Mission Motorcycles: The Mission R Lives??!

Mission Motors tweeted out something interesting just a moment ago, a link to a new website for Mission Motorcycles. Teasing there a photo of the Mission R, it would seem that the electric superbike that does competitive AMA Supersport lap times at Laguna Seca, is finally set to come to production. It seems we won’t know everything about the new Mission Motorcycles project until June 3rd, though we can speculate pretty accurately on what the A&R Bothan spy network has been telling us. Expect to see the Mission R electric superbike in street legal trim, honed even further than when we rode the machine back in August last year.

Goodbye Husqvarna Nuda, We Hardly Knew Thee

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.

Q&A: Yukio Kagayama Talks About the Upcoming Suzuka 8-Hour with Kevin Schwantz & Noriyuki Haga

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.

KTM RC4 Concept by Luca Bar Design

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.

Q&A: Claudio Domenicali Talks Frameless Chassis, Sacred Cows, & The Future for Ducati

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.

Is Yamaha Using A Seamless Gearbox? The Data Says No

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.

OCC Coming Back to TV? — Universe Collapses in on Self

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.

Alstare Superbike Concept by Team Alstare

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.

Transcript: The Gay Question at Jerez

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.

2014 Suzuki GSV-R Spotted Again

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.

All You Need to Know About TTXGP at Infineon – Mission: Out – MotoCzysz: Out – Brammo: Doubtful

05/01/2010 @ 12:46 pm, by Jensen Beeler5 COMMENTS

All You Need to Know About TTXGP at Infineon Mission: Out MotoCzysz: Out Brammo: Doubtful mission one motors infineon test 2 560x373

Even though the official TTXGP entry list isn’t due to be out until Monday morning, Asphalt & Rubber has been working hard to find out what electric motorcycle manufacturers would be at Infineon for the first round of TTXGP. We already expect Zero to show up on something that doesn’t rhyme with Ravizen, but what about Mission Motors, MotoCzysz, and Brammo? The answer to that question would be: no, no, and maybe…but probably not.

Even though Mission Motors tested their Mission One at Infineon, and signed early in the silly season to ride exclusivily with TTXGP, the San Franciscan company is going to be a no-show at Infineon. Citing their focus on getting the Mission One into production, it looks like we won’t see Mission at many races as the company balances priorities. The good news though is that Mission has tipped us off that they wil be debuting a new race bike later in the season. Mission Motors would neither confirm nor deny that the new race bike would be based off their second-generation street bike, which we’ve dubbed the “Mission Two”. More on this as we get it.

An additional no-show at Infineon will be MotoCzysz, which is blaming Infineon’s race date as being to close to the team’s ship date for TT Zero, the Isle of Man TT’s zero-emission race that sarts June 1st. TTXGP has been purposefully scheduling events on top of other competing racing events, TT Zero being just one of these instances.

Brammo is the only remaining question mark from the big electric four, and the only company that hasn’t made it’s racing intentions clear. The Ashland, Oregon company, the last time we talked to them, was indecisive about racing this season, and with zero time left on pulling the trigger for Infineon, we’re not expecting a Brammo (or Best Buy) tent at the Sonoma track.

While each team has their reasons to obstain from what was expected to be one of only a few gatherings of competitive teams in electric motorcycle racing, we think the final reason comes down to time and money, commodities all startups are in short supply of. This development does bring into question if it’s too soon for a full-blown electric motorcycle racing series, and whether or not the current situation is encouraging growth in the industry, and putting this budding sport in a positive light.

As we like to say here, only time will tell.

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  1. What Does a Record TTXGP Lap at Infineon Look Like?

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Comment:

  1. KLS says:
    May 1, 2010 at 4:13 PM

    “…whether or not the current situation is encouraging growth in the industry, and putting this budding sport in a positive light.”

    For an industry to grow there has to be consumption. Electric bikes have been around for decades and it was past time for something to prompt their production and innovation. The best way to do so is racing–at least when it comes to our two-wheeled sports.

    Every motorcyclist I know thinks of themselves as more creative, more innovative, and more forward-thinking than car drivers. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be riding! As such, I know that electric racing is pushing the envelope of technology and setbacks are bound to happen. We don’t have car executives building these racebikes, we have engineers. Engineers make progress by trying stuff and improving what breaks. It’s not pretty to watch but as a result we have a whole new type of competition in racing. When was the last time that happened in >>any<< motorsport?

  2. Asphalt_Rubber says:
    May 1, 2010 at 7:46 PM

    All You Need to Know About TTXGP at Infineon – Mission: Out – MotoCzysz: Out – Brammo: Doubtful – http://bit.ly/9284OF #motorcycle

  3. Brammofan says:
    May 2, 2010 at 3:50 AM

    RT @Asphalt_Rubber: All You Need to Know About TTXGP at Infineon – Mission: Out – MotoCzysz: Out – Brammo: Doubtful – http://bit.ly/9284OF

  4. skadamo says:
    May 3, 2010 at 2:42 PM

    RT @torkindia @Asphalt_Rubber All You Need to Know About TTXGP at Infineon Mission: Out MotoCzysz: Out Brammo: Doubt.. http://bit.ly/9284OF.

  5. Odie says:
    May 5, 2010 at 5:02 PM

    As much as I would like to see electric bike racing, it seems to me the electric bike industry just isn’t quite ready yet. I also think the racing is too fractured.

    A number of years ago, there was a huge push for fuel cell engines for cars. People touted it as THE solution for the next generation of car power. It turned out to be a lot harder than anyone anticipated and a lot of promises were made that could not be filled and the whole movement pretty much stopped dead in it’s tracks.

    I just hope that this doesn’t happen to electric bikes. I thought TTXGP on the Isle of Man was a good start, but a full season of events maybe too much for these fledgling companies to pull off if they want to make and, most importantly, sell electric bikes.