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.
Hope Brett recovers quickly and completely.
Get well soon Brett!!!
Ugh. It feels like in the not so distant past, serious injuries were an infrequent occurrence in the premier series (WSBK and MotoGP). Recently, it’s gotten so bad that you wonder, “who will we be praying for this week?”
Don’t these recent cervical spine injuries suggest it’s high time that neck braces (e.g. Leatt type) were made compulsory in road racing? It beggars belief that pretty much every part of a riders body is now protected to some degree, with the exception of one of the most vulnerable – the neck!
The Technology exists to mitigate the potentially devasating consequences of hyperflexion and hyperextension injuries to the neck (it has a high take-up in off road two-wheeled disciplines), yet it is pretty much ignored in closed circuit racing.
I think it’s a question of time before a motorcycle version of the HANS systems used in car racing shows up in SBK and MotoGP. Sure motorcycle racers need more mobility than car drivers, but I think they’ll trade some mobility and weight for safety. Compare a current rider’s gear to the suits, boots, gloves, and helmets worn by Agostini or Hailwood, and you’ll see that such a trade is well underway…
The device already exists to you and me. Professional racers could have had it for some longer time. The problem is not a mobility, it’s a loss of straight line speed. Simply, it’s hard to manufacture a device sitting on top of the leathers, without effecting the airflow significantly and thus speed of the bike and a rider.
I doubt many racers will except the trade-off … unless the racing body regulator will make it mandatory like a helmet.
I’ve tested the Leatt prototype for streetbike riders, and it is profoundly cumbersome to the movements of fast riding. The last thing I want to happen when I’m craning my neck to look through a turn is to have my helmet get caught up on some collar that’s bobbling around on my shoulders while I ride. Hopefully someone will have a think about this problem, and come up with a better system.
I’ve been following Brett’s career for a few years now since I saw him race here in Canada and I’ve met his family. I remember that his grandfather was at the track but couldn’t watch him race as he was too afraid that something bad would happen.
I was so sad to see him go down. The crash looked unusual and nastier than most the way he did a faceplant. And he was doing well against some of the best riders in the world who’ve raced on that track umerous times before.
Saddening. I hope he’s back soon and does really well.
Go Brett!!!
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I’ve tested the Leatt prototype for streetbike riders, and it is profoundly cumbersome to the movements of fast riding. The last thing I want to happen when I’m craning my neck to look through a turn is to have my helmet get caught up on some collar that’s bobbling around on my shoulders while I ride. Hopefully someone will have a think about this problem, and come up with a better system.
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I didn’t use one myself, so I cannot tell. But I know a local racer who has and he said he had no issues. So whether all of them would feel like you or not is hard to tell.
Get well soon brett! Also doesn’t the spidi airbag setup provide emergency neck support? Seems better to have that instead of a brace catching your helmet.
*SIGH*
Another man down. Heal well, Brett!
There is a South African rider using a Leatt brace in BSB here in the UK. I understand that there are now versions of these and other similar devices (eg Alpinestars) more suited to track use. Airbag technology such as Dainese D-Air (increasingly seen in Moto GP and WSB) is promising, but is not “primary” in the sense of being “permanently deployed” like all the other protective gear (helmet, armour etc) is. Just as a car airbag works with the seatbelts , airbags in leathers could srely be designed to work with a helmet and neck brace combination.
It was heartbreaking to see and learn more of Brett’s injury. I was keeping my fingers crossed for better news.
At least it’s nothing permanent.
And virtually the same situation happened to Smrz, although he was much luckier with the result.
I hope Effenbert will wait for Brett’s promising talent to return.
As a Canuck, he gave me new reasons to watch theWorld Supers again.
Face planting is very dangerous as thats the exact type of fall that will snap your head back and cause spinal damage. I face planted last year while crashing and even at moderate speed and on grass my neck was sore after for quite sometime.
Sooner or later a neck braces will be widely used. Question is will they deploy from the suit to block the helmet from moving back or a Leatt type brace. Lascorz and now McCormicks accident is really making me think about the Leatt brace for this season…
I think a fair question to ask Brett (when he recovers further and gets back to training) is…
…will you wear a Leatt or similar neck brace upon return?
Or perhaps in the meantime, ask the experts – would a neck brace have prevented (or lessened) Brett’s spine injuries?