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.
I have a feeling the Electric vehicle companies are pricing their products with the subsidies in mind. So I don’t really think the consumer is gong to see any of it…
Ex. Brammo pricing the Empulse at $18,995 and telling the customer they get a federal rebate of $2500, when the bike should actually be $16,495, and then the customer gets the rebate making it $13,995…
Either way it’s still too much for what one gets…
What I think would be more stifling to these companies is high unemployment, uncertain tax liablilities and unknown health care obligations. Technology that the market wants does not need to be subsidized. Anybody not buy an iPhone because there is no tax credit?
The bredth of product line is too limited for the manufacturers of electric cycles. Their business model needs to include things that people will buy without promise of tax credits. Gasoline sill works and is available. Let the sales of ICE powered bikes fund electric R&D. Not subsidized sales of electric bikes. This brings us to the next question. The big four manufacturers of ICE powered bikes do not yet see a need to bring to market electric bikes that will not sell. Ever think that maybe they all know something?
EM
Your premise is disingenuous. oil companies are subsidized, always have been. That is what made them the most pervasive industry for fueling vehicles. Imagine the advancements in electrical vehicles if we had done the same a hundred years ago…
Have you ever heard of Preston Tucker? He created a car back in the late 1940′s that had a rear engine, disc brakes, safety pop-out glass for the windshield, seat belts, and headlights that pointed where the front tires did. The Big 3 Car manufactures crushed him with bureaucracy and politics, mainly because they could not compete with his innovations, and the safety features just were not cost effective.
You may as well have said the Beef industry should fund the Vegetarian movement, as if that made sense in anyone else’s head…
Do you honestly think one industry will give up all their investment in what’s made them billions to fund another if it’s going to replace them? They are going to eek out as much profit out of ICE bike’s until there is nothing else before they move into something like electrics.
That’s what start-ups and up-starts are all about…
If it were not for forward thinking companies, you’d still be using the latest Motorola Razr, and listening to music on your sony mini-disc player…
2nd to Westward. Subsidies are plentiful and abundant for petrol in the form of; tax breaks for the oil industry, a gas tax that hasn’t risen since the 90′s (despite our crumbling infrastructure) and most importantly in the wars (and general military presence) in the middle east to the tune of several trillion dollars.
Promote American jobs, Brammo, (Mission PLEASE!) etc, with electric vehicles powered by American sunshine. Just by extending the smallest of assistance.
As a side note on my ride in to work today (bicycle ride), saw a Brammo on the streets and a Leaf and I bet a lot more of the other drivers could work an electric into their commute.
Westward: You said “I have a feeling the Electric vehicle companies are pricing their products with the subsidies in mind. So I don’t really think the consumer is gong to see any of it…” This is a “feeling” you have based on what? I think it’s more likely that the bill of materials for the Empulse and Empulse R plus the design costs, overhead, etc., exceeds the current price tag. The investments by Polaris and other companies and individuals help make up the loss and that eventually, when the ‘units sold’ reach a high enough number, it will result in a lower bill of materials and hopefully, at some point, a profit. Brammo and Zero want the tax credit for its consumers because it sweetens the pot and is likely to result in more units sold.
Also, it’s a tax credit, not a rebate. The companies will never see a dime of this federal money.
And, to pile on to the El Marillo critics – his statement “Technology that the market wants does not need to be subsidized” is so very very wrong. And instead of talking about oil, let’s talk about another mode of transportation that would never have been developed but for the HEAVY subsidization by our federal government: the railroad. Today, we have a railroad network that is the envy of almost every other country in the world. Would have never happened if it had been left to this “market” you speak of. iPhone not subsidized? Not the phone itself, perhaps (but I bet that much of its internal components have benefited from various incentives or subsidies) and the cell phone network that allows you use it as a phone? Heavily subsidized. I love this country.
Harry, I hate to think of which gutter-slum counties you’ve been to that envy our Amtrak. Or, are you referring to our commercial heavy rail infrastructure?
Definitely the commercial rails.
Side note: the bill specifies a 10% tax credit, up to a maximum credit of $2500.
@ Brammofan
Hence the caveat “feeling”… Looking at the components and build of the Empulse R that I saw in person, I do not see a $19,000 bike. the electric motor regardless of engineering, is not more than a desmo v-twin engine. At the cost that Brammo wants that puts it on par with the Nissan Leaf.
Nissan introduced the Leaf at $20,000 MSRP in the US, yet dealers are selling it at a premium, touting that it is a very in demand car (Honestly, which car isn’t depending on who is selling it) pricing it at $25,000.
For a bike that will ultimately cost $20,000, the Empulse is competing with any bike in the Ducati line-up. Call me crazy, but Brammo will lose that comparison 9.5 times out of ten.
To put it plainly, I am going to by another bike in the near future.
I would love to maybe purchase an Empulse R. But at it’s current price, I can’t see purchasing it over any number of Ducati’s, and being a Ducatisti – I am a little bias. But every time I even toy with the thought of Brammo, if Ducati does not come to mind, the MV Augusta F3 does…
If I am thinking about a little city scrambler, than the new 2013 Ninja 250R is far more attractive price-wise.
Trust me I have done the numbers…
Also, tax credit or rebate, it’s semantic really, all I know is it’s money back in my pocket…
On another note: I don’t know when was the last time you have left the US, but the rail system in most modern counties are seemingly light-years ahead of the US. In fact when I think rail system in Europe I think Mission Impossible – futuristic high-speed light rail. When I think of the US rail system, pick any number of westerns that come to mind…
Don’t get me started on the differences in cellular data bandwidth, cause the US seems like dail-up. Even the Koreans laugh…
@ Westward
Nissan Leaf starts at $35200 MSRP.
http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/vehicle-overview?next=ev_micro.root_nav.overview
If up-front cost is the overwhelming input you use in your decisions, why would you ever buy a new bike? Kawasaki has done little beyond cosmetic changes to the 250 line since the 80s.. you could pick up a 2008 bike with very few miles for $2k or less. I haven’t even heard definitively if the US bike is getting electronic fuel injection..
Up-front cost for electrics is very high, yes. They’re still being produced in very limited volumes – comparable in volume, if not in price or workmanship to Confederate and Motus. As a consumer this is not a particularly compelling argument – in the case of the Zeros, you’re looking at a $11-14k price tag for a bike that competes in performance with a $4k gas bike. Total operational costs have the tantalizing promise of being much closer .. but the up-front cost is a huge hurdle for most consumers.
So they’re expensive because they’re low-volume, and they’re low-volume (in part) because they’re expensive. Subsidies are one way to break down that loop, and (as a nation) encourage development of alternate technologies. And the cost is very small, at least at the national level – the July recalls for the Zeros indicated that around 250 2012 bikes were covered by the recalls. Say an average $1200 rebate, $300k for one of the largest volume emoto manufacturers is a miniscule amount at the national level .. compared to the billions and billions in subsidies spent in mature fields like oil production, farming subsidies, etc.
At this moment in time electric motorcycles on the market are a compromise in performance and price. Therefore the price needs to be drastically reduced, to the level of ICE bikes, if they actually want to sell them to the general public.