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.

Fiat-Yamaha: Rossi Announcement Wednesday

07/12/2010 @ 9:06 pm, by Jensen Beeler7 COMMENTS

After first sending a press release that Rossi would make an announcement after his testing session today, Fiat-Yamaha has issued another statement saying that Rossi won’t make a decision on this weekend’s race until he arrives at Sachsenring on Wednesday. Heightening the anticipation of his return, Rossi has seemingly delayed making a decision to race, and wants to wait another two days before making it public what his intentions are for the weekend.

We assume this also means that we won’t hear an announcement from Rossi or Ducati about the 2011 season until the German GP as well. As such, Sachsenring will be an interesting round as both Rossi and Wataru Yoshikawa will have to prepare to race on Sunday, but also there will be the added fervor of the impending Rossi/Ducati announcement.

Valentino Rossi completed 46 laps (fitting, ehh?), over multiple sessions, at Brno today. Rossi used a Yamaha YZF-R1 that was provided by the Yamaha World Superbike Team, and much to Crutchlow and Toseland’s dismay, Rossi took the WSBK R1 around Brno with a best time of 1’59.135, which is quicker than both Yamaha WSBK riders did in last weekend’s races.

Many outlets are comparing this time to race pace at Brno, but a more analogus comparison would be to the qualifying times from this weekend (Editor’s Note: Lap records are only counted during race conditions). Compared to the Superpole pace, Rossi was about a second off Cal Crutchlow’s pole setting pace of 1′58.018, while being nearly half a second faster than Toseland’s 1′59.699. Rossi was rumored to be on Toseland’s YZF-R1 today.

“Today was good, I felt better than in Misano but I still feel quite tired after a few laps and a race will be a much bigger question,” said Rossi. “We haven’t made the final decision yet, I need to have some more x-rays on Wednesday, and then my doctors and I will consider whether I can ride at Sachsenring. Once I’d understood my physical condition today, I had great fun riding the R1 and even did some work on the settings! I want to say a big thank you to the WSB Team for staying on here another day and making this test possible for me.”

Yamaha awaits Valentino’s final personal decision as to when he feels ready to ride again, and the team’s priority is a full recovery to fitness for Valentino rather than a quick comeback. If Valentino decides to ride in Germany, he will need final approval from the FIM Chief Medical Officer before he can participate in a Grand Prix.

Source: Fiat-Yamaha

Tagged under: Brno, Czech Republic, Fiat Yamaha, MotoGP, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, YZF-R1

Comment:

eze1976 says:
July 12, 2010 at 9:55 PM
can you imagine that being a racer, heres your bike back you’ve been riding all season, yep the guy with the broken leg on it was faster than you, he also said it needed setting up so we took care of that too…. cheery O
Asphalt_Rubber says:
July 13, 2010 at 4:07 AM
Fiat-Yamaha: Rossi Announcement Wednesday – http://aspha.lt/15s #motorcycle
gloverka says:
July 13, 2010 at 4:23 AM
Fiat-Yamaha: Rossi Announcement Wednesday – http://aspha.lt/15s #motorcycle http://ow.ly/186RCv
deckard says:
July 13, 2010 at 4:48 AM
According to you guys: “Asphalt & Rubber has received word from a trusted source that Valentino Rossi has signed a two-year agreement with Ducati, that’s set to be announced on Monday [7/12/2010]…”
Rossi may have signed, but clearly he and Ducati would not announce this humongous signing at a Yamaha test. Credibility can be fleeting, as you now know.
Brandon says:
July 13, 2010 at 11:00 PM
I agree with deckard, A&R needs to keep their Ducati pipe dreams to themselves until the facts are out in the public. It’s becoming as annoying as Entertainment Tonight. I don’t get why you would think Rossi would leave for a different team with a lesser bike that will be less supportive of him personally. Besides the financial squeeze Yamaha seems to be taking good care of Rossi, giving him a bike made for him and using all of their resources to aid his return. I also think Rossi still has some unfinished business in the Lorenzo rivalry at Yamaha, he has to prove he is the better rider on the M1 without any crashes getting in the way of either rider. I suspect a 1 year renewal of his contract with Yamaha as a sign of appreciation, besides, Ducati’s money will likely be their in 2012 if the itch is to much to resist.
Jensen Beeler says:
July 13, 2010 at 11:33 PM
Yes. We made it all up for kicks and giggles.
jamesy says:
July 14, 2010 at 4:18 PM
Here’s a scenario Brandon; What if Vale is hearing Jorge’s footsteps? What if he is blinking? If you have ever been seriously injured at race pace, you know that it can do stuff to your mind! Its supposed to after all. First you begin to question the very moment of the off… what was it? what tiny infraction against the laws of physics caused this extremely painful moment to both body and ego? What could I have done differently? Jorge didnt crash, he’s getting faster isnt he, what shall I risk? Or was it …shudder.. something beyond my control?
If he does go to Ducati and wins it all again, it would certainly erase any last doubters of his ultimate greatness. If he loses straight up battles with the young lion, we will ALL rationalize for reasons of equipment difference.
This is no slam, trust me, as I consider him the G.O.A.T. Just sayin, he is very very intelligent and the same mental strength that created his success will someday help him down from the throne. We could be witnessing either scenario… aint it great?

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