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.

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.

Randy de Puniet & Aleix Espargaro Sign With Aspar for 2013

10/04/2012 @ 3:59 pm, by David Emmett3 COMMENTS

The Power Electronics Aspar Team confirmed today that it has extended the contracts of current riders Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargaro for the 2013 season. Both the Frenchman and the Spaniard are to remain with Aspar for another year, and will once again contest the season on Aprilia-built ART machines under the Claiming Rule Team regulations. The two teammates are currently battling it out to take the honors as top CRT rider for 2012.

The Aspar team has been the showcase for the CRT rules this season, with both De Puniet and Espargaro closing the gap on the prototype bikes. How the team will fare next year when most of the other CRT bikes will start to use the highly advanced Magneti Marelli ECU, while they stick with Aprilia’s electronics package developed in World Superbikes remains to be seen, and will provide a good yardstick by which to measure the spec ECU on offer.

With the prototype rides all filling up quickly, remaining with Aspar was the best option for both men. With a year of development on them, the Aprilia CRT bikes should be even closer to the prototypes next year, allowing De Puniet and Espargaro to put themselves in the shop window for the 2014 season, when Suzuki makes a return to MotoGP, and more factory rides should be available.

After the jump is the press release from the Aspar team announcing the re-signing of its current riders.

POWER ELECTRONICS ASPAR TEAM CONFIRM DE PUNIET AND ESPARGARÓ FOR 2013

New deals agreed with Frenchman and Spaniard during recent Aragón GP

A magnificent season of results for the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team and its two riders Randy De Puniet and Aleix Espargaró has led to a new one-year agreement between all parties. The new MotoGP concept of CRT racing is only a year old but the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team is already the standard bearer. Despite scepticism from some quarters surrounding the new regulations the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team embraced them and moved quickly to secure the best material and the best riders, blending the experience of Randy De Puniet with the youth of Aleix Espargaró on board ART machines.

With fourteen rounds gone the decision taken by the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team has proven to be the right one, with the Frenchman having led the CRT pack home on five occasions and the Spaniard on six. The pair have locked out the top two CRT positions in the championship, making it an easy decision for the Spanish team to move for an extension of both of their contracts through 2013. The objective, clearly, is to carry on their dominance from this season and to continue to develop the ART machine.

Jorge Martínez ‘Aspar’: “We are delighted to be able to confirm both Aleix Espargaró and Randy De Puniet for next season. Aleix started the season a little behind Randy but with the right system and a lot of hard work he is now at an outstanding level, both in terms of the technical aspect and his riding. He has improved a lot and we are all very happy with that. All I am asking him is to keep going like this because I think he has the potential to continue developing and growing in the future. Randy is having a very strong season. Thanks also to him the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team is the reference point in the new concept of MotoGP. Randy has proven his expertise at MotoGP level and every other category he has raced in and I am very happy to continue with such a solid project. I hope that with these two riders in place the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team can continue to move forward.”

Randy De Puniet: “I am very happy to extend my contract with the POWER ELECTRONICS Aspar Team. Even though the season is not yet over it has been a positive one for us and the best option for my future career is to stay where I am. Over the course of the year I have managed to develop an almost perfect understanding with my engineers, which is something very important, especially looking towards next year. I hope we can be just as competitive next season, which will be another year of preparation and experience for 2014 when the major rule changes take place.”

Aleix Espargaró: “When I signed with ‘Aspar’ for the 2012 season there were a lot of unknowns and the CRT project was completely new. Even so I knew I was signing for a team that would have the best available material and the best technical staff. Now, fourteen races later, I can confirm that I was absolutely right. I have learnt a lot this season and both Jorge and I myself are very happy. We are fighting to be the best at what we do in every race and with four races remaining I have a chance to finish the year as the top CRT. After such a great season with this team the most logical thing is for us to continue together and for me to enjoy the stability it brings me personally.”

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

Tagged under: Aleix Espargaro, contract, CRT, MotoGP, Power Electronics Aspar Team, Randy de Puniet, Team Aspar

Comment:

Westward says:
October 4, 2012 at 6:40 PM
Hmmm… Whats the point of remaining with Aprilia’s ECU if eventually everyone will have to switch. Why not get the jump on the rest of the competition and adopt it earlier…
Jensen Beeler says:
October 4, 2012 at 6:50 PM
Another year of putting the other CRT teams in the hurt locker.
Trane Francks says:
October 4, 2012 at 10:22 PM
Aspar’s certainly got the edge in the CRT ranks. Espargaro’s qualifying time in the last GP was stunning and bodes very, very well for next season. That team’s on fire!

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