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 $13,550 for the base model BWM F800GS Adventure.
Former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz has certainly been in the news a bit these past few months, mostly for his involvement and falling out with the Circuit of the Americas and the Americas GP, but also more recently for his comments regarding Dani Pedrosa — we also sat down with Mr. Schwantz in Austin, and the Texan gave us some sobering insight into the future of American road racing. As if all that wasn’t enough, Schwantz is making a return to two-wheeled racing, and has entered the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race with Team Kagayama racing alongside Noriyuki Haga and team owner Yukio Kagayama.
YBR?
Yamaha
Bollywood
Racer
@Damo: ROTFLMAO!
Actually, it’s a sharp looking little bike. I wouldn’t be embarrassed to ride one. Then again, I thoroughly enjoyed a loaner KZ125 one weekend while my 650 was in the shop. For me, riding itself is more important than what I’m riding. And, frankly, it’s just fun rowing a gearbox in order to achieve 70 kph. *GRIN*
U heard that Boys ? Yes, is the sounds of things coming….and more still to come…as in…..screw the West Markets and their 600 and 1000 and it’s BLOOD($) SUCKING Heavy R&D and refresh cycles …those guys are dead and dry….let’s focus on milking the CASH COW emerging East Markets….more R&D on small fries sold by the “Ship Load”.
I totally understand, is a bussiness…profit MUST BE MADE one way or another or else.
Another case of ” If is rainings lemons…well, let’s make lemonade”…’till it rains something else.
Strange that Yamaha can build a complete bike for 500$, yet a plastic exhaust cover on my MT-01 cost 340$. I love the bike, but really their parts are crazy expensive…if they do this in India, chances are people won’t go for that 500$ bike the year after cause they’ll have figured out that replacing parts will add up to the price of the bike in no time!
…Reminds me of inkjet printers…where it’s often cheaper to buy another printer, then buying ink cartridges.
Actually, YBR is a denomination which applied first to Brazilian engineered/produced bikes which were later exported to other countries.
Production of the 125cc variant started in 2000 in Brazil, and the need for a small displacement bike in other markets took use of the existing project with adaptations such as fairings and FI in some countries. Even if it is no longer manufactured only here it shows its roots.
That’s right on budget for India.
I don’t know how they can procure the raw materials for one bike for $500, let alone transform that material into something. And what about paying for a facility, wages, marketing, shipping?
There has to be some form of government subsidizing in order to produce a whole bike for that price.
I wonder what it would cost to buy one and ship it here.
Ditto everyone that mentioned price of parts. The last 17 x 3.5 wheel I bought cost me $900. The freaking heated grip for my Ninja 1000 cost $300. $300 for grips!!!!!
Gotta feel sorry for Honda now. They want to sell theirs for $810.
“Lets see,” said the Indian person. “$500 for a Yamahahahaha or $810 for a Honda? I could feed my family of 4 generations for 6 months with that $310 saved.”
@Johndo & Bob:
Were u guys offered some form of “sex toy lubricant” with those prices ? (o_O)
Man ! That’s just WRONG.