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.
Personally I feel MJ racing is a positive for AMA racing:
1. He has a good team, and they have worked hard and stuck with it. Like Graves said, “I have seen business men come and quickly get frustrated.”
2. Its 1 mil. that a team didn’t have in the paddock until he showed up.
3. His publicity brings in new fans (small degree but still some)
4. His apparel line will definetly draw in the inner city riders, and appeals better to the african american crowd.
Anyone willing to work hard, play fair, invest personal capital and stick with a race organization is a plus in my book.
Michael Jordan Talks Motorcycles on ESPN’s E:60 – http://aspha.lt/z8 #motorcycle
Sure it’s a great thing that MJ has his team and invests his own money bringing a level of attention to our sport however, for the sport to thrive and compete in this country, there has to be much more. It’s sad for me to remember larger crowds at an AMA national in the early 70′s than a few months ago at Fontana (It reminded me of a club race). You’ve got to market the sport and the timing today could not be better. To succeed you must have have a direction, a goal and be consistent. (unlike DMG)
A small case in point…the weekend before the race at Fontana, Josh Hayes and his wife rode their street bikes up to Palomar Mountain where sportbike guys ride and gather. Mr.and Mrs Hayes hung out and met with the locals and invited all of them to the race at a discounted rate if they mentioned his name. Many of those people attended the race the following weekend to check it out. Hayes was thinking out of the box. That was just one person with one idea and it worked.
Market it correctly…..and they will come
We need to dispense with the notion that motorcycling is unreasonably dangerous and get away from the fascination with hooliganism and outlaw bikers before this will ever become truly acceptable in the US. Look at car racing; it’s much larger and still seen as a lesser sport (NASCAR) or a trivial pastime for the rich (F1).
I think the spot was good except for the bit about him riding dangerously. Of course the report zeroed in on that and of course it took up a giant chunk of time they could have used to introduce the riders or talk about what the team is doing differently to ensure wins in the future.
How many times does Storm ask Jordan “how fast” he was going…it’s like that’s the only metric that exists.
How fast was he going on the street, how fast do they go at Daytona, how fast was he going down the straightaway…
My speculation – AMA Road racing will not exist as an American sport in five years. Just about every successful rule of marketing and public relations has been ignored, violated, or poorly executed. There is no room for this level of error in today’s economy.
Combine this with a failing industry and facilities that just do not cater to a mainstream sports audience and you have the perfect recipe for collapse.
Watch, participate and attend while the sport still exists.
Well Bill…..Your point is well taken and I believe you may be right. I hope not. My hope is that something much better will rise from the ashes and the Match “Races” will live again. Did you see Monza last Sunday? The races were incredible. And the stands…….overflowing. We’d better do something, and fast.