Talking to the Indy Star, Mark Miles (CEO of Hulman & Co, the parent company to Indianapolis Motor Speedway) has put some doubt into the historic venue’s commitment to host the MotoGP Championship. Having a contract to run the race through the 2014 season, Miles said that IMS might opt-out of the final year in its agreement with Dorna (IMS apparently has this option for a brief window after the 2013 Indianapolis GP). However while the news has focused so far on IMS’s ability to opt-out, both Dorna and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have options in their contract to go through with the 2014 round, and with a bevy of variables in the air, we may or may not see three American GP rounds next year.
Surprise! America will be getting a 847cc three-cylinder naked bike for the 2014 model year, the 2014 Yamaha FZ-09. Replacing the Yamaha FZ8 in the Japanese company’s line-up, the FZ-09 is the first motorcycle from the tuning fork brand to sport the Yamaha’s new line of three-cylinder engines. The Yamaha FZ-09 comes about as the MIC is reporting its second-consecutive year of growth in the 751+cc sport bike segment, as well as increase in commuter riding over short-distance sport riding. With those trends in mind, Yamaha has punched out the displacement on its middleweight naked bike, and focused on giving riders a comfortable, yet stout, motorcycle. Priced at $7,990 MSRP, we think Yamaha hit the nail pretty much on the head with this one.
In the past few years I’ve come to believe that, while superior physical differences (their reflexes and fine motor skills) are significant, it’s the mental differences that are the most interesting. I suppose anyone who has ridden a motorcycle even a bit beyond one’s comfort zone can appreciate some part of the physical aspect of riding a racing bike. For most of us, even the speed of racers in local events is impressive compared to our street riding. While the skills with throttle, brakes, and balance are on a level similar to the best athletes in other sports, I think that what really sets motorcycle racers apart is their ability to overcome fear.
The progress in the last five years on electric motorcycles has been astounding. Taking their first laps around the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course, a 87.434 mph pace was the best an electric motorcycle could do at the prestigious road race in 2009 — a pace that was on par with the 50cc record set in 1971. In just five years after the first laps were taken by electric motorcycles at Snaefell, these machines have grown their average lap speeds by over 20 mph at the TT Zero race, setting a new record of 109.675 mph in 2013, and boasting a rate of improvement of roughly 5 mph each year since 2009. If hitting 142.2 mph down the Sulby Straight speed trap wasn’t further proof of the speeds these bikes are achieving, maybe some visual evidence will help support the notion.
Darius Glover is a dirt bike racer. Like you and me, he lives to ride, and when he is on two-wheels he feels the freedom that only other motorcyclists can truly understand. The thing is though, Darius is paralyzed from the waist down. Where others would give up their dreams and this sport, Darius at the age of 15 instead pushed onward. No pity parties, no excuses, just simply a daily example of where there is a will, there is a way, and a reminder that you can achieve anything that you put your mind to. It’s hard not to get a bit choked up listening to Darius tell his story, but you walk away feeling uplifted after feeling his attitude come across the screen.
Any race where 1,500 riders start, 500 qualify, and only 14 finish, has got to be an epic competition, and considering the fact that the Erzberg Rodeo starts in the excavation pit of an Austrian mine…well, it takes a special rider to be enticed by such an event. One such special rider is Graham Jarvis, who was the first of the fourteen men to reach the 20th and final checkpoint. Taking 2 hours and 52 seconds to complete the course, Jarvis made the 2013 Erzberg Rodeo look downright easy. However, with one look at the race-day conditions from this past weekend, we know it was anything but.
While normally, MotoGP fans never get enough of seeing Valentino Rossi on TV, there is one shot they would (for the most part) gladly be spared. As he leaves the pits, Rossi stands on the footpegs, and pulls his leathers from between his buttocks, before sitting back down again and leaving. These rituals – part useful limbering up, part invocation of Lady Luck – are something many riders perform, in their attempt to exert control over themselves, and over their environment. In a fascinating press release – by far the most interesting we have received in many months – the Aspar team today provided a discussion and explanation of what riders are trying to achieve through the use of these rituals.
Hoping to make it four wins in a row, it goes without saying that the MotoCzysz crew is working hard to close the gap to the John McGuinness and the Mugen team. However, having Team Principal Michael Czysz stuck back in the US, undergoing cancer treatments, must certainly add another level of motivation for the on-island MotoCzysz crew. Making time in their busy schedule, Asphalt & Rubber got to take some up-close photos of the 2013 MotoCzysz E1pc. The most obvious changes made to the MotoCzysz E1pc for the 2013 TT Zero race are the use conventional suspension pieces. Of course, it’s not a completely standard suspension setup, as MotoCzysz has developed its own adjustable triple clamp that incorporates tunable lateral flex parameters.
