Q&A: Yukio Kagayama Talks About the Upcoming Suzuka 8-Hour with Kevin Schwantz & Noriyuki Haga

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.

KTM RC4 Concept by Luca Bar Design

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.

Q&A: Claudio Domenicali Talks Frameless Chassis, Sacred Cows, & The Future for Ducati

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.

Is Yamaha Using A Seamless Gearbox? The Data Says No

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.

OCC Coming Back to TV? — Universe Collapses in on Self

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.

Alstare Superbike Concept by Team Alstare

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.

Transcript: The Gay Question at Jerez

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.

2014 Suzuki GSV-R Spotted Again

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.

BMW F800GS Adventure – Germany’s Middleweight ADV

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.

Kevin Schwantz Returns to Motorcycle Racing – Enters the Suzuka 8-Hours with Team Kagayama

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.

MotoGP: Lorenzo on Poll at Assen – Spies Continues to Impress with 4th Place Qualifying Finish

06/25/2010 @ 4:15 pm, by Jensen Beeler1 COMMENT

MotoGP: Lorenzo on Poll at Assen Spies Continues to Impress with 4th Place Qualifying Finish Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha qualifying Assen MotoGP 560x373

Jorge Lorenzo continues to dominate in a Rossi-less MotoGP, taking his second pole this season while at Assen for the Dutch TT. Also making waves was American Ben Spies, who after taking a third place finish at Silverstone, finds himself fourth on the starting grid tomorrow for the Dutch TT’s Saturday race day start. Lastly, a big shirt-less high five goes to Randy de Puniet for taking his second second-place qualifying in a row. The Frenchman continues to make the Repsol Honda team look bad with his impressive season, and apparently hasn’t gotten the memo that satellite riders are supposed to be slow.

Always humble, de Puniet was quick to downplay his efforts in Assen this week. “Everything is going in the right direction for us and we completely deserved this second consecutive front row,” said de Puniet. “I am still the fastest Honda rider and the top privateer rider in the classification, so this is not just luck!” Unconfirmed reports say that Randy ripped off his shirt  after that statement, and began washing the jersey on his abs in the team garage.

For Spies, the attention continues to build around the young American rider, who has consistently impressed MotoGP fans with his acumen for learning GP racing. Spies has been cautious about his performance so far, but doesn’t discount another podium finish this weekend. “Obviously Jorge is a way ahead of me at the front but the fight between third to sixth is pretty close,” says the American rookie. “I’m in that fight and that could land me on the podium. But it could easily be a dogfight and I could end up sixth or seventh. Going into the race though I’m closer than I was with the lap times than Silverstone, so anything is possible.”

Unlike Spies, Lorenzo will play a more conservative game on Saturday. “I will try to escape but if I can’t I will fight for the podium. We can afford to be very calm because of our lead in the standings, but the team and I are still working as hard as we can to keep going at this level; we’re not relaxing.” The only thing that seemingly could lose the Championship for Lorenzo would be a race time crash, which he’ll be sure to avoid tomorrow during the Dutch TT.

Results from Qualifying at Assen for MotoGP’s Dutch TT:

PosNo.RiderBikeTimeDiffDiff. to Prev.
199Jorge LORENZOYAMAHA1’34.515--
214Randy DE PUNIETHONDA1’34.7970.2820.282
327Casey STONERDUCATI1’34.8030.2880.006
411Ben SPIESYAMAHA1’34.9260.4110.123
569Nicky HAYDENDUCATI1’34.9990.4840.073
64Andrea DOVIZIOSOHONDA1’35.0150.5000.016
726Dani PEDROSAHONDA1’35.1620.6470.147
858Marco SIMONCELLIHONDA1’35.2830.7680.121
95Colin EDWARDSYAMAHA1’35.3930.8780.110
1041Aleix ESPARGARODUCATI1’35.5931.0780.200
1165Loris CAPIROSSISUZUKI1’35.6641.1490.071
1219Alvaro BAUTISTASUZUKI1’36.3441.8290.680
1336Mika KALLIODUCATI1’36.5021.9870.158
1440Hector BARBERADUCATI1’36.5692.0540.067
1564Kousuke AKIYOSHIHONDA1’38.1983.6831.629
OUT33Marco MELANDRIHONDA---

Top 5 Related Posts:

  1. MotoGP: Stop-and-Go Qualifying at Assen
  2. MotoGP: Assen Assen They All Fall Down
  3. MotoGP: Yamahas vs. Hondas During Qualifying at MotoGP
  4. MotoGP: Qualifying Trouble for Ducati at the San Marino GP

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Comment:

  1. Asphalt_Rubber says:
    June 25, 2010 at 11:16 PM

    MotoGP: Lorenzo on Poll at Assen – Spies Continues to Impress with 4th Place Qualifying Finish – http://aspha.lt/14a #motorcycle