Still waiting for an announcement from Ducati that they’ve signed Valentino Rossi? So are we, and as we know now the delay of the worst kept secret in MotoGP is due to a gentleman’s agreement between Ducati & Yamaha. In exchange for delaying the announcement until after the American round at Laguna Seca (now slated for the Monday after racing at Brno), Yamaha is allowing Rossi to test the Ducati Desmosedici GP10 when MotoGP stops at Valencia at the end of the 2010 season.
UPDATE: Ducati will be unveiling to the public its 2011 Ducati 848 Superbike EVO, which will have a $1,000 cheaper “Dark” variant as well.
Get ready Ducatisti, a new Ducati model is coming in two weeks. To be launched at Laguna Seca’s Ducati Island during the GP weekend, Ducati is tight lipped as to what the new model could be. In our invitation to the event, we are told only that the unveiling will be “hosted by four very excited guests to whom this new model means quite a lot.” The unveiling will be at 1pm on Saturday, and we’ll be there with our cameras.
We’ve been expecting an electric sportbike from Brammo for over a month now, getting our first clues from our Bothan spies last week that the bike’s launch was imminent. Now we can officially say that the Brammo Empulse is the latest creation from the Ashland, Portland based Brammo, Inc. Continuing Brammo’s electric motorcycle offering, the Brammo Empulse represents the first production sportbike to be available by consumers. The Empulse comes in three flavors (Brammo Empulse 6.0, Empulse 8.0, & Empulse 10.0) with differing amounts of on-board power each variant.
From the official results of World Superbike’s stop at Brno, the FIM has once again determined that twin-cylinder motorcycles, i.e. Ducatis, will get another minimum weight reduction. Averaging more than a five point deficit over the last three WSBK events (Miller Motorsports Park, Misano, and Brno), WSBK rules require that twins be given another 3kg weight reduction, as the rules have been deemed to “favor” the 1000cc 4-cylinder motorcycles too heavily.
UPDATE: John Paolo Canton, Ducati PR Manager, has responded in the comments that Lock was last spotted slaving away in his office, and it’s business as usual in Ducati North America.
With all the commotion going on today, our last piece of breaking news is the developing shake-up that’s going on at Ducati North America. Presumably involving the departure of Ducati North America CEO Michael Lock, we’ve been told changes at Ducati N.A. are occurring at the highest levels. All day we’ve been unable to reach anyone at Ducati’s Cupertino office, so we cannot confirm the report at this time…hey guys, pick up your phones!
Let’s avoid the the “scoops”, “exclusives”, and “OMG’s”, and just say that 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…and boom goes the dynamite (sorry, we couldn’t resist). The Rossi/Ducati fantasy has been put forth for years, with the fervor on the subject reaching its pinnacle this season, as Ducati reportedly wafted a €15 million salary (almost double Yamaha’s offer) in front of the nine-time World Champion.
It didn’t take long for the other shoe to drop, and now it is official that Casey Stoner will race with HRC in 2011, after it was announced moments ago that the Australian would be leaving the Ducati MotoGP team. Perhaps the most unexpected development in this announcement is HRC’s intentions of keeping both Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso for the 2011 season. The likely result of this will be a two-man Repsol Honda team, and a second single-bike team, which is likely to be sponsored by Red Bull.
There’s a lot of pressure on Kawasaki for 2011. Team Green has exited MotoGP, and is completely un-competitive with its ZX-10R in World Superbike and World Superstock 1000. Looking to rectify the situation, Kawasaki has gone back to the drawing board with it’s liter bike offering, and have been testing the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R at Suzuka for the last two days this week. With test riders Hidemichi Takahashi & Akira Yanagawa on-board, we get our first glimpse at the rumored 190hp/190kg Superbike taking laps. Video confirms that a normal firing order is inside the four-cylinder motor (sorry, no cross-plane here), but traction control is rumored to come as a standard option.
Motorcycle upstart Motus Motorcycles continues to press forward with its MST-01 sport-tourer, and has released a video that talks more about the development of their 1645cc gasoline direct-injection V4 motor: the KVM4. Balking at the advice of others not to build their own powerplant, Motus has teamed up with Katech to design an in-house motor for the Motus MST-01.
There’s so many things going on in this video, we’re not certain where to begin. Filmed on Mulholland Highway by the same fine folks who brought us video footage of the guy who crashed in front of a CHP officer, this new saga takes a different approach to riders exceeding their limits on city streets. Take an unsuspecting white Honda Elite scooter, a pair of Crocs shoes, and some invisible knee pucks, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a bizarre Sunday morning lowside that could have been much, much, much worse. While we’ll give bonus points for good dirt-tracking technique, be sure to check the slow-mo footage for the exact moment the rider’s shoes depart humanity, and dive over the cliff.
Who could possibly care where this overrated hack rides??
Agreed. Hopper has either been broken, or otherwise a non-contender for a while now.
2007 on the suzuki he was up with the top guys in Gp. Broken yes, he has had the worst luck with injury and crashes. But I have to say he has one of the best riding styles, enjoyable to watch. With equal machinery hopper can push with best. You fellos, if you even own a bike, as grown men could not beat hopper when he was winning races at 15 yrs old.
I do own bikes (6), but I don’t make my living by racing motorcycles for a living. Hopkins has not lived up to the hype from his start in GP and that is a simple fact. Can he beat me, sure. On the other hand, I could stomp him at what I do as a profession. That is meaningless.
He’s about as fast as any of them, I think. Hasn’t been on top-level equipment. Ever. Early on, he rode the wheels off of the lesser machinery to make a name for himself, but after a few years of having NO CHANCE to win and risking life and limb, he backed off a bit. Not exactly an uncharted path.