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.
This is great, but it would be even better if it were a BMW factory backed bike. They just can’t expect to have a strong showing without factory support. I’d like to see them prove me wrong though.
Looks great! These new rules will at least give us a small connection with bikes we can buy off the show room floor. Bing it on!
Jenny, you bring up an interesting point. What if a team develops a chassis around a particular production engine as a claiming rule team, and then the maker of that engine decides to enter the series with a 1000cc prototype? Does that affect the claiming rule team’s status? What if the manufacturer just gives the claiming team money but no technical support?
Can a manufacturer supply hot rodded production engines to the claiming rule teams or do the engines have to come from a 3rd party shop? Aprilia, BMW, MV Agusta, they could all supply engines in lieu of entering a prototype. Or they could use a production engine in a prototype chassis of their own design.
Dorna is going to have a can of worms on their hands.
John,
We talked to Hervé Poncharal, head of the IRTA and Team Manager to Tech3, about that. He basically said that CRT teams will be judged on the level of involvement given to them by manufacturers. So if BMW gives Suter money, or helps develop the motor for the them, then they’re no longer a CRT. Plain and simple.
I don’t think having the manufacturer in the series will change anything. They can’t run a production motor, and they can’t help the CRT’s.
so effectively this will become a 2 championship series.
If CRT’s vs Factories. Now if BMW gives info and tech to Suter but does not fund the venture per se is he still a CRT?
We do CRT racing in michigan for circle track. You can run certain small block V8′s. If you podium your engine can be purchased for 500 bucks no questions asked less accesories. This cuts out cheating, and big money motors. It just so happens that everyone in the series runs a chevy motor.
So if I run a BMW and Tech 3 yamaha and gresini a Honda and someone else a Kawa and aprillia there is no reason to CR anyones engine the similarities are not there.
This is a Prototype series, get rid of bore stroke and cylinder restrictions, keep a min weight limit high enough to exclude exotic materials. remove fuel control aids, limit rider aids to wheel spin and ABS no more gyros, and telemetry setups or corner to corner trac. control.
That will slightly reduce costs.
Make the series follow a pattern. Phillip ISle. Japan, China, east north europe, USA(Indy, Houston, Miller, Guna) England, Spain Italy france.
No more qatar, japan, europe China Usa europe usa europe.
Some common sense is needed.
Also tell the stuffy heads that its ok to eat rice all week to be able to afford tires and gas to the next venue. Thats what makes people nuts about racing. If the money and support comes back to GP to buy 1000 a night hotels then so be it if not it will slowly disappear.
Jenny,
So the production motors will have to be developed by the CRTs or come from 3rd party shops like Yoshimura. Or can it? Everybody knows about Yoshimura’s ties to Suzuki. Would that disqualify me from running a GSXR1000 motor in a Suter chassis? Can Ten Kate supply CBR motors?
Have they specified what a production motor is? I haven’t seen anything, but I haven’t looked too hard either. The reason I ask is what if an engine maker (e.g. Cosworth) wanted to offer engines to the CRTs? I’m guessing they’d have to run as a factory prototype even though they aren’t really a factory.
I’m not poo-pooing the idea of CRTs or the new regulations, I’m just trying to figure out how people can game the system. I’m smarmy like that. I rather like the idea of the CRTs. It makes the field more like Moto2 or the old bike F1 class. You get more chassis/engine combos and more companies involved. More players = more fun.
Steveo,
The CRTs still won’t put too much money in their motors because they know somebody else will claim it if it’s too fast. The claiming team may not be able to use it, but they’ll keep the original team from using it, too.
Speaking of claiming, do claimed motors count against your allotment? I should hope not.
The issue at point is factory involvement, which includes both money and information. Teams are certainly going to have to turn to tuning shops for motor development, and at the end of the day I guess its going to be how involved that shop is with the factory.
Yoshimura does do a lot of work with Suzuki, but I don’t think there’s any actual ties to the company (I could be wrong on that point).
The same could be said of Erion Racing. They’re well known Honda tuners, but no actual affiliation with Honda N.A. beyond some joint racing efforts (RLH Moto2 being the latest).
Cosworth would be free to enter as a CRT team…they’re not a motorcycle manufacture.
Remember this is a claiming rule, teams are only going to develop the bikes to the point they’re worth…otherwise some team would buy their engine for the preset price.
I understand the purchasing end of CRT’s but still drop a supposed 25K on a motor that has little in common with the motor you are running makes little sense.
The cost of a motor in prototype or production prototype is in the development IE cam profiles, compr ratio. porting, pocketing. Once the pattern is found costs drop significantly Albeit still rediculously expensive.
So I run a kaw. suter runs a BMW I claim Suters motor, they just build another one, I can’t use it and they can’t. If they get another allotment then they get a fresh slug and I have a really nice technical conversation piece.
I know that a ton of development would not go into this but still
2nd what prevents a factory from running a production GSXR motor highly modified and not CRT status or are they limited to a non production block only?