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.
What does the acronym CRT stand for?
Future of MotoGP
Sorry, that was snide. It stands for Claiming Rule Team.
Jesnsen.
LOL.. Thanks
I finally got the answer. Where do I find the rules that apply to the CRT? are they on the motogp.com site?
or basically does it mean non-factory team?
Tim
The large print on CRT bikes is that they are machines with production-based motors (e.g. engines from Aprilias, BMWs, Hondas, etc) with custom-built chassis. The get more fuel in the gas tank, and more engines throughout the season.
The fine print is that they’re a response to what’s happening in MotoGP because of the factory teams, rising costs, and diminishing grid sizes. Try googling “CRT MotoGP” there are lots of articles out there on the subject.
awesome, thanks for the all the information.
Why, no really, why?
West could barely hold his own on a factory Kawasaki, then struggles to even score points in Moto2. Slow bikes with pilots that cannot cut it… West will be the poster child that will discredit the CRT effort, and the likes of Edwards with it… Edwards is in a different class than West. West will get lapped repeatedly into embarrassment…
I’d rather see a professional grid of 17 bikes, than a grid with 3-5 more, of competitors you know, are only there to take up space.
It’s a farce.
Right now, Edwards is the only credible talent the gives the CRT project any weight. Along with BMW and Suter, if they fail to be competitive in the next two years, the idea as a whole will fail. Then it would be a matter of how long before Dorna admits it, and ends it all together…
I’m admittedly biased, but here is my hierarchical list of riders that ought to make it into the CRT show:
1. Hopkins
2. De Puniet
3. Melandri
4. Hayes
5. Marquez
6. Checa
7. Laverty
As for CRT itself, I think MotoGP has so bolloxed the rules in the last decade — 800cc; electronic wheel-spin control; single-supplier tires — that it has driven out manufacturers at the same time that WSB has shown how much fun it is to have multiple capable competitors, and therefore made CRT a pretty reasonable consideration. I understand the desire to fill the grid, but that desire only arises due to the failure of Dorna to really set rules for Honda and Ducati, and if CRT is properly applied it may act as a counterweight to those manufacturers’ demands. I support the CRT experiment as a means to bring in more manufacturers.
@ Westward : Racing on the only MZ machine in Moto2 and a sub-par Kawasaki in Motogp hardly proves the quality (or lack thereof) of a rider.
and you have to be kidding about Edwards. He holds the record of the most GP’s without a win (and for many seasons he was on good machinery).
The problem with CRT rides is that a potential champion is not going to ride with a team they fear may make them look bad. So Marquez, Laverty, Melandri etc.. are never going to ride CRT bikes. Respectable riders and riders at the end of their careers may see it as a way to get a few bucks and maybe, just maybe on a good day in the rain they might podium and look like a Hero.
You have been told
The one thing (I hope) that everyone can agree on is that the first season with CRT will be a wash. None of the CRT teams are going to keep up with Dani and Casey, hell I doubt the factory teams are.
That being said some of the best racing I have seen this season was in the Moto2 class, by far. You had a class were 7-8 riders could win on any given day as apposed to 4.
I think the CRT effort is a step in the right direction and I hope it helps reel in costs to get more bikes on the grid.
I dunno, I have to agree somewhat with the remarks Casey Stoner has made. In my mind it takes the piss out of prototype racing. MotoGP is not in any way a production class, so why start bringing it in and diluting that “brand” as they call it. You sit down to watch these bikes as they are the F1 of the bike world, unobtanium technology, ridiculous rpm limits, huge horsepower, with the best riders onboard. I know the Valencian test isnt really a good judge of next years bikes, but for the fastest CRT to be 5s behind is huge. The GP bikes that are crippled with fuel and engine regs up the wazoo can still run rings around them.
Costs in racing, especially prototype racing, are always going to be high. If 6 engine limits for the year are applied, the money goes into the reliability testing to get the same power and make sure the engine does not break. If official testing time is cut, money goes into more private testing and hiring out tracks to get more varied and relevant data. If a fuel limit is in place, money goes into efficiency work so they can get the most power while still making race distance. All the while this constant shifting buggers up some of the teams. Look at Ducati, the engine being part of the frame. So thats 6 frames in the year…wow, way to kill off innovation and working towards solutions for their interesting bike. Meanwhile someone on here threw around the tidbit that Honda had had about 36 frame revisions during the year…hmm
Factories decide when they think racing is needed in their company. Kawasaki pulled out a couple of years back, maybe they thought it wasnt relevant anymore and hey presto, they release a cracker of a roadbike and start trying to focus on their superbike and production racing schemes, the classes that bear some resemblance to what we see on the dealer floor. Seeing Hondas V4 800cc machine winning the GP’s does not make me think “hmmm, that Fireblade is pretty decent…” I look at road tests to see what living with the bikes is like and what their road manners are like, and then its down to the look, sound, colour…btw, I think the Fireblade is bloody decent…so do the riders in the litre bike shootouts…
For the last few years in this cost cutting business the GP has raced in the USA, left the country, and then it comes back again for the 2nd race in the year. Think of the travel costs associated with that. Finally it looks like they have scheduled it better for 2012… Removing electronic aids and the staff associated with it, while not the best for development, would lower costs and probably bring in more spectators. Go and look at a mid 90′s WSBK race or a 500GP if you haven’t… The greatest cost saving would just be keeping the rules as is for a while and let the teams settle for once, get 6 years of uninterrupted development under their belts without the constant threat of regulation changes.
Also forgot to add that talking about cost cutting in the current economic climate seems kind of redundant. When the fortunes change, as they will eventually, and the world moves back into a boom time then factories will most likely return to racing. Why the heck wouldnt they, when they are turning in record profits…kinda like in the 80′s-90′s…
Certainly Moto2 is some amazing racing. Hearing the possiblity that the engine regs might be opened up for prototype stuff is certainly exciting. Well at least thats what the rumor mill is telling me…
I guess if it helps you think better of it; think of Moto GP’s CRT system as a two class race like when Lemans cars race at the same time as GT cars. It’s like two races in one, and the slower races may slow down the run away leaders, making it more competitive and strategic.
@Minibull – good points. It is also frustrating to see small companies innovate towards an engine size only to have the rules change relatively quickly.
Prototype racing should be much more wide open at the top class. Say to the teams and the engineers: “here’s the season’s worth of tracks & corresponding # of laps, go build the motor and chassis that you think your rider and team can get around the fastest, all year long (motor not to exceed x cc capacity).”
You’re correct..costs will always be high in prototype racing but which type of costs are keeping the field small? Travel costs (which you mentioned) have got to be prohibitive. i.e. Small engineering teams can innovate with their designs, but traveling the world to all of the events is much more difficult. So why would someone invest in their design when they can’t take it anywhere? If the travel costs are addressed smaller companies might get more involved & subsequently increase the field size. Look at what Vyrus is doing, but last I read they are still looking for a team.
There’s got to be some clever partnerships in the travel & transportation industries that could make something of this situation over and above the small teams sponsors.
I agree,
The only tech rule in Motogp should be the “cc” capacity, followed by a budget cap (like in American Football), not to include travel, hospitality, or pilot salary. Budget cap for technology only…
Also, the schedule could also help a lot. In 2013 there is going to be three circuits in the US. I think I heard they will all be scheduled in succession…