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.
Oh, sweet baby Jesus.
Aaaah the sound of push rods!
Incredible that in this day and age someone would make a motor that had them!
If anyone ever needed proof the U.S. had trouble moving forward, this surely must be it.
Perhaps they don’t intend to sell it anywhere else.
I just hope it is really heavy, if nothing else.
(flame suit on)
And why isn’t the engine a stressed member???
I could go on….
I like what I see and more importantly hear. But, I still cannot get over one nagging issue – the name. It sucks. Motus, despite what its trying to invoke, simply doesn’t move me.
Andrey,
In the aircraft industry, engine manufacturers(like Rotax) use pushrods all the time. The teardown and rebuilt of an aircraft engine is therefore quite simple(I have an A&P license and have teardown and rebuilt both jet engines(with AB) and reciprocating engines). I fully understand why some of these design decisions were made and I like them. Most importantly(to me), the performance mods will be awesome, though I do wonder how much extra power the frame and tranny can take. This engine could easily make 200bhp with some modifications. Nothing like a 200hp sport-tourer, hahaha
Oh that sounds good! Pushrods can work just fine, roller rockers and such. This engine will be very easily upgradeable.
Andrey,
It was purposely built with old-tech. Guzzi still makes V Twin’s with pushrods. The Griso, Stelvio and Norge GT all lay down mid 90′s hp at the rear wheel from air-cooled, pushrod V twins of 1200cc. The Motus is going to be a beast and the pushrod, V-4 is going to make regular maintenance incredibly easy and quick. It takes 15 minutes to set the valves in a Guzzi. Do you have any idea what a scheduled maintenance on a ST1300 costs? Or a C14 Concours?
There is something to be said for a V4 that puts out stupendous hp but you can wander into a NAPA equivalent anywhere in the world and get everything you need for a tuneup.
It makes perfect sense to me – in a sport tourer that doesn’t compete in displacement-restricted classes a wise builder will chose the engine that gives them the most power with the sort of power curve they want for a given weight and physical size. Push rod motors have the advantage of being extremely compact and light for a given displcement so you can have a lot more cc without a lot more weight. They of course don’t rev like a dohc (in general), but if you are after a low-revving sport-tourer that might not be a problem. The ZR1 corvette is doing just dandy with pushrods and easily keeping pace with euro sports cars that are twice the price.
I get the pushrod infatuation / heritage of the American motor industry, but for cripe’s sake when will someone make a dohc liquid-colled v4 800-1000cc superbike worthy of carrying Old Glory into the MotoGP/SBK fight??? I would love to see a legitimate superbike draped in the red, white, and blue that would be as good as say, a Honda RC212V, Ducati GP10/11, or Aprilia RSV4 – is tha so hard to ask for?? Do any bike builders in the US care about making something other than pushrod V4 touring bikes and Harley lead sleds??? Come on, in the auto side of things, we at least used to have Shelbys, Ford GT40′s, Corvettes competing successfully in the int’l auto racing scene…Ford campaigned the GT40 all the way to the point of whipping the ass of the mighty Ferrari works effort! And even the Corvette program has in the last decade had considerable class success in Le Mans racing… So the American motorcycle industry should be able to match that effort, right?? I love my Aprilias, Ducatis, and MVs, but I would sure love to have a comparable bike made here in the good ol’ US of A!!
140+hp, 120+ lbs/ft and right around 500 pounds – what’s not to love?
Can’t wait to see what the final product looks,sounds and rides like and the ASTRONOMICAL Price Tag hanging off of it !
Oh, and i wouldn’t worry about the valve train on this one, after all…whats the projected redline ? 8K ? (as per dyno footage).
How many times is it going to be near there and for how long ? Almost never. This ain’t no anorexic Racy 600 thats needs to rev to the Moon and back to make some HP and Torque, it’s a full blown 1650cc DIRECT INJECTION sport-touring rig.
p.s: Just looking at the lenght of the intake runners is almost like a dead give away what this beast has been built and tuned for…LOW-MID Power and Torque ?
gnmac, the Ford GT40 was a completely British enterprise. It was not American.
I know there was a healthy dose of UK in the GT40, as there was in the AC/Shelby Cobra, but it was the Detroit mill that allowed it to smash the rosso corsa from Modena…
Just the engine block and the cup holders.
Kidding :)
I think the fact that this is direct injection is going overlooked for the most part. Who has direct injection right now?… only cars for the most part. High dollar R&D goes into developing direct injection. I think Aprilia has a DI 2-stroke scooter that uses Orbital air-assisted injectors.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but no major motorcycle manufacturer is offering DI on a production bike right now? I didn’t take the time to research here though (read, I could be very wrong).
Also, a lot of manufacturers are JUST NOW starting to offer PFI!? It’s hard to believe bikes like the Ninja 250 are still carbureted…. 1975 called….
Very good point JR. I’m not sold on the idea that a “hot rod” motor will lead to a robust aftermarket/modding culture for Motus, but the GDI motor is definitely something people should be excited about.
@JR:
The USA is getting the middle finger from KHI with the Ninja 250, as the bike is sold EFI overseas, Europe comes to mind. Suposedly EFI would make it more xpensive and break the projected price target for the USA…(TOTAL B.S Line) , greedy bastards, they get away with it because the carbs are still able to meet the current emissions regulations…but regulations wont stay the same but become harder and it will force KHI to slap EFI on it for good, maybe even a catalytic converter and O2 Sensors.
And yes, DFI is great…people not in the know….do a search and start getting the facts about it.
I hope the rest of the big OEMs start using said technology and bring it to the masses at affordable prices (togheter with VVT on both cams) not like the lame half a gizmo the C14 employs currently wich “apparently” makes no significant difference to justify its existence and the bulk it brings.
In picture 6, it looks like th alternator is going to be belt drive.
Also, does it seem like this engine will roast your legs in the summer? The engine is totally exosed to the legs, and it looks like the only body work will be up forward of the motor.
I love the concept. This looks like a bike you can mod to be whatever you want. I’d like to see modular bodywork so that it can be anything from a cafe racer (visually) to a well protected two-up.
very excited to see the final bike, and then stand by and watch someone else pay $40k :(
See MotoCzysz (read: aint gonna happen)