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.
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.
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.
An interesting development on the aftermarket side of things has graced our desks, as Öhlins has released a “suspension control unit” (SCU) that upgrades the electronically adjustable suspension on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S so that it becomes a semi-active suspension system. Whhhaaaat??! So, if you’re the proud owner of a pre-2013 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S, and you think that your electronically controlled Öhlins suspension is no longer boss, now that Ducati has released its Sachs-powered “Skyhook” semi-active suspension pieces on its new batch of Multistrada sport-tourers, there is a remedy for your motolust.
In case you missed our exhaustive coverage of the Grand Prix of the Americas, those fools at Dorna gave me pit lane access this MotoGP season. So while the whole paddock waits for the Spaniards to come to their senses, I don’t plan on wasting the opportunity to share with our readers our extreme access to motorcycling’s premier racing class. Accordingly, here comes another installment into our ever-continuing “Up-Close” series, featuring the very finest Iwata has to offer: the Yamaha YZR-M1. Thirty 2000px-wide photos are waiting for you after the jump.
I think I can! I think I can!
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!!!
that’s funnier than the manigale photo shoot! hmm… what happens when you let an 80′s high school yearbook photographer run things? this.
can you think of another manufacturer that inspires this amount of affection for their machine? I think not..
Should’ve left out that close-up @ 0:34 of the orange-peeled paint job on the tank/airbox cover.
.
Yamaha Factory Racing…sponsored by Zoolander.
To be fair Chris is was Rossi that started the big love in with the Yamaha. The first photo of Lorenzo would better in a copy of Playboy for men. Just needs some Vaseline.
If they are that in love then 2 lbs of fresh liver up the exhaust and they can have all the fun they want.
Rossi has started the games already by talking down his chances.
Although having MotoGp dominated by Rossi is not much of a spectacle. I really hope he spanks (given the theme) Lorenzo around the paddock for a while.
They look like Steve McQueen and Pee Wee Herman. You Pick who’s who. Pretty funny!
The bike has always looked good in all blue. The Gauloises livery was always the best (to me)… And hey, u gotta love the machine to some extent to do well with it.
Well, at least they drew the line at dry-humping.
It is going to be entertaining to watch these 2 race each other but Monster knew better not to bet against Lorenzo by buying him out of his Rockstar contract.
MY EYES ! OH DEAR MOTO GOD, MY EYES ! GET A ROOM U THREE !
What was seen can’t be unseen…next time i want a spoiler’s alert and/or warning.
Ah, U guys and some of your comments………..pure gold, ROTFLMAO.
Is it any wonder that other riders resent Rossi and his adoring media? Even this story lists Rossi first in the title, and the first two paragraphs are mostly devoted to him. I’d be thoroughly pissed if I were the current World Champion and got this kind of treatment. I picture Lorenzo opening a newspaper, seeing Rossi on the front page, with a follow-up story on pages 2 and 3, and finally finding the stories of himself on page 14, right below the ad for “Bob’s Septic Pumping Service.”
I hope Rossi sucks ass this year, gets his ass thoroughly handed to him by Lorenzo, and realizes he has no more excuses left for his brain-washed adoring fans. I liked Rossi, until he was so threatened by the arrival of his new teammate (Lorenzo), that he demanded the wall, and refused to share any R&D data. Like a spoiled brat grabbing his toys and stomping out of the sandbox.
Oh, and this Yamaha video sucks big time. I think I’ll go watch an old one with Colin and Ben wearing 70′s sweat bands and tank tops.
Well it worked for me. Just two men and their machine. Simple, to the point, no modern day flash n cool or attempts at post modern irony.
What I’m really hoping for out of this season is a battle for the ages; between the wounded but wily veteran, a true legend no matter what, but one who is very hungry to bow with sporting dignity, and the in his prime heir apparant, now firmly established in his own right and plainly the truest test Rossi has ever had. Same equipment, no B.S, winner takes all, including historical pecking order amongst the Gods of motorcycle racing.
That’s the potential I see in the coming season and what I see spoken to in this video.
Ahhhh, Yasss, sama time I lika to faq my motorbike……
Boring as Batshit.
@ProudAmerican: Let’s be real here. Lorenzo was drawing lines to make that wall get put up. Copying his leathers, trying to be a “personality”, etc… I’m not a huge fan of Rossi these days, but it would be good for the sport for him to have a couple more comparative years. By then we will see Lorenzo is. It as fast as he thinks he is with newer blood than himself barreling down his lap times…
Weird? You don’t know from weird.
Love of bike, more mysterious and sensual curves than any other mechanized monster, a certain je ne sais quoi needed to even think about riding such a ravenous wraith of a moto, all combined with the best blue ever airblasted onto a Yamaha — these demand the haute couture approach, and not the in your face gun bra approach of topgun melded with lady gaga googoo. If X Fuera and The Doctor, move confidently and smile enigmaticallly, it is because they are the smooth operators of MotoGP. This season is shaping up to be spectaculoso, not weird.
“hmm… what happens when you let an 80′s high school yearbook photographer run things? this.”
Did you really just say that? Gigi Soldano is just about the most well-respected photographer in the GP paddock. I have a feeling he would not have been the one to come up with this concept.
hahah very funny comments, but i must admit the first photo of rossi at the top of the article is simple amazing.
“Gigi Soldano is just about the most well-respected photographer in the GP paddock. ”
Not after these he wont be :)
Even after these Paulus. There are some truly great shots in this shoot…there’s also some…interesting shots as well.
Of note, if you took Lorenzo out of these photos, especially with his Rossi-copycat history, would we think these shots were anything but truly epic?…especially after Rossi’s first and last reactions with the M1 at Welkom and Valencia??
That was not so bad. The video could have been edited down to 30 secs, though, and it still would have had the same effect. And Rossi’s name should be mentioned first. He’s the original classic.
Also, I think Gigi Soldano was going after a Ridley Scott’s Alien effect. They may account for the weird vibe of the shoot.
“They” should be “That”.
I have no idea why they both looked the same height in this video when Jorge is 5’8″ and Vale is 5’11″.
Yeah, definitely going for that H. R. Giger biomechanical vibe. And as much as I like the new livery of the 2013 Hondas, these Yamahas take the prize. Very well done.