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.
I’d rather a baby monster with soft bags than and one of those. I’m already anatomicly gifted AND my ego doesn’t stroking…not that much.
Why would anyone pay that for a ducati……….especially as it’s designed by “Pierre Terblanche” all the bikes he designed for ducati didn’t really sell that well……multistrada……yuk!! , 749 not that pleasant to look at , 999 same as the 749 the only thing going for the 999 was it won 3 wsbk championships but overall ducati is better off without him designing their bikes (even though he did design the “Hypermotard” which still looks like it fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down…)
I know Pierre reads the site, but I doubt he’ll chime in, so I’ll say this in his defense. I think the Paul Smart, Mike Hailwood, Supermono, and Hypermotard are all great looking bikes that set themselves apart. There was nothing cookie cutter about them, and they have or will have a sort of timeless air to them.
I have nothing against the 999 either, except for the fact that it probably changed too quickly and too much of what a Ducati should look like in the minds of riders. Put a different brand logo on that bike and I think you would have seen a different market reaction.
He also designed the entire Sport Classics line, as well as the ST2 and ST3. Gorgeous bikes all. And those Guzzis he designed with Galluzi are amazing.
Pierre is one of the most fantastic motorcycle designers! The 749R/999R is unbelievably good looking (especially in race trim). Hyper, SC, Supermono, MTS are all fantastic looking bikes IMO.
To me the 1098 is the dud of the recent Ducati models. Talk about a boring looking bike! It looks like a poorly designed 998. Same for the new Monster. Ducati doesn’t appear to be good at evolving design, but rather starting design over.
Wait until you see the 2012 Superbike. Again – starting design over and getting an AMAZING looking machine.
What an a-hole. So he wants to pocket $500K for a couple of Terblanche abominations. Terblanche was the worst thing that ever afflicted Ducati – not unlike the Bangle-ization of BMW.
The potential buyer would be better off, if he really wanted the Terblanche stillbirths, to donate the $1M directly to charity, and pay the few measly pounds that a pair of the homely MHs would really command, certainly rather than padding this prick of a seller’s pockets with $500K.
Let’s not make this about Terblanche…this is about some fool selling $24k worth of motocycles for
$500k under the auspices of giving another $500k to charity. I’d call that using charity to try to line your pocket book. May he burn in a thousand hells!
What an idiot. What kind of drugs is this guy on? I think I will go buy several slightly used ones for around $10,000 and sell them to him for 400,000 for all three. Now that’s a deal! Do you have his phone number ?
In this economy, it’s hard to blame anyone for trying to make a buck. The optimum word being “trying”. However, The 749 and 999 are far from being unattractive. It’s hard to claim any iteration of a Ducati superbike less than a work of art. The MH900 is definitely an acquired taste that even I lack, but I have seen much, and I mean much worst at BMW or Harley. “Ape- hangers, what’s with that?”
Looks like the seller updated the auction to say that now donating 90% to charity. (hmm 10% of a million is still 100k minus the cost of the bikes) I’m hoping no one buys and Ebay charges him outrageous fees for such a frivolous auction.
They are definitely loveit or hateit bikes.
Although my highly modded #1175 isn’t for sale, there is one available on Craigslist for $10k.
http://ventura.craigslist.org/mcy/2072687109.html
I’m tempted to pick up a second just for good measure. Hope it finds a good home!
This listing now states
“eBay Giving works 90% of the final sale price will support New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity- “
Man oh man does this seller have an EGO problem or what… check out his auction name; “:worldsbestguy” and if you go to his website Ateliersvelocete, it is nothing moire than a gigantic EGO trip. Talk about a giant “pull through” aka jerk off!. What sort of drugs do you have to take to think that much of yourself?
Strange….. very strange…… but he does live in weirdsville itself!
What a wanker!
Yeah, 90%? Thats so a good man….what an poor guy :-|
Who knows, maybe a Arab sheik or some rich collector will buy them. As for Terblanche, I like his designs. I have a Hypermotard and I had a 999. The 999 was a great looking bike in race form, in street form it wasn’t bad but the tailsection, exhaust, and front side panels on the fairing needed improvement. The Hypermotard looks great, its an original design as all Terblanches designs were.
the 999 was an amazingly good looking bike…
if that was badged as japanese it would have been heralded as the sexyest thing on 2 wheels
it was just unfortunate that it had such huge shoes to fill (998)
the new 1098 is just a modernised 996/998….