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.
“The debate that will carry on to the beginning of the season will be whether this is a sign of the economic climate in MotoGP, or the a testament to the star power of Valentino Rossi.”
It seems like a combination of the loyalty, belief (in the team they are endorsing), and principal. Hats off to any firm that stands by their commitment and views.
Isn’t Repsol non-tobacco? Or do you just mean for Yamaha?
Why Fiat did not follow Rossi to Ducati in the first place, leaving AMG snapped up Ducati MotoGP’s title sponsor? Is it because Ducati themselves prefer, something more upmarket & luxury brand like AMG?
jensen:
any latest news about Rossi and Ducati Team?
are Marlboro still the main sponsor for the team?as i know, Rossi doesn’t want tobacco company to sponsor his team before.
what about Fiat?
any spy photo of Rossi’s bike that will use in the race??i just can’t wait…
Marlboro is still the title sponsor, AMG is the official car sponsor. No photos yet of the bike livery, but it will be unveiled in about a week’s time at the Wrooom event that Ducati holds with Ferrari in the Dolomite mountains each year.
Just reaffirming the fact that FIAT own a high percentage of FERRARI, all of this is a bit confusing. What is NOT confusing is the lack of entries in the 2011 MotoGP Championship, I’m reading 15~16 (ish). A very sad state of affairs, further that Dorna wanna sell the whole package, apparently…
Yamaha will roll up in Qatar with a Title Sponsor. FIAT, in 2007 came to the party @ the 11th hour when all of us thought the Bike would also roll in Blue & White Corporate Yamaha. Is Moto GP Sponsorship really worth it ? Thing is, when more than 3/4′S of the season’s races are done and dusted by lap 5, it becomes boring TV. Sponsors aren’t getting value for their buck. Rossi initially had an issue with Tobacco money but has since had a rethink. The Camel Partnership ended @ Camel’s request and not Rossi. Its Marlboro Ducati with AMG as team Sponsor. The red livery with the barcode is according to them, all the exposure they need. The bulk of the Tab will still be picked up by the Tobacco Boys.
Pete is right. Rossi doesn’t really care much anymore about whether it’s a Tobacco company sponsoring his team, that’s the thing of the past. Especially considering it’s Marlboro money paying largely his pay cheque and not Ducati.
I am a bit surprised Ducati lets AMG, a German company be their Car Sponsorship, and not procure FIAT to talk deals first. In the end, I thought they wanted the dream “Italian” team..unless some Corporate figures in AMG are in fact..Italian. Regardless, it’s still a German company.
2011 is exciting because of the team switching. But 2012 will be exciting for the actual racing. I assure that many teams will be having many meetings about whether spend resources on 2011 or most of them on developing the 2012 bike to be competitive. 2011 is a filler year. 2012 is a clean sheet, riders just in their 2nd year with their new teams riding new bikes + (here’s to hoping) a few more private teams to fill the grid.