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.
Mission has been VERY smart in the execution of this product. After the disaster of the Mission One, they have seen the light. Never send an architect to do an industrial designers job.
Now the only left to see is the price.
Except they aren’t selling them…
Isn’t Mike Czysz an architect.
Fantastic. Got to see the race version in person day one last year at Long Beach IMS and was impressed. Any idea what the weight is these days, are they still in the 550 lb region?
If they aren’t selling it, why is it in street legal trim? That headlight does not compliment an otherwise gorgeous machine…
Saw the bike rolling down Valencia yesterday in front of the shop. It looks damned good in person, I must say.
I think the light is awesome… more room for stickers. :)
The whole bike really is nice… Simple and not to many angles and pieces to it like the R1 and present Suzuki.
They will need an app tied to the throttle that sounds like a healthy V4 and then they will sell that thing. :)
are those speakers to the left and right of the android tablet dash?
would be cool if they are speakers, so one could play ICM noise when riding the mission r ;-)
Seriously, something like this breaks cover and you dont take even one full on side shot?
Come on man, get it together!
Sooo…what is up with Mission these days?! Supposedly they are no longer in the e-bike business (focusing on electric drive-trains instead), but then this d!ck-tease of a motorcycle shows up! I imagine this street-legal Mission R was produced as a sort of “what the heck…why not?” sort of thing. Just makes me wonder…are they really done with motorcycles? Are they done with motorcycle racing? If they are not going to produce motorcycles, it would be cool to at least see them continue in e-bike roadracing, if for no other reason than to showcase their drive-train tech. By the way, the Mission R (whether race-ready or street legal) is one of the hottest looking bikes I’ve seen…electric, ICE or otherwise.
@Randall:
Thanks for pointing that out. I said the same when i came to see the pics.
Im glad for the early adopters (if this thing ever goes for sale)…personally, i still don’t give a who about electric motorcycles…as i said before, maybe the day when it can be refueled anywhere as fast as an ICE bike and with the same range or better…wake me up when that happens.
God Speed to the electron tamers and jockeys. (^_^)
There are no side shots because the bike looked the same from the side.
For those, you can try this page: http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/mission-motors-mission-r-infineon/
This thing looks so mother-fn trick it’s ridiculousness… if your not going to produce and sell them then give the blueprints to someone who will… “d!ck-tease” indeedz…
Yikes. That is WAY drool-worthy.
One thing about an e-sportbike is that it’s the perfect tool for carving up the twisties in stealth mode. They’re NOT gonna hear you coming on this thing. Even a little 250 on the cam at 13 grand is going to get some attention.
I thought they were working with Honda. I was under the impressions Honda either used them to developed their electric bike, or that Honda’s e-bike is essentially a rebranded Mission Motors bike…
in an apartment where electric bills are included, this may well be a no-brainer purchase for me
@Westward Honda brought Mission in on a CR-Z race car project, and ever since there has been speculation (of which I am guilty) that partnership has/will continue in the motorcycle side. But nothing is know. Jensen may have a tip or two under his hat, but Mission is REALLY tight lipped about their projects.
…or vice versa, mr. uhlarik.
@Maxx – true, but while his bike is very nice, aren’t the batteries exposed to damage much more than an in-board design such as the Mission wrapped in very nice trellis frame? That doesn’t make much sense for the racing consumer or street consumer if he decides to sell street versions.
Mission’s bike is the best looking e-bike and is perhaps the best performing. Why not sell street versions?
@Sid The issue of the batteries being exposed to damage may have been the case on the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc, but not quite so much the 2011 version. Besides, all of the electric MotoCzysz machines are more or less one-off racing prototypes, and I could be wrong, but I don’t believe selling street versions is a concern for MotoCzysz at the moment.
@Maxx
” Never send an architect to do an industrial designers job. ”
” Isn’t Mike Czysz an architect. ”
- Case and point.
Ge that ugly large tablet out of there? What’s next tweeting from red light stop????
@Dr. Gellar – one off racing prototypes or street machines…doesn’ matter. If the bike goes down, it could be needlessly more expensive than it has to be due to the exposed batteries.
@Sid – I understand what you are saying, but again…take a look at the 2011 version of the MotoCzysz E1pc. It looks like MotoCzysz eliminated much of that issue with the 2011 machine, as the batteries aren’t nearly as exposed on that bike as they are on the 2010 E1pc.
Typical…sigh…decent looking bike; but, I guess I will just have to build my own e-bike if I want one. Most of the time they are priced out of the realm of reality anyway and I’m gettin’ tired of waitin’…