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.
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.
It doesn’t matter what the doner was, that thing is just plain ugly, but it is a great sadness that it was orginally a beautiful function machine. It has been degrader to something that looks like its only use is a short run to posing spot as it sure isn’t a riders machine. If thats the case the only question I have is who’d want to pose on such an ugly thing?
Was quite looking forward to seeing this bike, was an interesting and brave project, but so far it looks like complete sh!te. The tail looks like a wizards hat and the whole thing just looks a mess. I’m sure it will turn out a lot better than it looks so far, but man, he has a long way to go.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. This is a bit like taking an Enzo Ferrari, throwing away all the body and most of the suspension and making the remaining bits look like a street legal NASCAR.
More money than brains club
i say this is pretty cool.
I agree with John. ^^
dogshit, waste, and didn’t Rooke already do this with an actual gp powerplant?
I think it’s awesome. I would be sad if this happed to every D16, but if someone wants to experiment and push the limits with one of them, on his dime… fantastic. Especially to make a flat-tracker – the greatest genre of motorcycle, ever. Can’t wait to see the result.
Maybe its because his “designs” (and I use that term in the loosest possible way) are ugly (imho) and he takes great bikes and turns them into mediocre (and I am using this term in the most generous possible way) handling bikes (according to some who have ridden them…). Meh, it’s just the same old H-D thing, this too will run its course and fade away, but I look at it this way, beautiful is only beautiful when you have ugly to compare it to, so be sure to thank him for the ugly.
If anybody sees this thing finished and some tasteless fool posing by it, just walk up and punch him in the face as hard as you can. Have a buddy record it on video. Youtube gold!
I’ve been building streetbikes that resemble flattrackers for more than 25 years.
There is something visceral and basic to the character of this form of motorcycle.
I had my 650 Desmo flattracker knocked over and spit on at the LagunaGP in the 90′s
People would leave threatening notes of derision on it wherever I went.
Sandy Kosmann and King Kenny both expressed admiration for it at various times.
Retentive Ducatisti will just have to live with their rage and shock, boo hoo.
The attention paid by the websites (a&r, hfl and others) to every throwaway sketch by any famous designer only encourages this sort of abomination. I cringe at the amount of props given to Oberdan Bezzi, RSD, and pretty much everyone who will excrete whatever design onto a sketchpad just for the sake of doing something different.
Now that I think about it, flattrackers only go in one direction…right? Maybe the OTHER side is the good side…..
Roland Sands Desmo Tracker Begins to Take Form – http://aspha.lt/om #motorcycle
Mr. Beeler,
I must say that I take exception to your article.
“Maybe it’s because those two parts of the motorcycle world are just that far apart — one is reserved for dentists having a mid-life crisis, and the other for back-woods hillbillies that can only turn left. ”
Really? As a life-long dirt tracker (who also happens to be a teacher with a Masters degree) I find this bit of hyperbole to be extremely offensive. Ever heard of guys like Kenny Roberts? Wayne Rainey? Freddie Spencer? Doug Chandler? .. all started out racing dirt track. They seemed to turn right as well as left just fine. I also happen to have a number of professional friends (dentists included..) that would take offense to your character assassination.
If you’re not aware, Ducatis are currently being run in the AMA Flat Track series…with success. In fact, Joe Kopp won a National Main Event last season on a modified HyperMotard, and Brad Baker was fast qualifier at the Springfield Mile.
As for the artistic merits of Roland’s newest creation, I am impressed. I have always thought Dirt-trackers and their street-tracker cousins were the coolest, sexiest bikes out there. No frills, just bare-bones bad-ass bikes. The Desmo Tracker definitely fits this bill.
“lighten up Francis…” (i mean, Brad)
@Brad-
As a teacher with a Masters degree, don’t you think you should be able to pick up on sarcastic journalism when it smacks you across the face? Mr. Beeler doesn’t honestly think that the Desmo RR is reserved for dentists having a mid-life crises, nor does he think that all flat-trackers are hillbillies with no ability to point their machines in any direction but straight then left.
Anybody that follows road racing with more than a passing interest knows and understands that dirt riders are more than competent and have every ability to compete in paved if they so choose. Don’t be so quick to burn the witch (wizard?) and think about the context in which the quote was made. Journalism doesn’t have to be boring and dry (especially when it comes to the greatest machines on Earth), and Mr. Beeler knows this.
So please… just chill.
Brad has great points adam & it didn’t come across as uptight at all, especially compared to every single comment above that disapproves of this build. “lighten up?” The irony in that is hysterical.
The desmosedici wasn’t the holy grail in its stock aesthetic anyway. Very cool gear-driven cam engine, so I’m all for seeing people do different shit with it.
Add the Hayden family to the dirt track list.
Doesn’t the dude that commissioned this build already own a Desmosedici? If so, good for him.
I love it, and would be thrilled if this caught on. It’s a wonderful sort of sacrilege to mutilate a Desmo, or any other thoroughbred sport machine for that matter. I hope it gets finished in brown primer, if any paint must be used at all. Make it ugly as hell, just because.
