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.
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.
Yay, Lightning! Really happy for you guys and– WTF… that’s one gnarly finger in that photo. :D
Now those are the fingers of a real man building 200+ MPH motorcycles. Props. No mani-pedi BS going on in the Lightning camp.
vid…
Those cheaters! You can hear their ICE motor power assist!
Is Lightning going to come back for BUB week and make it official?
Chip Yates said on twitter:
“To set an Official FIM World Record for Land Speed, BUB Speed Trials is the way, and it looks like I’m the only eBike! pic.twitter.com/MTczXNU”
What’s official? An SCTA record? An AMA record? An FIM record?
Each club’s certification of a land speed record is a little different. I can find strengths and weakness in each one.
Chip is right though, to set an FIM record, you need to go to BUB.
Poor Jim Hoogerhyde. Both of his bikes had issues early on. I’m glad he found something to keep him interested out there on the salt. Breaking 220mph is no joke.
On a side note: Speed trials is a place where the E-bikes might have an advantage. Something that amazed me as I learned (learning) about going fast in a straight line is how heavy the bikes are. They fill the swingarms with lead shot, and add lead bricks for both traction and stability. So having a bunch of batteries to power an monster electric motor is not a hindrance like it would be on a road race bike.
You can place the batteries in strategic places to help where you need it.
@Jensen, personally i’m not too worried about who records the record.
@Mickey great insight, thanks.
No issues with altitude too Mickey. 4,200 ft. sucks a bit of power from an ICE bike.
Where is Chip Yates at TTXGP, FIM e-Power or Isle of Man. SCTA is a real record. The FIM is not the only game in town. I hope Lightning goes to BUB to answer the critics and set the FIM record too. If Chip Yates does 200 at BUB not 216 does that mean his bike is the only officail 200 mph bike and Lightning times do not count?
The SCTA has been running since 1949 and BUB 8 years.
Wow…216mph (more or less). Good job Lightning!
I am interested to see what Chip Yates ends up doing. Whether he goes faster or not is not important to me. Just to see two big name electrics battling it out for top honors in the 200mph+ club is pretty sweet.
Bonneville: Lightning Raises the Electric Motorcycle LSR Up Another Peg with a 215.907 mph Record – http://aspha.lt/rt #motorcycle
Impressive speed – there is no doubt. But for electric bikes to really make an impact and be taken seriously, go 216 miles between recharges with recharges taking less than 10 minutes. I understand the need to do something to market yourself, but I do hope that the behind-the-scenes focus is on this crucial area that will make the electric bike a player in the market or just an afterthought for the rich looking for a toy.
“But for electric bikes to really make an impact and be taken seriously, go 216 miles between recharges with recharges taking less than 10 minutes”
@Tom Electric bikes are already being taken seriously. Lots of money and time is going into them.
If electric could do 216 miles and recharge in 10 minutes, yeah, customers would adopt them in mass in the US and everyone mfr would drop everything to build them. However, the current thought is an electric motorcycle manufacturer can survive today on a subset of riders who feel 30 to 100 miles is enough range and $7000 to $12000 is a reasonable price range (minus incentives). And these eMFR’s can sell bikes to China and other countries that already use millions electric bikes for transportation. They are making an impact and being taken seriously. The impact is just not as large in the USA yet.
Stellar site. Tons of very helpful information here. I’m posting it to a few friends!
Good job Paul Thede and Lightning Electric Bikes. Lets give credit where credit is due. They are the First to break 200+mph on an Electric bike with a pass of 217+mph. So Chip we all anxiously await for you joining the club too, but don’t knock anyone’s accomplishment. He has you covered by 25mph. Good luck at BUB.