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.

BMW F800GS Adventure – Germany’s Middleweight ADV

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.

Kevin Schwantz Returns to Motorcycle Racing – Enters the Suzuka 8-Hours with Team Kagayama

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.

Lambretta Returns to 125GP Racing for 2010

02/01/2010 @ 6:06 am, by Jensen Beeler26 COMMENTS

Lambretta Returns to 125GP Racing for 2010 Lambretta 125GP racing 560x361

After a 60 year hiatus, Lambretta is finally returning back to the 125GP racing stage. Entering as Lambretta Reparto Corse, the team has already confirmed Marco Ravaioli as one of their two riders. The move seems to be primarily to help get the iconic Italian brand back into the public limelight as Lambretta is set to start production of its first new range of scooters since the 1970′s.

According to Lambretta, the team will hold a racing department in Bologna at the workshops of Engines Engineering, despite Lambretta being based out of Milan. Nicola Casadei will serve as the team’s Sporting Director, while Giancarlo Cecchini will develop the bike’s rotary valve engine, which is expected to show up in new Lambretta designs.

“It’s is a wonderful day for Lambretta and one we’ve been working towards for nearly two years. We’re delighted to be back on the racetrack and to compete in such an exciting and expanding sport. It’ll be fun to compete with the big boys and see what happens,” said the brand’s Marketing Director John Scully.

“We’ve been talking to Engines Engineering for quite a long time about this and it’s pretty much a joint project at the moment, which we own. We see it as potentially a way for our technical director and all our technical people to develop innovations for our on-road products. Lambretta has an Italian heritage and we’re very keen to maintain that at the centre of everything that we do. We want authenticity and that’s the reason we started talking to Engines Engineering in terms of MotoGP. They have a great reputation and are a great engineering company, and very importantly for us they are Italian,” Scully continued.

While we don’t follow 125GP that closely here on Asphalt & Rubber, we’re excited to see what the team can do in the field, and what sort of life it can breath into this great Italian company.

Comment:

  1. RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Lambretta Returns to 125GP Racing for 2010 http://bit.ly/amf1X7

  2. Lambretta Returns to 125GP Racing for 2010 – http://bit.ly/amf1X7 #motorcycle

  3. Eric Grobb says:

    Lambretta is not returning to 125GP racing because they were never there. They announced a 125 racing bike in 1949 and even showed a prototype but it didn’t go anywhere. From 1951-53 they had a 250cc V-twin racing bike but it was a flop and didn’t made it to a world championship event, although it did race several times, plagued by mechanical failures. The last serious event it participated in was the non-championship Grand Prix of Locarno in 1952, but both the entries did not finish.
    This is really just one of the organisations that now calls itself Lambretta sponsoring what last year was the Loncin Chinese-backed racing team – with what looks like the same hardware.
    The “great Italian company” that was behind the Lambretta – Innocenti of Milan, disappeared long ago and stopped making two-wheeled products in the early seventies.

  4. Thomas says:

    Eric

    Great answer mate!
    Thanks for the info!

    I drove a Lambretta and it indeed showed me it had no succesfull racing history running through its veins :-).

  5. RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Volkswagen Motorcycle Concept http://bit.ly/aGymER & Lambretta 125GP http://bit.ly/amf1X7

  6. Barry Glading says:

    One hopes they persevere longer than the fiasco last year. And does Witteveen still have a place in the development team?
    I suspect they’ll be persistent non-qualifiers or back markers this year again.
    I presume Lambretta is a competitor to Aprilia (Piaggio) and Derbi(Piaggio) so they can’t go the rebadged Aprilia route.
    Rotsa ruck, you brave fellows.

  7. Jan Thiel says:

    Witteveen did not work for Loncin, he worked for the even worse Haojue!
    The ‘Lambretta’ was first called Malaguti, then Loncin, however they were
    always among the last and slowest, and many times among the first to
    break down.
    There is no hope at all to do better in 2010!

  8. Peter says:

    I believe Romolo Ferri was entered in the 1951 Hockenhiem race on a 125cc Bitubo racing Lambretta. So it could be claimed Lambretta is returning to 125cc racing but whether these new 125cc could be called Lambretta is questionable

    Peter.

  9. Jan Thiel says:

    First race: both retired in the first 2 laps.
    As expected!

  10. Peter says:

    I suppose it is better than the 1951 Isle of Man TT when all 3 Lambretta entries failed to show!!
    Peter

  11. Jan Thiel says:

    failing to show at least saves some money!

  12. Jan Thiel says:

    Le Mans: Same failure again, slow, unreliable, no progress at all.
    Aprilia winnig hands down without developing their bikes for the last 2 years!
    Shame on Lambretta!

  13. Jan Thiel says:

    Now that Dorna is making special regulations for Suzuki, why not do the same for Lambretta?
    Let them start a minute ahead of the others and give them double pionts!

  14. Jan Thiel says:

    Now the sponsor finally understands the uselessnes of this project and pulls the plug

  15. nfm102 says:

    Two words guys,Danny Kent.

  16. nfm102 says:

    Ok maybe two more,Harald Bartol.

  17. Jan Thiel says:

    still 16 km short on topspeed! and 5.75 sec. on laptime
    Kent seems to be an excellent rider
    If Bartol works for this team his main attention should
    be to getting paid as this is not one of this teams good habits!

  18. Jan Thiel says:

    big improvement at Philips Island:
    last, and one lap behind!

  19. Jan Thiel says:

    slowest of them all!
    again!

  20. Jan Thiel says:

    Dear Harald,
    If you decide to work for this team, always keep your hand on your wallet!
    And take care always to be paid in advance!

  21. nfm102 says:

    Rumour has it Bartol is working in the background,second rumour is the team may be under the Bartol name next year.Could be an all out assault on the fnal 125 two stroke title as it ends next year to be replaced by four stroke singles. Either way Danny Kent is just a little bit special and worth keeping an eye on.

  22. Jan Thiel says:

    Valencia: again no bike at the finish.
    totally unreliable and slow!
    Kent is a good rider.
    hope he finds a better bike for next year!

  23. Jan Thiel says:

    Kent has already found a better bike for next year!
    Does Lambretta want to be ridiculous one more year?

  24. Jan Thiel says:

    Yet another name chance coming?

  25. Jan Thiel says:

    So now the once Malaguti, once Loncin and once Lambretta named shitheap will now be called Mahindra?

  26. CarlosD says:

    Jan Thiel is one of the biggest two strokes technicians in 60′s-70′s-80′s decades. Your Jamathi was one of fastest 50 cc in this times in front of Derbi and Kreidler factorys; an then won de World Champ with Bultaco’s, Minarelli’s and Garelli’s in 125 cc; all bikes are made with his brain and hands allways toghether with his friend and briliant works mechanic Martin Mijwaert. Why not Mahindra takes Jan Thiel for another World Champ 125 in 2011?… is the last FIM-WCH two strokes and I’m sure Jan likes theese las title is your pocket for the history… ¿not realy Jan?