Reminds me of the sacrilege committed against the S1000RR.
http://www.bikeexif.com/bmw-s1000rr
Not getting into the whole if you should or not, thats for whoever is paying the bill to decide really. As for where its at in current form, I have to say its looking alittle premature at this point. Sometimes there are growing pains during something like this, hopefully this is exactly that. Roland needs to ditch that tail, what in the hell is tracker about that shriveled elf shoe looking thing. Maybe it dosent need a tracker DNA style tail, something very different, sure, just not that thing. Also if it where me I would pull the leading edge of the front side cowl back about an inch and a half maybe 2
Dont get me wrong Roland Sands has done some really badass bikes and I give him all the credit in the world for what he has done and continues too, good luck with the rest and hopefully the tail matures a bit.
Roland did something similar in the past, a board tracker using Kenny Roberts engine (KRV5).
That bike was very well put together and looked great. This in the other hand is just plain ugly. I usually like his projects so I don’t have a bias against him
Hey! At least she got a headlight… It’s the best I can say about by the moment.
200 horsepower, 150(?) section rear tire, no front brake.
oh goodie….
Some of you guys are soooo boring!
So what if the Desmosedici RR is an expensive, exclusive piece of thoroughbred Italian exotica? So what if you don’t like the style or think it looks poorly executed (which, at the moment, it surely does)? So what if it’s being built by a professional custom house, rather than by a bloke in a garden shed – which is the way customised and modified motorcycles should be born. Variety is the spice of life!
Its not even as if there’s a shortage of Desmosedici RRs. Whenever I see one it’s usually accompanied by 20 more identical ones all lined up next to one another at a specially arranged exclusive Ducati track day… Yawn! Most of them live in rich men’s garages never to turn a wheel from one year to the next.
So I say go ahead Mr Sands butcher away! Bring us something different, even if its and functional and aesthetic disaster. In her biography of Voltaire, Evelyn Beatrice Hall coined the phrase “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” and on this subject I’d like to paraphrase that excellent sentiment by saying to all creative motorcycle builders and modifiers out there, “I may disapprove of the bikes you build, but I will defend to the death your right build them… as long as you don’t work for Orange County Choppers.”
The rear wheel is too flowery for any bike, especially a dirt track bike. It is still early, but I agree with the tail section. With a dirt track race bike, make it easier on yourself by emphasizing what is not there by not doing much at all.
@Hoyt, Thank you. You got it. That was the point of my original point exactly!
Ducs are amazing bikes. I’ve had the opportunity to ride them on the street as well as do a track day at Willow Springs on one. (Damn difficult to ride, however..) My wife even surprised me with a trip to the Factory in Bologna while on our honeymoon. So, I get the Ducatisti’s reaction to the vivisection of one of their steeds. On the other hand…Dude…It’s still just a motorcycle! People have put their own stamp on bikes, since there were bikes. Roland happens to be an accomplished artist with a view that doesnt always conform to the status quo….but they sure look cool. What separates Roland from the OCC buffoons is that his artistry has a racer’s soul.
Also, how could I have forgotten Nicky! I guess I’m showing my age.
My 2 cents: what happened to the donor bike ? If its wasted, then sands can do whtever he likes with the engine. Rearend of that thing is cool, its the borg face i dont like.
Regardless of the donor (it’s not like there are only 2 desmos in the world, one wasted isn’t the end of the world) it’s just plain bad. Wheelbase is too long, tail is disjointed and looks weak, rad cowl has no visual reference to anything else on the bike, single spot in a square ‘numberboard’ is THE street legal tracker cliche… don’t get me started.
Just another example of why I cringe everytime RS calls himself a ‘designer’. Nothing more than a custom builder with good connections. “Its not what you know, but who you know” as they say.
$40,000? In Australia they are $150,000….
@ Gabe
very good point.
I think there are many better bike builders out there who are trying to get exposure but are blocked out of their deserved attention by attention seeking stunts like this.
I think its time to fire up the mower and cut down the Tall Poppies.
How boring would the world be if every bike out there stayed stock? No bike fits every owner’s needs and if this guy thinks it’s worthwhile, how is that hurting anyone here? If you want a stock version go buy the one that’s on ebay right now, there are always a few out there.
Overall I’m a fan of RS’s work, but that being said, I’m not big on the styling so far and the first time someone tries to put 200+ hp through that swingarm it’s going to turn into a beautifully welded pretzel. At least it’d be fun to watch!
The craftsmanship and creativity of Roland and Co. is entertaining to follow; especially in this build. He’s got a great track record of good lookin’ bikes…in our opinion.
The article is borderline troll feed, no? Not saying it’s bad. Maybe the irritated folks above are among the vocal minority? If the ‘most-of-the-time silent majority’ is like us, there’s a lotta folks looking forward to Roland firing this work of art up and letting it eat (something not so common in the custom builder realm).
that static display will never see a flat track, and from where i sit a track day cedici is more a work of art
The owner has 3 D16s, that means he can ride 1, store no.2 in the living room forever, and build no.3 into whatever he wants and still have loads of spares for incase he drops no.1.
Lucky guy!