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.
“OMGWTFBBQ” … really!? everyone knows what that acronym is.
11 minutes? i’ll give you the panigale in FOUR words…
“the V-Rod of Ducati”
Oh My God What The F*ck Better Be Quick
V-Rod? Are you thinking of the Diavel?
What’s a V-Rod?
Wow, that does look and sound pretty special, and makes me wish I was 20 years younger!! :-)
Truly a engineering marvel of a motorcycle
Haaa, so thats why it only comes with ABS on the front wheel ! When they put it like that it makes sense. I’m officially liking it…SUDDENLY not “looking wierd” anymore…lol.
C’mon Triumph, WTH u waiting for ?!…Slap that new 1215cc Beast on a SuperSport 675 Frame and call it a Daytona 1200 or Sprint 1200 RS…or DO SOMETHING SPORTY WITH IT !
OK, back to regular programing now.
Very interesting bike. I didn’t know much about those codes, but it will be another break through of Ducati. It will be worth the price, I’m sure.
This is one sweet bike. Design wise ..nothing even comes close. The engineering changes all seem to make great sense. The more relaxed rider’s position is going to be a BIG plus over the 1098/1198 design. Wet clutch? Of course necessary, but disappointing nonetheless. But in the performance picture a plus. Quick shifter, exhaust placement, tank design ..all GREAT! Can’t wait to see this bike in the flesh!
That is one sweet bike!! To bad they’re not racing it in WSBK!!
Oh kind of ironic that once they do race it, they’ll be forced to carry 20lbs. of lead to meet weight restrictions for a twin…
The will be forced to carry extra weight, not because it’s a twin, but because it’s a 1200cc bike …
AGAIN, not the first production bike with an LED headlight. Zero S/DS had LED headlights available months ago (nearly a year).
@Jason,
I went to Zero’s website. Where does it say or show that their S/DS headlights are LED? From the pictures, they look like conventional (halogen?) lights.
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=119&zenid=cb5scl3oo6fa46seo0mv7u4u21
optional extra
Seriously Jason, you gotta get off this horse, it just makes you look like a Zero sycophant. The Aprilia RSV4 has an “optional” gear-driven camshaft that you can buy from Aprilia, should I go revise that article to state it comes with gear-driven cams then?
Stop running *fresh* articles with a factual error in them and I’m happy to stop commenting on them. I’m not asking for a revision or even a correction. Just for you to stop saying it. One of the other commenters said that “optional” doesn’t count (which seems to be your postion from your comment above) but you also wrote “the first GPS-assisted data acquisition system for a production motorcycle (the DDA+ package is an optional equipment item for the Panigale)”. So an option counts when Ducati does it, but not when Zero does it. I only quoted Zero because I know pretty much exactly when it was released for the 2011 bikes (which were released late 2010, over a year ago). HD also has an LED option that I’ve known about for 6 months. http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/gma_product.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524448775792&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302514675&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302514675&bmUID=1282105818401&bmLocale=en_US
I think that I might look like a Zero sycophant, but then I’m not calling myself a “journalist”. You’re very much looking like a Ducati fanboy (I like Ducati’s too and quite possibly have owned them from before you were born, first being a 600SL bought new in 1982ish)
http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/harley-davidson-led-headlamps
September 2010. That’s 14 months ago you could have them for your harley as an option. I never said Zero was the first, I’m not saying Harley’s the first, but I know for sure Ducati Panigale *isn’t* the first.
You need to come to terms with the difference between standard features and optional accessories before we can continue this conversation.
Also, DDA+ is a standard feature on the Ducati 1199 Panigale S.
If DDA is a standard feature, why did you write that it’s an option?
Because it is an optional equipment item for the base model Panigale? Are we really splitting hairs over equipment lists for different trim models?
How about next time you write “First to offer LED headlights as standard equipment (but not on the base model)” Perhaps because it’s absurd?
The one with higher trim has more of the options together as a package. We’re splitting hairs over trim levels because you’re splitting hairs. With the Zero and the Harley, you can get a factory LED headlight if you pay more money but they don’t call it a different model. With Ducati you can get DDS if you pay more money but they do call it a different model.
If Harley had called the bike with the LED headlight the FXABC-LED instead of the FXABC then they would have been first to market with an LED headlight but because they didn’t play alphabet soup games they’re not and Ducati is? Is that what you really mean to say?
But the LED headlight is standard on all the Panigales, that’s my core point. This isn’t an aftermarket option like the examples you bring up, which is what the definition of a production item is all about.
Also, I’m still waiting for the part where you realize the “Zero” LED headlight and the “Harley” LED headlight, are the same headlight from the same aftermarket parts supplier. It’s also not DOT legal in all 50 states.
Ok, I get your core point, only stuff that’s “standard on all” counts for “first”. Why then does DDA count as first when it’s not “standard on all”, it’s an optional extra? They can’t *both* be correct statements and surely you need to back down on one of them.
I obviously knew that the Zero and Harley headlights come from the same manufacturer. Just like Brembo brakes are found on lots of different bikes, Mikuni carbs are found on lots of different bikes and the same spark plugs are found on lots of different bikes. That’s completely beside the point. They’re just as much “genuine” parts as any other genuine part sourced from a third party. That’s a red herring.
Another red herring to muddy the water (to mix a metaphor) is legality in different jurisditions. Every bike has slightly different specifications for different markets. If you’re going to pull that one out, the headlights on the 916 weren’t legal in Australia and it came with a horrible square headlight. You can’t say a maker doesn’t have a product because it’s not legal in some out of the way place. You’ll probably find that the LED headlights in the Panigale aren’t legal in Australia and the UK (yet) because the dip pattern hasn’t been made for the other side of the road yet. Anyway, HD says “The LED lamps are DOT approved for use in all 50 states.”
My comment seems to be “awaiting moderation” and has been since 12.25am on the 3rd of Dec. There are links in that comment so perhaps that’s why or maybe the moderator is having a well deserved weekend away from work.
Anyway the links point to the web archive org page that has the spec sheet for the Confederate Motorcycles Wraith from 2007 that shows an LED headlight is standard equipment. Not an optional extra but standard fitment on a series production motorcycle from five years ago.
Surely that ends the “splitting hairs” and just shows an error. I didn’t want to rub anyone’s nose in it. Just a simple “oh yeah” or even refraining from continuing with the error on subsequent articles would have been fine.
I naively thought I was helping. I guess if you’re driven to call your readers “sycophant” then it wasn’t percieved the same way at your end.
You clearly don’t seem to understand the concept of production motorcycles, aftermarket parts, and how this all relates to this conversation. Clearly you have an axe to grind Jason. Grind it somewhere else.