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.

Toseland’s Fall from Grace – Signs with Satellite BMW Team

10/24/2010 @ 2:42 pm, by Jensen Beeler9 COMMENTS

Toselands Fall from Grace Signs with Satellite BMW Team James Toseland push bike 635x422

It wasn’t that long ago (2007 actually) that James Toseland was on top of the world, handily winning the 2007 World Superbike Championship on his Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR. However the British rider has had nothing but a string of bad luck since his WSBK domination, entering MotoGP in 2008 with the Tech3 Yamaha team, and then back into WSBK with the factory-backed Sterilgarda Yamaha squad in 2010. Toseland failed to impress his rookie season in MotoGP, and his second-season toss-up with Colin Edwards over their crew chief swap didn’t seem to help matters much either.

Bumped out of the squad by American Ben Spies, JT was in World Superbike this last season, where many expected to see the part-time pianist play another tarantella of victories in the series. The Yamaha R1 had been the bike to have in the 2009 season, and Toseland was after all a former WSBK Champion; but the results didn’t materialize, and JT finished the season 9th, nearly 100 points behind his rookie Teammate Cal Crutchlow, who will be in Tech3 Yamaha for the 2011 season. The last man left standing in the silly season round of musical chairs, Toseland will see his stature in WSBK further slide into oblivion as he now joins the Italian satellite BMW squad for 2011.

According to Bikesportnews, Toseland confirmed at the David Jeffries Awards Dinner that he will be riding with Ayrton Badovini on the satellite BMW squad being put together by BMW Italy (a move that has been heavily rumored). While no official announcement has been made yet, Toseland is expected to test the BMW next month.

While JT fans will be happy to see that the Brit is remaining in motorcycle racing, his fall from MotoGP, to WSBK, and now to a WSBK satellite team doesn’t bode well for Toseland. 2011 will be a make-or-break season for JT, where a strong performance could signal the turnaround for his career, or he continues his mediocre performance on the track and collapses in on himself like a dying star. As always time will tell.

Source: Bikesportnews via MotoMatters

Top 5 Related Posts:

  1. WSBK: Eugene Laverty to Factory Aprilia Team with Biaggi
  2. WSBK: Melandri Re-Signs with Yamaha for 2012
  3. Carlos Checa Re-Signs with Althea Ducati…Finally
  4. Toni Elias to Test with BMW Italia’s WSBK Team

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Comment:

  1. 76 says:
    October 24, 2010 at 7:21 PM

    “Yamaha R1 had been the bike to have in the 2009 season”
    Yes spies won on it and rode the fcking piss out of that thing… Where was the other R1??? Tom Sykes never even close, consistently running in the mid pack finishing 9th for the season. 2010 Crutchlow didnt turn things around on the R1 until mid season.

    I really dont think the R1 when Spies was on it was all that spectacular of a bike, just the rider really. The bike to have in the 2009 season was simple a 1098R

  2. Nace says:
    October 24, 2010 at 9:41 PM

    “handily winning the 2007 World Superbike Championship”

    He won the championship by 2 points over Noriyuki Haga in a championship that went down to the last race of the season.

  3. Anonymous says:
    October 24, 2010 at 9:42 PM

  4. Ducracerx says:
    October 24, 2010 at 10:22 PM

    you mean he barely won it over Bayliss not Haga in 2007

  5. buzzmanrm says:
    October 25, 2010 at 5:27 AM

    WRONG, 07′ he won it 2 points over HAGA. Bayliss finished 4th. Look it up before you correct someone.

    and Toseland was well ahead in point going into to Magny Cours but a 6th and 7th finsh made him surrender a great deal of his lead.

  6. Howard Worton says:
    October 25, 2010 at 8:44 AM

    Hopefully, for JT, he will be better suited to a more conventionally engined machine in 2011. The main trouble for him is that the competition is fierce and they are desperate to win a title. James will find it hard to be near the front but it will not be for lack of trying.

  7. Jimmy Midnight says:
    October 25, 2010 at 11:30 AM

    Well the picture shown is probably more his speed, a push bike is all he can handle at this point so close to the end of his career. At least he’ll always have his lounge lizard piano act to fall back on.

  8. jamesy says:
    October 25, 2010 at 12:11 PM

    @Jimmy
    Hey, thats kinda cruel. He gave us fair value back when he was hungry. But his was the best bike that year. So such is the nature of the game: whattaya done for us lately (King!!) James?? If he couldnt stay on this years bike how’s he gonna stay on the BMW??? I predict disaster.

  9. Bill Smith says:
    October 25, 2010 at 5:19 PM

    Off Topic: Ben Spies is a GREAT rider (per is rookie MotoGP season) but had Ducati’s WSB team manager performed (vs. falling asleep for the second half of the season) Michel Fabrizio would have been properly constrained to insure the victory for the #1 Ducati rider — Nori Haga.