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.
Marlboro: Stoner Should Apologize – http://bit.ly/NCrQw #motorcycle
Maurizio Arrivabene is an idiot. How many of those employees have to muscle a 200+ HP bike around a race track against the skill levels of Rossi & Co? So yeah a “stomach ache” might be a bigger deal than someone sitting in an office talking on the phone all day.
he may have to muscle a 200+ HP bike around against rossi & co, but he’s well compensated for it, probably a tad more than your typical ducati employee. moreover, he’s paid that kind of bank to appear ON the track, ON the bike, not on a fishing vacation while he’s “recovering.” stoner didn’t help himself by making it clear through his comments that he was mostly just unable to muster the mental toughness he’s being paid for. sorry, no pity here. he should apologize to the team, to the investors in his talent as well as the people whose livelihood depends on him getting his head out of his ass and racing.
I love how “armchair” racers like Bill act as if they know exactly what was going on in Stoner’s mind and body. As if they could even hang on to that bike at half speed in perfect health!
Professional motorcycle racers are super-human. They are faster than us mere mortals can ever be and they risk the sanctity of their bodies without fear. These guys break bones and are back on the bike as soon as they can get them wrapped. Casey Stoner is not only a professional motorcycle racer. He’s one of the best and fastest. A “stomach ache” is not going to sideline him. He’s tough as nails and would make Mr. Bill look like a sissy in any activity you care to mention. There was obviously more going on than is being told in the news.
I wish people would put their feet into the other person’s shoes before they’re so quick to judge them.
Stoner can apologize if he wishes, but I think Arrivabene and people like Bill are the ones who should be apologizing. Stoner was sick, too sick to ride. Top-level racers in the championship hunt do not “go on fishing vacations” unless there’s a damn good reason.
You want to insult professional athletes? How about the rookie NFL players coming out of college and refusing to play until they’re paid more money? That’s just one example of many that can be brought out.
Mental toughness my ass. Let’s see you get on the track on that bike with an illness. Those bikes are beasts and are nothing like your cushy little street bike. He obviously knew he’d be a danger to himself and his competitors if he rode while ill.
Give the guy a break. He’s more than proven himself. Think before you talk/write.
Well said Gary ….
I love people like Gary that will defend their idols to no avail. Nobody is questioning the guys skills or how he got there. Obviously he is a great rider or he wouldnt be at this level. It’s also a privledge.
I love the always intelligent arguement of “lets see you get on the bike”… good one…. why dont we all do that. Or why don’t we switch topics to Rookie NFL players… this isn’t espn.com dummy.
The fact is Stoner is and always will be a little b!tch. He has cried at every opportunity when things have not gone his way. Should he apologize? Of course he should apologize… sponsors like Marlboro dump miillions into this sport so that it can exist (and people like you can hang on his nutz)… like it or not. Stoner decided to mail it in this season because of an admitted mental break down. Try doing that at your office/work see how well that goes over.
One thing is certain, we (the public) will never know the truth about his condition. You have to realize that for an elite level athlete to stop the very activity that they are being paid for or have worked their whole career for, there must be a real and good cause (be it mental or physical). Doctors orders boys. And an unfortunate situation for all involved. This kid CAN ride and has tamed the orange beast like no other. Give him his due. Peace.
it’s a disappointment that the response is ad hominem, rather than offering some sort of argument as to why i’m wrong. i never even said i didn’t like stoner. he’s the only guy on the planet, as far as i can tell, that can win on the desmosedici. i also never said that he just had a stomach ache. i think his absence from the grid has very little to do with physical ailment, and very much to do with where his head is, based on his own remarks. i don’t pretend to know what the guy’s dealing with, i can only go on what he says.
but we’re not arguing about his skills, or his fitness (nor mine, for that matter, to the extent you seem to think it relevant), but rather his obligations to his team, sponsors and fans. lest we forget, the rider is but the business end of a whole team of folks whose livelihoods rest at least in part of the performance of the team.
when your rider takes a sabbatical because he’s struggling with his desire for/enjoyment of his sport (again, casey’s remarks), it’s at best a let-down for the team. I’m not questioning his decision to sit out some races (though I bet his team didn’t like seeing the photos of casey fishing, perhaps trying to hook his loss of heart), but I do think he owes something to the team and sponsors. This ain’t a charity; factory GP riders are compensated well enough to be expected to “suck it up” and ride when they don’t want to.
I sincerely hope that this doesn’t damage his career, because he’s an amazing rider (and his success is important to ducati, a small manufacturer competing with giants), but from a business standpoint, it certainly raises questions about the soundness of the investment he represents.
Like every bad horror movie, Stoner sees Rossi behind him every time he looks in the mirror. I love VR46, but that would scramble my eggs as well.