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.
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.
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.
What does it mean to say that Ducati “has until Mugello . . .?” Or what . . . Rossi walks?
Yes Scott, do tell.
I’m not so sure Ducati’s problem is with the CF chassis. Everyone that rides that bike, since 2006 when it had the steel trellis frame at the time complains about the same thing, poor front end feel.
Despite changing almost everything on the bike since 2006 the complaints are always the same. The only constant throughout this bike’s life has been the 90deg. L4 engine. That engine is much longer than the in-line 4 of the Yamaha, or the narrow angle V4′s of Honda and Suzuki.
Because of it’s L4 configuration, it has to be set back further in the frame for the tire to clear the front cylinder head, which almost certainly shifts the bike’s weight balance further to the rear, which accounts for the lack of front end feel and grip, and explains why Stoner lost the front so many times last year.
I’m afraid that nothing is going to change much unless they redesign the engine with a narrower V angle, or the cylinders rotated more upright like a proper V. I ‘m hoping the new GP12 is configured in such a way, if not, Rossi would be better off retiring right now.
I asked the same thing and was led to draw my own conclusions about what the single most powerful force in MotoGP would do should he conclude he would not soon be on a bike that would allow him win. Only Rossi knows for sure what he will do if he comes to that conclusion, but his tone has changed–read the press debrief transcripts to see for yourself.
Mark may be right, but the other comments I heard involve the stiffness of the chassis and the need to draw more flex out of a chassis built around the Ducati engine’s design. Whatever the technical explanation, unless Ducati can make some magic happen soon they are going to have one seriously displeased Greatest Of All Time on their hands.
I agree Scott, Rossi is the last guy to take one for the team to often. If he determines that the bike is not going to give him a chance of winning anytime soon, it could get pretty ugly.
Finding the right chassis stiffness is something all the engineers are continually chasing, but the bike seemed to behave the same when they were using the steel trellis frame, which is even softer and more forgiving than the Aluminum beam frames, which indicates to me the problem is somewhere else.
I think Ducati may be fully aware of this problem, but are forced to make due with what they have for this season. I certainly too late to make any major engine design changes this late in the season.
Is the 1000cc 2012 bike that he said he enjoyed so much all that different?
Thanks for the clarification, Scott. Great pics, also.
Andrew, this is the big question, I’m hoping they rotated into a more traditional upright V instead of an L. From what I can see from the few photos published so far, the right side clutch cover area looks dramatically different.
Hard to believe that if Ducati has been hearing about front end complaints since 2006 that they have done nothing drastic to resolve it, even if it means an engine redesign. It’s better than the alternative: years of losing. Hopefully the pressure of having Rossi aboard will force them to change their ways. Reminds me a bit of Ferrari in F1 these days, they just can’t seem to get to the top, technically.
Who cares.MotoGP is a yawning borefest.Catalunya was a complete waste of my time.
I, for one, can hardly wait until Rossi’s new helmet is available for purchase! I thought his “Five Continents” design was great, but this new one is better.
Seems bizarre, Rossi was only 7 seconds behind Stoner in the race. He went 0.5 second faster instantly with the new crankshaft in qualifying. Sure the story hasn’t been a fairytale but the Honda has moved things well forward in 2011. Would Rossi be leading the championship if he was still on a Yamaha? Doubt it. The Ducati still has a ways to go but the beauty of carbon fiber is you can dial in exactly the right amount of flex in any plane, something not possible with metal
Rossi has a two year contract. What’s he gonna do at Mugello, walk? Here’s an idea: the guy’s being paid like $14 million this year in salary alone. Take just half of that, give it back to Ducati, and let them hire enough brain power to get the job done. With all of the Marlboro money coming in, that team already has the highest operating budget in the paddock, from what I understand. Too little too late?
Besides, wasn’t this supposed to be a throwaway season, anyway, waiting for the 1000cc bike next year? That’s a scratch design based off of his input. He’s not going to walk away from that.
Rossi has had disappointing seasons because of poor equipment before, remember 2006? He was lucky if his engine would finish the race without blowing up. I’m sure he’s not happy; what racer is who doesn’t finish 1st? Still, I can’t see him doing anything more substantial to Ducati than perhaps insisting on some kind of personnel change in the paddock or back in Bologna.
Interesting to read the comments here about engine redesign , and included V angles.
Maybe Ducati will do it for the 1,000 cc formula, but, it would be impossible and totally improbable to attempt it for the remaining races in this year. No point attempting to produce a totally new engine design for maybe a couple of races.
Besides, with the current engine rules, even if Ducati did produce a new engine, they would only be able to use a couple, due to the six(6) engine rule. Hayden is already onto engine #4, I understand.
To a “non Rossi fan” like me, its rather amusing to hear him complain about the bike, when, all we heard last year from the Rossi camp ,was that Stoner wasn’t riding it hard enough.
I have been keeping a spreadsheet comparing Stoner and Rossi this year, and its interesting to note that Stoner has completed some 858 ” Flying Laps ” on the Honda since November, 2010, compared to 1,029 laps by Rossi on the Ducati. The information is available on the MotoGP. com web site. I only count “full laps” BTW, not in and out laps.
No one can say that Rossi isn’t getting enough time on the bike. This data includes the last race at Catalunya.
well, the issue is that over the last few years Stoner rode completely over his head to get the results he did. But that was evident in the number crashes. Burgess in an interview with Daryl Beattie said that Ducati took those wins as success and was blind to the true situation. He goes on to say that they are not willing to allow Rossi to ride at a 115% just to get a result.
Seth,
I would not say that Stoner rode completely over his head. He rode over the capability of the bike to get those results. No-one else has obtained those results.
You must remember that Stoner did give Ducati 23 wins in the time he rode for them. How many wins have the other Ducati riders scored in the 800cc era? Only one from memory. Capirossi in Japan in 2007 .
I also saw that interview with Burgess , as I am in Australia.
This year, Rossi often isn’t beating the times set by Stoner in 2010, and I’m certain that Ducati are spending a lot more money than they were last year. Just wonder when questions will be asked by those holding the purse strings !
true peter, “completely over his head” was a poor choice of words. What I was trying to say was that Casey’s ability to win on the bike gave ducati a false sense of success. Casey is an amazingly talented rider, but lacked consistency due to his riding over the abilies of the machine.
Seth,
Agree there :-)
I think this year, Stoner has matured a little and realised that to win a championship, first of all you have to finish.
Still though, three wins , a third and DNF isnt too bad so far this year.
Regards
I’m a huge fan of rossi as anyone can be, but this guy has a lot excuses c’mon now vale are you in it to win or just cruising down the lane no matter what your bike problem is atleast be in a podium or take some good points..!!!!.. all I read about rossi on his new bike is blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah sorry but had to say it….