Mission Motors tweeted out something interesting just a moment ago, a link to a new website for Mission Motorcycles. Teasing there a photo of the Mission R, it would seem that the electric superbike that does competitive AMA Supersport lap times at Laguna Seca, is finally set to come to production. It seems we won’t know everything about the new Mission Motorcycles project until June 3rd, though we can speculate pretty accurately on what the A&R Bothan spy network has been telling us. Expect to see the Mission R electric superbike in street legal trim, honed even further than when we rode the machine back in August last year.
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.
the narrative was a bit conflicting. he said you have to be someone like steve rapp to get this type of performance from the 1198S and then sort of implied you dont have to be on the ferrari 458 italia (which is probably my favorite car). though they got a GT2 Champion Justin Bell – his lap times can not be had by a normal every day driver. i reckon Justin Bell is a better and more successful car driver than Rapp is a motorcycle driver.
kk…another point….this is the older version, with -20 hp ans +20lbs….
so the new one would kick ass even more
lol…have to be somebody like Steve Rapp? HA! I’d bet plugged nickle that there are more than a few club racers and let’s be honest track day riders who can explore the capabilities of the 1198S on track and still get better times that their comatriots who club race and track day the 458. Face it people motorcycles inspite of being a little behind tech wise have made bigger leaps of performance and utilizing what they have than the cars have. In stock trim…more importantly you can’t push either on the steet that hard, not even a little bit.
Mind you though…things MIGHT be slightly different on a street course. Say something like the IoM and I don’t know about you kids but I’d buy tickets to go see that little race. ;^)
Rapp turned 1:19 at SOW (Streets of Willow) which is a small track that doesn’t really lend itself to a liter bike. While 1:19 is fast by almost anyone standards (I’d kill to turn that, some local young guns were setting lap records right around 1:16.0 on …wait for it…a 600 back in 2008. That’s 6sec faster than Bell in the Ferrari.
When Ducatis spontaneously combust due to poor design or build quality, then there is a debate.
Cool stuff! I think the comments re being like rapp are meant to indicate that it takes more skill to ride a bike in a fairly competent manner than to drive a car in a similar manner. Not that a noob cager could turn the same laptimes as a talented race driver, but that the percent difference in a noob cager’s lap vs the race driver’s lap is likely much less than the difference between a noob-rider’s lap and a pro-rider’s lap (if the noob could get ’round the track at all on the duc). Its just easier to push a cage to the limits of traction because it doesn’t fall over. Its no easier to pick a fast line or get the braking points just right though.
Also, a big point I think is the cost difference. Most anyone can afford a 1198 if they really want to – the base model is about the same as an econo-box cage. Few people could afford the fast cage – it is more costly than most homes and those usually require 30-year mortgages (and as we’ve seen are still out of far too many people’s financial means). Nothing puts outright performance in the hands of the ordinary worker like a motorcycle and no matter what your income nothing provides the visceral excitement of a thundering v2 motorcycle at full tilt!
For me one fact stands out: Most people can actually afford an 1198.
Honestly though if they wanted to really embarrass the Ferrari they should have ran it against an Aprilia RSV4 Factory, which I still contend is the best bike to come out of Italy since the 916.
Streets of willow yes the bike is going to win…. With that said they should have driven right across the street to “Big Willow” and see the difference there. I’m thinking the times get alittle closer to maybe upside down at that point. Streets is not a fast course, Big willow is, I think they needed to included that as well but I guess Motor Trend didnt want to pay for a binned Ferrari. You crash there its not going to be pretty.
Ever on the Big Willow the 458 wont have enough room to make up the slack.
Just as a sanity look at all the supercar times posted on the Nürburgring and compare them to WSBK lap times.
Bikes will tend to be faster on more open tracks with less tight corners and braking zones. Im not sure it would have been any more close on Big Willow. The cars only big advantage is braking zones, very tight corners and esses where the bike would have to flick side to side. Larger sweeping corners and straights play into the bike’s hands for sure.
I’ll be driving the 458 to a track day pulling my trailer behind with my 1198 on top. Win Win.
They should have had Justin Bell host TopGear America. He seems like he’d be a good presenter.
The sound of that v8 is worth another topic by itself.
Tom, I believe the days of Ducati’s poor design/build quality ended when TGP picked them up and the upward trend has continued through today. Looks like the old Cagiva days are long in the past. Hyundai’s were terrible in the 1990′s as well.
I was referring the the tendency for Ferraris to burst into flames. Ferraris are overrated. Ducatis perform.
Ducatis also last….despite rumors. As long as you ride them routinely and maintain them properly they are bullet proof. My 98′ 916 is still running strong with 34k on the odo and 3 or 4 years of hard track use. She’s still my favorite bike in my stable and the one I choose to ride each weekend!
Can’t wait to see what Ducati is releasing mid-2011 since the 1198 is going away.
One more thing…the narrator says the Ducati has a V-Twin engine. Completely wrong…..it’s an L-Twin engine.
Harley = 45 degree V-twin
Aprilia = 60 degree V-twin
Ducati = L-Twin….90 degree of course
Just thought that should be clarified.
Kevin Schwantz broke the SCCA lap record [for its class] on a C5 Zo6 at Willow Springs then got on a K1 GSX-R 1000 and murdered the cage by 7sec. That was in a m/c mag back in the early 00′s.
Oh and another really cool test was done few years back between Doug Chandler on his almost stock ZX10R and some famous cager in a 700+hp Skyline at Button Willow.
Bike won by 5sec+
Race bike vs proper racecars, bikes lose.
Sportbikes vs street legal fast cars, bikes whoop ass.
You can also go to YouTube and watch modified MOPEDS, yep those little one bangers that need pedals to get going, blow off Ferrari’s in drag races. Actually, I would be happy to take either one of the test vehicles, and I have a much better chance of being able to afford the Ducati than the Ferrari.