Max Biaggi is to make a surprise return to riding a MotoGP machine. The former 250 and World Superbike champion will take a seat on Ben Spies’ Ignite Pramac Ducati as part of a one-day test at Mugello, as part of Ducati’s testing program, according to Italian site GPOne. Spies was scheduled to stay on at Mugello to take part in a two-day test, but after the first day of practice at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, it was clear to both Spies and Ducati that his shoulder was still too weak to ride a MotoGP machine. With work continuing on the Desmosedici, it was important for Ducati to get as much data as possible on their bike, and so Biaggi was offered the chance to ride the machine.
Just as our Bothan spies had predicted, the folks in Varese, Italy have debuted an 800cc version of the MV Agusta F3. The new machine is cleverly named the MV Agusta F3 800, and as you may expect, the street bike features the 798cc three-cylinder engine that is found on the MV Agusta Brutale 800 and the still unreleased MV Agusta Rivale. Pepping that three-cylinder motor up to 146hp (note: MV Agusta continues to have some trouble converting kW into horsepower, and other publications continue to fail at checking MV’s math. Last we checked, 108.8 kW equalled 145.9 hp), MV Agusta has wedged the lump into its supersport chassis, and reports that no additional weight has come as a result.
They have done this for over twenty years going back to the late 80s when the “crisis” of mismanagement happened then too. No guesses needed the state takes what it wants and a FU you cant do a thing. History repeats itself again.
Well…what else is new ? Is cool, the lambs can’t decide…so we let the wolves do as they please…for us.
If you don’t spend it, they’ll take it…
So the governor needs a new car?Guess who is going to pay for it.They will say its for the state but you know that the men in charge wont chip in to pay when they can rip off the populace so easily.Sounds like your political representation has gone and left you all in the crap as usual.So much for democracy.
Civil rights right?Na just the usual crap.
So glad I don’t live in the cess pit known as california…who need them? Well, not the ones from teh western half of the state.
Bastards did that to us here in FL. I have been paying for titles on my red sticker motocross bikes for almost a decade and none of that suposed off road riding trail money has been spent on trails.
@Keith
That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve read this week. California is the nation’s leading industrial state, is a net exporter of federal tax dollars (Gives more money than it gets back), essentially subsidizing states like Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. There’s also that whole Silicon Valley thing, basically the reason you’re able to post comments on blogs and look at porn.
Then there’s that whole year round riding weather, with some of the most fun backroads in the nation thing, but who would ever want that?
California also produces a large portion of the USA’s food, and then there’s that whole Hollywood thing…
Dear Governor and Past Attorney General Brown:
This is outrageous!!! The portion of the so called “gas tax” that this being stolen is in fact all that remains of a bastardized version of what was originally a road tax and the theft is a clear demonstration of TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!! Furthermore it is totally unfair that the OHMVR trust is the only user/gas tax funded program being ripped off!!!
Funding from OHVMR grants assures that it is California’s off-roaders themselves that pay for the services of law enforcement agencies in policing this popular and growing recreational activity and through the OHMVR Commission, off-roaders make possible our State Vehicular Recreation Areas. SVRAs, like any well managed park, provide the general public with a variety of recreational opportunities, related facilities and services but they provide us a place for regulated off-roading as well.
Gutting the off-road fund makes no economic sense, none! And it will threaten any continued support of the program by its taxpaying participants.
As a CALIFORNIA TAX PAYER I ask you to stop this ill-conceived plan.
Mike Hawkins
Con job as usual. It’s a you payee… we takey world in CA.
California’s budget woes are the fault of the people themselves. You people voted to make the situation this way and the politicians or both parties have to work within the mindless tax/referendum system that the people created. Good job Californians for creating a system where it is wrong to blame the politicians.
Tom,
Nice, blame the victims. Motorcyclists, especially those who ride off-road are in the minority in this state. We suffer at the hands of the of liberals, who vote for the ecologist misanthropes (people haters). You missed this in U.S. history 101, it’s called the tyranny of the majority. Unfortunately, the bill of rights wasn’t written to guarantee that taxation could not be levied against the populace. That argument was lost during the Whiskey rebellion, which happened before California existed as a U.S. state.
Not our fault Bozo.
At this point it becomes pure extortion,The green sticker fund which did not always exist,Becomes a tax for one group of people that have no say.Which leads to the larger question of weather this can be fixed within the current system?Since all we can do is vote and write to our reps. that don,t seem to represent us.