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.
Most motorcyclists live in California? Hmm.
Anyway, the actual price of gas has little to no effect on me personally. Gas is relatively cheap where I live, but my vehicles require high octane, which I always kind of use as a proxy for the national average. If gas goes from the $3.67 I pay in north Texas for 93 octane to $5.00, my average monthly gas bill goes from about $66 to about $90. A $24/month increase is not going to hurt that badly, and my fuel efficiency and usage is just south of typical for a lot of the people I know.
It’s the downstream effects that are FAR more worrisome for me and for those less fortunate:
A) widespread inflation significantly raising the cost of living across the board because the cost of transporting anything jumps so much
B) a slow down and possible failure of the economic recovery leading to another round of contraction
I’ll also mention that there are some positive externalities too.
1. more conscientious vehicle purchase choices (maybe including two-wheeled vehicles)
2. fewer cars on the road taxing a hugely overburdened road system (I live in the third-fastest growing town in the US, it takes 30 minutes to go 3 miles away to a restaurant on a weekday evening)
3. more interest and possible investment in alternative locomotion and alternative power
I’m fine with 5 dollars a gallon of high octane gas, with that said as long as its gas, not fcking ethanol, that crap needs to go, I cant even type about it I get so mad
It seems the further away from the shipping ports and refineries the cheaper gasoline gets. The refineries are 25 miles outside of San Francisco, and the gas prices are through the roof there.
Prior to the recent hike in gas prices, I spent about $10 to fill up my monster. Now I pay $12.
Considering I fill up my bike an average of 6 times a month, I pay about $72 for gas each month.
If I drove my car daily, I’d pay $80 per fill up with the recent price hike. I’d fill my car up 5 times a month. This puts me at $400 per month to gas up my car.
$400 – $72 = $328 savings.
Considering tires, oil, maintenance, and insurance for my bike costs about $120 a month, I am still ahead $208 a month on gas (let alone the wear and tear I save on my car).
$208 a month over 48 months = $9,984.00
Basically, the money I save on gas will pay off my bike in 4 years.
it’s funny. I don’t know of ANY motorcycle regardless of fuel requirements that doesn’t get better milage than all but the most useless pos hybrids. Heck mine was new in 79 and gets better milage than most cars out there. For once I’ve got some of the cheapest gas in the country, but the surface streets are packed snow and ice. Outside of town is clear. 8^( oh the dilema. Old wing or ninjette.
Come to Europe: US$ 8,75/gallon. Stop wining please.
there are no positives from this situation. If you didn’t “ride share” before, you won’t start now,. There will always be the same amount of commuters on the road regardless of gas prices. People will eat then pay for gas to get to work, in that order. They will stop paying other bills long before that pecking order changes. sad but true.
And southern California is also the full sized pickup truck capitol of the US, lord knows why,, there is rarely more than the driver in them and nothing ever in the bed. Those pigs get between 10 ant 15 miles per gallon and I see a brand new one on the road every day.
My motorcycle has the highest cost per mile of all my vehicle (gas, tires, maintenance). The bike (02 BMW R1150R) costs $0.21 per mile. My car, a 03 VW TDI Wagon, costs $0.07 per mile. My wife’s car, 05 Toyota Prius, costs $0.06 per mile to run. While they all get mid-40′s mpg, tires are a different story. The BMW eats a $400 set of tires in 5K miles. The cars eat a $500 set of tires every 50K miles.
Considering my commute starts with 7 miles of stop and go traffic that takes 40 minutes, I’ll keep my “useless” hybrid. Sitting is traffic is much more pleasant with A/C and satellite radio when it is 90F and 80% humidity.
Have to disagree that there are the same number of cars. For work? Perhaps. But we started seeing a marked decrease in evening leisure travel in the 2008 gas price spike.
@Maatmann
Crying when you are being raped isn’t whining. With all due respect.