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.
An interesting development on the aftermarket side of things has graced our desks, as Öhlins has released a “suspension control unit” (SCU) that upgrades the electronically adjustable suspension on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S so that it becomes a semi-active suspension system. Whhhaaaat??! So, if you’re the proud owner of a pre-2013 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S, and you think that your electronically controlled Öhlins suspension is no longer boss, now that Ducati has released its Sachs-powered “Skyhook” semi-active suspension pieces on its new batch of Multistrada sport-tourers, there is a remedy for your motolust.
Holy crap that thing sounds SHIT!
And I ride a Honda CBR600RR 09….
Like the world needs more gutless thumpers. :(
I’m sure this marque will be the saviour of GP racing.
Or maybe it just exists to get kids in the far East to buy 4-stroke scooters with fuel injection.
Excuse me while I go out to my garage and stick pins in my eyes.
LOVE it, but I’m biased; my first road bike (living in Boston, back in the early ’80s) was a ’78 SR 500 thumper I bought at curbside for $500. Saw it, waited for the owner and rode it home. I built the sh!t out of that thing; Wiseco piston, bored it out, stiffer valve springs, White Bros. pipe, Supertrapp, bigger carb, gas shocks, stiffer front end, clubman bars, made my own rearsets… I made it mine and in the city it went like stink. Slap 20 or 30 discs on the muffler and there was no more beautiful sound in the world.
I’ve had a bunch of bigger bikes since then and my current Speed Triple is the greatest thing since pre-sliced cheese but sometimes I yearn for the simplicity of that thumper and the pure joy of backing off the throttle just to HEAR it.
Sounds like an XR, definitey not as sexy as a chainsaw though it looks fun to ride…
@ irksome: I’m not knocking thumpers – I love ‘em (I have two – a Husky enduro and a Kawi tracker that sings like a bird thanks to it’s Supertrapp) but to me MotoGP is supposed to be the pinnacle of two-wheeled racing and so there should be no place on the grid for bikes built around lawn mower engines. There are already plenty of very enjoyable race series based on real-world hardware.
If Dorna want to make GP a bit more affordable then perhaps they should make an effort to rid the hospitality areas of some of the political hookers and pimps that add nothing to the sport. But I digress…
@7point62: Interesting thing is that there used to be a number of lawnmowers that used to be 2-strokes.
I’m just saying…
Not sure if this will really be MotoGPs savior but they gotta do something.
I guess this is considered progress. I will stick to my 2 stroke road bike Honda NS400R. There just isn’t the rush and unpredictableness in the 4 stroke classes. It’s still racing!
@7point62: This series serves as the introductory farm team to develop young riders. The 250 two-strokes they’re replacing weren’t the pinnacle either; I just hope the little bastards can still drag their elbows on the 4-strokes.
I used to shoot the AMA series for American Road Racing magazine, back in the ’90s. The race at Laconia was always on Father’s Day and, since there was little call for shots of the 250s, I’d call my Dad while they were buzzing around and tell him how bad the black-flies and mosquitoes were that year. It was our little joke. Even though two-strokes have become more “environmentally sound”, the EPA will probably never make them street-legal again and, since the US is the Great Consumer, it makes monetary sense for manufacturers to eventually fade them out world-wide. Rightly or wrongly isn’t actually relevant unfortunately; that’s just the nature of capitalism.
Great, now sell us a street legal version. We are sadly lacking any small displacement race replicas in North America.
It would be great to see the manufacturers make Moto3 race reps for consumers. It could be a competitive class just like the 600′s and 1000′s. A race replica that anyone could have a blast on.
They could sell them alongside their budget bikes like the ninja 250 and cbr250. People could decide whether the want a cheaper, easier to ride learner bike, or a top notch 250 race rep (which would also make a great learner bike).
I think a ton of people would buy a Moto3 race rep… They would be the coolest bikes to have for younger riders, and in my opinion, a lot of older more experienced riders would want one too. As for the track, they would be great for beginners to learn on, and awesome track toys for experienced riders.
These bikes would use premium components and wouldn’t be cheap, but i’d still buy one. I bet you could have just as much fun, if not more, compared to a bigger bike. Lightweight, high corner speed, and you could rev the heck out of it without being jailed :)
Just my 2 cents…