Ducatisti: do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is that the market for motorcycles 500cc and up is down 17% worldwide for the first quarter of this year, which means the “good” news is that Ducati is only down 5% for Q1 2013. Not exactly the start out of the gate that Audi was hoping for its newly acquired two-wheeled brand, but what are you going to do? Western Europe is a mess, with Spain and Italy continuing to go down like a…well, you know. While we don’t enjoy the misery of motorcycle brands, the fact that Ducati Motor Holding is now under the Audi AG umbrella means that we get far more detailed quarterly and yearly reports from the two-wheeled marque, and we’ve got the digits after the jump.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Aprilia RSV4, hopefully??
maybe Ducati North America not playing a supporting role anymore might have alittle more to do with it than Lock, just a guess.
Always seemed like the red headed step child of Ducati racing. But yes, Lock’s gone, and Ducati production racing seems to now be the red headed step child of the factory!
It’s sad, that even in the states, the worldwide prestigious motorcycle company, Ducati, which was once synonymous with racing is all but gone from racing. No doubt that they are putting all their eggs (finances) in the Valentino Rossi GP basket, all at the expense of all other series. If I were a share holder in a company which made these crazy decisions, I would be furious. Even if Valentino wins a title for Ducati (which seems unlikely), does Ducati really expect global financial returns from the limited exposure? I guess that selling their (once dominant) sportbikes to john Q Public is not that important anymore. There is no longer a publicly viewed platform to showcase their factory efforts. Satilites never have the factory clout.
Ducati worldwide factory racing will be missed. VR had the right shirt, it just needs to be modified “Bye Bye Ducati Sport-bike Racing”.
2cents
I read somewhere that KTM might be interested in getting in to AMA.
Would be cool to see Larry on an RC8 next year.
Think BMW people….BMW…
The whole “Ducati abandoned WSBK to pay for Rossi” rumor really has to stop (this is the first I’ve heard it with an AMA twist though). Marlboro picked up the tab for Rossi (and pays a HUGE portion of Ducati’s MotoGP bill), the same went for Xerox in WSBK. The idea that Rossi’s 15 million euro rumored salary would cause the demise of all of Ducati’s other racing efforts is a bit ridiculous.
Who does have a factory team in AMA? Do they yellow flag laps while speed is on commercials? Is it true 2012 AMA superbike will only run on nascar ovals? Will Ducati stop making production motorcycles to pay Rossis salary?
There really is little benefit I can see to any factory supporting AMA racing, The races are a mess, lightly attended, TV coverage has low ratings. As expensive as fielding a race team is, a factory has to be ablel to believe that its investment will result in increased exposure and sales. Couple the poor product DMG has set out with a rotten economy and it is easy to see why all the factories, not just Ducati have little interest in the AMA program.
As to World Superbike, that series has its act fully together. I believe that Ducati has bowed out of a factory effor in a snit over what it feels are unfair rules. Truth be told, Ducati’s current superbike platform just is not quite good enough, so Ducati is probably smart to save the euros and put those funds into developing its next superbike.
In response to “John,” I am not sure what you mean by the races being a “mess” but I found the AMA races this year to be highly entertaining (much better than many of the WSBK and Moto GP races)and many of the riders agreed that it is much better now. I went to WSBK, AMA and Moto GP events this year and all were lightly attended in the U.S. European events had a much better atmosphere overall.
I do agree with you about the TV coverage but hey…. it’s SPEED. you can only watch so many episodes of “Pinks,” “Pinks ALL-OUT,” and NASCAR practice!
I also agree that Ducati’s bike is not up to par with the others so a full factory effort is not economical on their part.
Actually the rumor is that Eraldo Ferracci is the going to be running a team for 2011, rider unkown..
There’s too much going on at once with Ducati to really know what’s what. I’ve a hard time believing that suddenly last year the 1198 was uncompetitive when it almost won the year before, and did win the year prior to that.
Ducati has clearly moved out of factory SBK teams to focus that money on it’s next Super Bike. From rumors going around they may actually run cam chains instead of belts. If this is the case I hope the “old” belt cam bikes become the new “supersport” line of Duc’s, but that is just me dreaming… LOL.