Mission Motorcycles: The Mission R Lives??!

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.

Goodbye Husqvarna Nuda, We Hardly Knew Thee

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.

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.

MotoGP Sepang Test – Day 3: Enter the Factory Prototypes

02/05/2013 @ 12:48 pm, by David Emmett8 COMMENTS

Dani Pedrosa has ended the first full-day of MotoGP factory prototype testing at Sepang at the top of the timesheets. The Repsol Honda man was fast throughout the day, finally setting a time that would not be beaten with an hour left of the test.

Though Pedrosa’s best time could not be bested, it was challenged, Jorge Lorenzo using the final minutes of the session to post his fastest lap of the day, falling just eight thousandths short of Pedrosa, but still right on the pace.

The most impressive performance of the day goes to Marc Marquez though, who was fast out of the box, led the session at one point and finished the day less than five hundredths of a second behind his teammate. Marquez had been expected to make a strong start, and be within a few tenths of Pedrosa and Lorenzo, but getting within a few hundredths can be classed as exceptional.

Valentino Rossi’s return to Yamaha was a happy one: the Italian was fast and smooth, leading the session at one stage and ending the day in touch with the leaders, four tenths behind Pedrosa, just under four tenths slower than Jorge Lorenzo.

Stefan Bradl also impressed on the LCR Honda, now in factory-spec, taking 5th spot behind Rossi, and just under a tenth ahead of Monster Tech 3 Yamaha man Cal Crutchlow, who ended the day in 6th. Alvaro Bautista was the last man within a second of Pedrosa, the Gresini Honda man eight tenths off the pace of the Repsol rider.

It was a tough day for Ducati. Nicky Hayden was the fastest Ducati man, as was to be expected, but the American was over two seconds behind Pedrosa, and over a third of a second slower than the Yamaha and Honda test riders, Hayden ended the day in 10th.

Andrea Dovizioso was 13th, just behind MotoGP rookie Bradley Smith on the second Tech 3 Yamaha, while the satellite Pramac Ducatis of Andrea Iannone and Ben Spies ended the session behind the Aspar Aprilia CRT machines of Aleix Espargaro and Randy de Puniet.

The weather, which had looked like disrupting the test, held off all day, leaving the MotoGP field to get in a full day of testing, with all of the riders getting plenty of laps under their belt.

The hope is that the weather will continue to smile on MotoGP for the next two days, allowing the riders a chance to get a full and useful first test in at Sepang. Testing continues on Wednesday.

Results from Day 3 of MotoGP’s Test at Sepang, Malaysia:

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Team	Time	Diff.	Prev.
1	26	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	2:01.157	-	-
2	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha Factory Racing	2:01.165	0.008	0.008
3	93	Marc Marquez	Repsol Honda Team	2:01.201	0.044	0.036
4	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha Factory Racing	2:01.584	0.427	0.383
5	6	Stefan Bradl	LCR Honda MotoGP	2:01.789	0.632	0.205
6	35	Cal Crutchlow	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	2:01.881	0.724	0.092
7	19	Alvaro Bautista	Go & Fun Honda Gresini	2:01.981	0.824	0.100
8	T2	Katsayuki Nakasuga	Yamaha Factory	2:02.968	1.811	0.987
9	72	Kosuke Akiyoshi	HRC Test Team	2:02.972	1.815	0.004
10	69	Nicky Hayden	Ducati Team	2:03.336	2.179	0.364
11	T1	Wataru Yoshikawa	Yamaha Factory	2:03.456	2.299	0.120
12	38	Bradley Smith	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	2:03.460	2.303	0.004
13	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati Team	2:03.535	2.378	0.075
14	41	Aleix Espargaro	Power Electronics Aspar	2:03.782	2.625	0.247
15	14	Randy de Puniet	Power Electronics Aspar	2:04.283	3.126	0.501
16	29	Andrea Iannone	Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team	2:04.500	3.343	0.217
17	11	Ben Spies	Ignite Pramac Racing Team	2:05.086	3.929	0.586
18	37	Takumi Takahashi	HRC Test Team	2:05.154	3.997	0.068
19	8	Hector Barbera	Avintia Blusens	2:05.469	4.312	0.315
20	68	Yonny Hernandez	Paul Bird Motorsport	2:05.656	4.499	0.187
21	17	Karel Abraham	Cardion AB Motoracing	2:05.694	4.537	0.038
22	9	Danilo Petrucci	Came IodaRacing Project	2:05.753	4.596	0.059
23	7	Hiroshi Aoyama	Avintia Blusens	2:05.919	4.762	0.166
24	71	Claudio Corti	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	2:06.426	5.269	0.507
25	33	Michael Laverty	Paul Bird Motorsport	2:06.507	5.350	0.081
26	52	Lukas Pesek	Came IodaRacing Project	2:07.015	5.858	0.508
27	67	Bryan Staring	Go & Fun Honda Gresini	2:07.044	5.887	0.029
28	5	Colin Edwards	NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team	2:08.206	7.049	1.162

Lap records and 2012 Sepang 1 times:

Pole Record	2012	Jorge Lorenzo	2:00.334
Lap Record	2007	Casey Stoner	2:02.108
2012 Sepang 1	Day 1 fastest	Jorge Lorenzo	2:01.657
2012 Sepang 1	Overall fastest	Casey Stoner	1:59.607

Source: MotoGP; Photo: Honda Racing

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

Comment:

David says:
February 5, 2013 at 1:10 PM
Finally…..some lap times!!!!! WooHoo!
Ken C. says:
February 5, 2013 at 2:01 PM
It’s pretty sad when the Honda and Yamaha test riders put up better times than the Ducati Factory riders.
mutanic says:
February 5, 2013 at 4:19 PM
I bet SIC will be on top of sheet if he still around…nice to see Vale back to his ‘track’, going to Ducati is a biggest downfall for him…Dani will be the man to fight this year for sure, wish he didn’t crash & injured this time…Marquez, long way to go man so keep it up…Lorenzo, I’m not really fan of this guy but he is pain in the @ss for Vale…hahaha…
Odie says:
February 5, 2013 at 4:46 PM
I am so glad to Vale back to his old self. Though, it is a pity that Stoner isn’t here. That would make for an epic season. More over, it’s really sad that SIC won’t be duking it out with the aliens. I think he might have had the chops to enter the League of Aliens. That would have just been the cherry.
budi says:
February 5, 2013 at 6:09 PM
Marques FTW
L2C says:
February 5, 2013 at 7:01 PM
Honda sammiches.
L2C says:
February 5, 2013 at 7:03 PM
And I know I don’t need to say it — but poor Colin Edwards! Damn.
Trane Francks says:
February 5, 2013 at 7:52 PM
“And I know I don’t need to say it — but poor Colin Edwards! Damn.”
No kidding. He’d put in better lap times on a Moto2 bike.

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