Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 2011 – The Ducati Story

Grab some popcorn, because this video from Ducati North America is over 14 minutes long. Telling the story of Ducati at the 2011 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), DNA has put together a great video that really captures how special the racing is at Pikes Peak, and how gorgeous the scenery is of the Colorado Mountains. With Santa Barbara Ducati’s Carlin Dunne winning the overall motorcycle category on his dealership’s Multistrada 1200 demo model, Alexander Smith from the Spider Grips Ducati Team made it a double podium for Ducati in the 1205cc class. If you’re new to racing at Pikes Peak, or wanted a quick re-cap of last year’s race, Ducati’s video pretty accurately sums up racing on the mountain and the anxiety around last year’s race.

Ducati Announces Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Team with Carlin Dunne & Greg Tracy

Ducati has announced its factory team for the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), and the Italian company has secured the services of last-year’s winner and Rookie of the Year Carlin Dunne as well as six-time PPIHC winner Greg Tracy. Ducati has also partnered with the Spider Grips team, who will help prepare the teams Ducati Multistrada 1200 for the “Race to the Clouds” on July 8th. For 2012, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will be fully-paved to the top of the mountain, which will surely see the speeds of competitors increase, and lap times drop on the 12.42 mile long course that ends at 14,110 feet.

Cutaway Photos of the Ducati Superquadro Engine

I was flipping through some photos from the 2011 EICMA show, and found these shots of the Ducati 1199 Panigale’s Superquadro engine. Unfortunately at the show, Ducati had its 1199cc v-twin motor behind a Lexan case, which created a bit of a glare, reflections, and of course had smudges from the touchy-feely Italian crowd. But still, the photos give a good idea of what’s going on in Ducati’s most-advanced production engine to date, and are better than just looking at the CAD renders. If you look at the shots very closely, you can almost see where the 195hp and 98 lbs•ft of torque is lurking inside.

AGV, Please Make This Helmet!

In addition to testing the factory Ducati Desmosedici GP12 “Phoenix” this week at Sepang, Valentino Rossi is also trying out a new lid from AGV. Aside from the carbon fiber goodness, and of course the Rossi stickers (which add 5hp & $200), AGV’s prototype helmet sports a noticably pronounced rear spoiler. Tucked in behind the windscreen, it is obvious why the Italian helmet manufacturer designed such a large protrusion off the back of the prototype helmet, as it looks to be clearly helping the flow off the back of the helmet, across the rider’s hump, and down his backside.

2012 Honda RC213V Debuts in Malaysia

While Ducati Corse is busy playing hide-the-Desmosedici at Sepang, HRC is all business in Malaysia this week, and has debuted its 2012 Honda RC213V MotoGP-contender. Honda isn’t saying too much about the RC213V, simply stating that the race bike is all new, but is also a continuation of the company’s design with the 800cc Honda RC212V. Testing the Honda RC213V over the course of last season, reigning-World Champion Casey rode the new 1,000cc machine three times in 2011, while teammate Dani Pedrosa swung a leg over the RC213V twice (missing one test because of injury).

No, This is the “90%” New Ducati Desmosedici GP12

You may have been misled by some eager journalists today and yesterday, if you saw a Ducati Corse livery-clad Ducati Desmosedici GP12 that some sites were passing off as the first shots of the “90% new” GP12. With the alleged new GP12 looking surprisingly similar to the aluminum-framed “GP0″ that was tested at Valencia, Valentino Rossi’s mechanic has now Alex Briggs confirmed that the photos taken were not of the all new “GP12 Phoenix” that the factory team will race this season. While the Ducati lords can taketh away, they can also giveth, and Valentino Rossi himself has posted the first photo of the factory Desmosedici GP12, and the bike is clearly different.

Zero Motorcycles Commences 2012 Model Line Production

Zero Motorcycles has announced the full-commencement of production for its 2012 model line, which is expected to hit dealers in February & March of this year. First off the line was the 2012 Zero DS back in December, though the electric motorcycle company has recently started building the Zero S, Zero XU, Zero X, and Zero MX at its Scotts Valley facility as well. A story we broke back in November, Zero Motorcycles debuted its important 2012 electric motorcycle line up at the 2011 EICMA show in Milan, with the 2012 range being a substantial improvement upon the company’s previous offerings.

The Dainese D-Air Racing Airbag Suit Comes to America

Getting a look at Dainese & AGV’s 2012 collection, Asphalt & Rubber was down in Orange County earlier this week to see the highly anticipated Dainese D-Air Racing leather suit, which has a four liter airbag system that helps reduce the risk of injury during a motorcycle crash. Dainese has been working on the D-Air Racing system for 10 years now, and after soft-launching the airbag suit in Europe, the Italian company is ready to bring the game-changing technology to American soil.

I Love the Nightlife. I’ve Come to Boogie.

Us Danes, we’re a strange breed. From the culture that taught you how to rape and pillage, Scandinavia is making yet another contribution to the motorcycling world with this latest video. Featuring Danish Supermoto Champion Andreas Mikkelsen, we get a RoToR camera-esque perspective (this rig is actually home made) on the Dane’s practice session at the Als Supermotard Club in Denmark. It’s videos like this that are slowly eroding my will-power to resist getting into supermotard riding. Also, I don’t know who was in charge of the music selection on this thing, but my hat is off to him/her. I love the nightlife. I’ve come to boogie.

