2013 Mugen Shinden Ni (神電貳) Revealed

Shipped up and on its way to the Isle of Man, we can finally now see more than test shots of the Mugen Shinden Ni and get its basic racing specifications. The electric superbike that John McGuinness will ride in the 2013 TT Zero race at the Isle of Man TT, the Mugen Shinden Ni represents that evolution of the Japanese firm’s design, having now a TT race under its belt. Like its main competitor MotoCzysz, Team Mugen is eyeing a 110 mph lap around the Mountain Course, which would be a pretty remarkable one-year advancement for either team. With Mr. McPint at the helm, and seemingly brimming with on-board energy, Mugen is a serious contender.

Ducati Q1 2013 Sales Drop 5% – Audi Dishes the Details

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 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.

MotoGP: Testing Concludes at Estoril with Simoncelli Fastest

05/02/2011 @ 6:23 pm, by Jensen Beeler1 COMMENT

Testing concluded today in Estoril, with MotoGP teams getting another day to sort out their 2011 race motorcycles on the Portuguese track. The day was perhaps most anxiously awaited by the Ducati Corse squad, who brought out new chassis parts to address the issues with the Ducati Desmosedici GP11. Feedback from both Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi was positive about the changes, and the Ducati Corse team seems to be heading down the right course of softening up the GP11.

“It was a positive test because the new updates were immediately better. The bike was more sensitive to changes made to the front, which makes it easier to work on a setup that works better for me,” said an upbeat Valentino Rossi. “I realized that as soon as I got on the bike and then, over the course of the following hours, we constantly progressed. We also had an engine with a slightly smoother power delivery that I liked a lot.”

“We’ll start using it when the rotation plan allows it. I liked the tyres that Bridgestone had us try, they seemed very good. Of course the other riders also made great progress, and the less positive about today is the gap to the front on my best lap. Anyway, everything that the Ducati technicians brought worked, and that means that we’re on the right path. We have to continue working, but today’s test gives us confidence.”

Nicky Hayden said similar praises about the revised chassis, but also noted that the rest of the field seemingly made improvements to their pace as well. Perhaps exemplifying this the most was Marco Simoncelli, with the Italian completing the day as the fastest man at Estoril.

Other notable improvements included MotoGP rookie Cal Crutchlow, who finished the test an impressive fourth fastest. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team adjusted the Brit’s handlebars and wheelbase to provide better feedback to the satellite YZR-M1. American Colin Edwards also had a productive test, lapping most of the day as third fastest, and finishing in the Top 6 on the time sheets. Edwards tackled suspension settings for the Yamaha, and also provided feedback to Bridgestone on their 2012 tires that will be used with the 1,000cc format.

Both Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo were on-form from their race day results, while race winner Dani Pedrosa languished a bit, finishing the day only 10th fastest. Randy de Puniet and Hector Barbera did not ride during the test day, while Álvaro Bautista only turned 17 laps, then had Nobuatso Aoki filling-in on the Rizla Suzuki.

Times from the 2011 MotoGP Estoril Test:

Pos.	Rider	Team	Fastest lap	Prev. Gap	Lead. Gap	Laps
1	Marco Simoncelli	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1:36.211	-	-	70
2	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha Factory Racing	1:36.316	+0.105	+0.105	91
3	Casey Stoner	Repsol Honda Team	1:36.602	+0.286	+0.391	49
4	Cal Crutchlow	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1:36.850	+0.248	+0.639	71
5	Valentino Rossi	Ducati Marlboro Team	1:37.382	+0.532	+1.171	82
6	Colin Edwards	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1:37.410	+0.028	+1.199	51
7	Ben Spies	Yamaha Factory Racing	1:37.421	+0.011	+1.210	69
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Repsol Honda Team	1:37.460	+0.039	+1.249	63
9	Nicky Hayden	Ducati Marlboro Team	1:37.463	+0.003	+1.252	89
10	Dani Pedrosa	Repsol Honda Team	1:37.679	+0.216	+1.468	17
11	Hiroshi Aoyama	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1:38.032	+0.353	+1.821	73
12	Karel Abraham	Cardion AB Motoracing	1:38.087	+0.055	+1.876	85
13	Toni Elias	LCR Honda MotoGP	1:38.412	+0.325	+2.201	108
14	Loris Capirossi	Pramac Racing Team	1:38.633	+0.221	+2.422	97
15	Nobuatsu Aoki	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1:38.850	+0.217	+2.639	68

Source: MotoGP; Photo: Bridgestone

Tagged under: Cal Crutchlow, Casey Stoner, Colin Edwards, Estoril, Estoril Test, Jorge Lorenzo, Marco Simoncelli, MotoGP, Nicky Hayden, Portugal, race results, test, testing, Valentino Rossi

Comment:

76 says:
May 2, 2011 at 10:03 PM
I think its obvious that the new bridgestones played a major role in the improvements across the board.
So anyone taking bets on when Elias is getting the Slip? Only one man on that team and there are plenty of people ready to jump, sucks that such a great rider cant adapt this time around, maybe WSBK?

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