “When I ever see the cops go after the bosozukus on their clown penis bikes 250cc and smaller, then I’ll take this seriously.”
ROTFL! Damn it, man, you almost made me wake up my wife from laughing. I’ve actually seen attempts at catching the bikes. It was ~15 years ago and the mess was shown on TV. It looked more like a modern take on the Keystone Kops than it did a real effort to clean up the streets. In the end, I think it did more harm than good because it proved beyond any doubt that the cops simply couldn’t corral the bikes no matter what they tried.
@Damo: “I personally have no interest in toasting my wedding vegetables.”
Best. Sentence. Ever. :-D
You would think that the original “under-motor-hidden-in-fairing”
Panigale exhaust solution should be a clever way of solving many problems
in exhaust design:
a) you get the big exhaust volume required to get sufficient performance
_and_ noise emission reduction,
b) the noise source is put close to the ground and not at the back of the
motorcycle like a Jerico trumpet,
c) the weigth coming with the required volume of such an exhaust is
put close to the motor/center of weigth of the motorcycle
d) you can optically hide the optical fugliness that usually comes with
these designs under a piece of fairing plastic.
Many intrinsic advantages of this construction approach in theory, but
if you look at the result – faking “fulfillment” of EU emission laws through
corrupt/incompetent/hearing impaired test engineers and desecrated
like this in Japan: Epic Fail!
it doesnt look that bad, and owners will obviously convert it back after they get it. The clutch cover though is hideous.
@Filip
Absolutely true – its amazingly loud. To the point where a *lot* of trackdays are out-of-bounds due to noise, on a totally stock machine.
Hell, my Multistrada 1200 fails a lot of trackday orgs noise requirements in the UK also!
To be honest, I rather want to see Ducati held to account for this kind of legislation-bending.
@superdave: “To the point where a *lot* of trackdays are out-of-bounds due to noise, on a totally stock machine.”
That’s disturbing to read. I might expect that on a bike with a full-blown racing exhaust, but certainly not from OEM pipes from the factory.
“To be honest, I rather want to see Ducati held to account for this kind of legislation-bending.”
Hell, yeah, ‘cuz it’s the owners getting pulled over and ticketed who’ll reap the rewards of such a loud exhaust. A lot of communities have some pretty strict noise bylaws that’ll get you ticketed at the merest whim of law enforcement nowadays.
How do you ruin something already so aesthetically challenged?
(851/916/1098 Fan Club)
Is it really THAT loud ? ! {o_O} WOW.
I still have to see one in the flesh…….even more, HEAR the darn thing. I have to crawl from under my rock more often, that or maybe i need to move to a wealthier hood. LOL.
P.S: It looks HIDEOUS. I think CHOPPING HALF of the can off will do WONDERS for it’s look.
Sato & Arata and who knows who else are going to make a fortune selling aftermarket solutions to a problem that shouldn’t have been there to begin with.