Confirmed: KTM 350 Duke in 2013 – Moto3 Inspired 350cc Sport Bike in 2014

Our friends over at IndianCarsBikes.in were in attendance at the KTM 200 Duke launch in India this week, as the Austrian brand launched its somewhat bigger-displacement version of the popular KTM Duke 125. During the press event, KTM talked about the future of the mini-Duke line and its product roadmap for the emerging country, as well as abroad. With the Austrian brand confirming/clarifying that KTM would release a KTM 350 Duke for India in 2013, zie Austrians also confirmed that the KTM 350 Duke would be built locally in India by Bajaj, but would be exported worldwide — allaying fears that the KTM 350 Duke would be an India-only model.

MotoCzysz Wins TT Zero – 96.820 MPH Average

Thu, June 10th, 2010 @ 9:51 am, by Jensen Beeler12 COMMENTS
Home » Popular » MotoCzysz Wins TT Zero – 96.820 MPH Average

Mark Miller took the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc to victory today at the Isle of Man’s TT Zero race. Miller lapped the MotoCzysz E1pc around the Mountain Course with an average speed of 96.820 MPH and with a time of 23:22.890. Just shy of the 100 MPH average speed barrier, Miller passed through the Sulby speed trap going 135.300 MPH, and topped 140 MPH at one point.

Following Miller was Rob “Bullet” Barber who averaged 89.290 MPH on the streamlined Team Agni machine. James McBride finished on the podium with a 88.653 MPH average on the Man TTX race bike. Jennifer Tinmouth on the second Agni finished 4th, just seven seconds behind McBride.

The 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc was a dominate force at the TT Zero event, passing Rob Barber on his Agni before Ballaugh, the second timing point. Miller would go on to extend that position by just under two minutes by the race’s conclusion. With MotoCzysz the clear winner, the second, third, and fourth place bikes were more evenly bunched, and less than 20 seconds apart at the finish.

Eleven seconds behind Barber, McBride showed good speed, making up his 10 second start time difference on Tinmouth by Glen Helen, the first timing point. McBride passed Tinmouth after Glen Helen and went on to maintain his third place position throughout the race.

For Team Agni, the benefits of streamlining Barber’s bike seem to have been negated. The Bullet was able to marginally improve on his speed from last year (+2 MPH on average), but averaged only 1 MPH more over the Mountain Course than his teammate Tinmouth who had conventional fairings on her bike.

MotoCzysz saw similar results with its aerodynamical efforts. Mark Miller lapped the E1pc without the bulk of its fairings around the TT course with an average speed of 94.664 MPH in practice, improving on that pace by just over 2 MPH in today’s race with those fairings installed.

Unfortunately for TT Zero there were a number of no-shows and non-starters today, including 666 Racing (the only Mavizen bike expected at the Isle of Man), Electric Motorsports, and Tork Racing. Additionally, eight bikes left the starting gate, but only five finished.

Source: Isle of Man TT; Photo: Popular Science

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Tagged under: 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc, American, E1pc, electric, electric racing, IOMTT, Isle of Man, Isle of Man TT, Mark Miller, Michael Czysz, Motoczysz, MotoCzysz E1pc, TT Zero, video

Comment:

Doctor Jelly says:
June 10, 2010 at 9:54 AM
WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
travis says:
June 10, 2010 at 9:58 AM
Hell fuckin yeah! Great work Mark, Michael, Adrian and Marty and to whoever else helped them complete this amazing bike and win the race!
RareSportBikesForSale says:
June 10, 2010 at 10:18 AM
Congratulations MotoCzysz!!
dc
hoyt says:
June 10, 2010 at 11:33 AM
I didn’t realize the sliding section of his front-end was slightly angled.
If Team Czysz is reading, how much battery life remained?
Congratulations
dp says:
June 10, 2010 at 12:10 PM
“If Team Czysz is reading, how much battery life remained?”
I think they said 10% more in an interview
MTGR says:
June 10, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Nice to see they finally have something more than a (very) pretty face to show for all their efforts. Congrats.
bg says:
June 10, 2010 at 2:02 PM
And don’t forget Terry Czsyz in there too…
Asphalt_Rubber says:
June 10, 2010 at 4:52 PM
MotoCzysz Wins TT Zero – 96.820 MPH Average – http://aspha.lt/12o #motorcycle
Dr. Gellar says:
June 10, 2010 at 9:54 PM
Fantastic! Congratulations MotoCzysz…well done! It’s great to see some good fortune and success finally come your way. Lookin’ forward now to seeing how the E1pc performs at Laguna. As much as I enjoy MotoGP, if I go this year to the USGP…it’ll be primarily to see your creation. I am very, very happy for you all… :-)
BMG says:
June 11, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Congratulations on the win with the E1pc. Please do not stop development on the C1 though, there are those of us who still root for ICE motorcycles.
Bret says:
June 12, 2010 at 4:27 AM
Wow I would like to see ANY motor sport event see this kind of improvement in 1 year.
Congratulations.
With continual development of these Zero TT Bikes….ICE Bikes don’t stand a chance.
25:53:50 Last year
23:22.89 This year
Josh says:
June 16, 2010 at 11:59 AM
I’m surprised the bodywork didn’t give a greater speed increase. I wonder if something else changed to negate the aerodynamic advantage as compared to the semi-naked speed run.
Its a good rate of improvement, but a heck of a long way from so good that ICE bikes don’t stand a chance. Especially if you allow unlimited ICE bikes.