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.
motus… isn;t that latin for “costs the most”?
Livermore is totally East Bay
Bah.
Where is the WA dealership? Can you give us Seattle readers a town?
Gawd, that thing is drop-dead sexy. May I have a tissue, please? I need to wipe the drool off of my chin.
“East Bay” is Pig-Latin for “Beast”
Earl, you simultaneously make me laugh (cause that was awesome), and ashamed because I grew up in livermore and never thought of that.
Earl wins at Internet today.
Lots of whining about the price. I really do not see what for. Mass produced bikes are now in the low to mid 20s like a BMW K1600GTL, 23k for a Goldwing, 20k for a ST1300. For a little bit more you get something different and unique. everybody talks about buying American and all that but few realize what a task it is to start up a company from the ground up. We have “Walmarted” ourselves in to the lowest common denominator of price is king, quality and uniqueness are lip service.
@ZeitgeistXiii
Apart from exotism, you won’t get more than on a ST1300, Goldwing or K1600GTL, in fact you get a lot less!
Those pre-cited bikes are fully-dressed all tourers, complete with equipment ranging from ajustable windshield, heating grips, probably heating seats too, bags, radio, I’m pretty sure you get a GPS in some of those.
With a motus, you get a nice bike, seems like a sport-touring one and I don’t know what will come with it. I’d be tempted to compare it to, say, Yamaha FJR, Triumph Sprint, for technology’s sake let’s add a Honda VFR. All of these bikes are at least $10000 less and should offer a similar experience and similar equipment from stock, the VFR even has a V4 too.
There is a lot to whine about the price, it’s probably a great bike bu next to no one will be able to shell out the price of two motorcycles in order to buy only one.
+1 ZeitgeistXiii
@Franxou
All these bikes are also down 10 to 30Hp on the Motus roughly, also factor in servicing and all the other things.This bike you can service yourself for the most part its easy to work on and reach things from what I have seen.
Do I need a GPS, radio and CB on my bike? Nope, I have a phone that does all that and syncs with my system in my helmet. Most now will still work as a GPS and music even without cell signal. Heated grips easy enough sure, but when was the last time your butt got cold? Wearing appropriate gear negates most of those things. You will feel Gerbings heated vest and chaps under your leathers or Aerowhatever more than sitting on a seat and trying to heat a bunch of padding. If your riding that long and hard your in it so deep your going to buy the stuff anyway.
But to get 160HP reliably out of a K1600 BMW would require more than the difference in these two bikes. So give me the HP up front keep the nanny systems for the cars and leave the riding to the riders. Is this bike for everyone nope no bike is. We ride what we ride because we like them that is 90% of the decision in biking. This has been proven in just about every study of buying habits in motorcycles.
@ZeitgeistXiii
I am with Franxou on this one. This bike doesn’t offer a whole lot other than exclusivity and I highly doubt that an extremely small production run bike will be any easier to work on than a production bike, I know which one the parts will be easier to find on. (And I do all my own work personally)
Just to point something else out, if you want a fast and comfortable bike for under $17k buy a KTM RC8R. It has fully adjustable seat heat, foot pegs and bars right out of the gate, will absolutely smoke the Motus in any type of sport riding scenario AND it is almost as comfortable as VFR1200.
I am glad there is an American company trying to innovate, but I think they are barking up the wrong tree.
I think anyone can talk a big game about wanting to bring manufacturing back to the US, and not ship jobs overseas, and made in the USA, etc. But when it comes down to putting our money where our mouths are, we find out quickly that we dont care if it was made in the USA or not. In that sense, a niche bike does make some sense because its a niche of people who are willing to fork out for “made in the USA.”
I also think that trying to justify the cost on a tangible value proposition scale is a losing game because as has been mentioned so many times before, you can get more farkles at half the price. In my view, it misses the point. Why would anyone buy an Electra Glide when they can buy a Goldwing or a K16GTL for ~$5-10k less? In terms of a bulleted list of features, the HD gets stomped. And yet, many are still purchased. Why? There is something else that tips the value scale besides the tangible features. Those who don’t connect with whatever that is like to proclaim that the Motus is too expensive for what you get (a valid conclusion given the value calculus they perform in their own minds). Then there are people like me who can listen to a rational agrument about features and relative value and be totally gone daydreaming about riding that beautiful machine.
Nice bike, but hence why it’s just another exotic motorcycle few can afford, or justify, since dealerships/service are too sparse for it to be your everyday ride.
Mike, the Seattle dealership is HENSHAW, out in Auburn.
A place they wanted to charge me $4000 for a five year old ZRX with 17k on the clock.
Ah well.
Well put chrome.
Bump Chrome:)
It’s not in my price range, or a type of bike that particularly interests me, but for those ragging on it over features, maybe you should look them up first. Further, not all hardcore touring riders care about a ton of features. Some of the most hardcore go touring on bikes like the R1200R, V11 LeMans, Harley SuperGlide, and even ancient bikes from the ’70s. Bikes that are decidedly not packed with features. I’m guessing there’s going to be plenty of takers for this bike, enough to justify manufacturing it in the first place. As for its direct competition, how many of them have 165 hp, 120 ft/lbs of torque, and come in at 530 lbs wet? This is a bike for people who want crazy power, great handling, and enough comfort to be able to go for 10 hour stretches, wherever that may take them. Not for people who want CBs, floorboards, bluetooth, hifi stereos, reclining backrests and air conditioning.