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 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.
Well now we wait for Yamaha’s announcment…I guess Spies saw the writing on the wall………wouldnt it be crazy if he goes to Ducati ?
Spies to Ducati, please…
Spies to Ducati? hell no. Id rather see him in WSBK thank ducati motogp.
Spies is more suited to WSBK anyway in my opinion.
Yellow looks better on blue than on red. Still, I think all MotoGP fans (unless you hate Rossi or Ducati) wish the marriage had been happier. C’est la vie…
A big collective sigh….. now lets get back to racing.
It’s a say day when The GOAT says “See ya, yer bike is FUBAR.” A giant PR problem for Ducati, and not a good way to start off a relationship with Lambo/Audi. I wouldn’t want to be Filipo Prezioso right now. What happened? I just watched “Faster” again to get some perspective. When they jumped into GP in ’03 Ducati was competitive and the fastest bike on the track. Then everyone else cranked it up to 11 (or quit) and they just got lost. I hope Audi can help but 4-wheel traction is a lot different than 2-wheel. Bring back Bayliss and the steel trellis frame!
I don’t think this is the end of the World for Ducati. Ducati wins where it really matters, on the sales floor. The win on Sunday sell on Monday idea hasn’t really meant much lately. Just look at BMW’s initial struggles in WSBK. For a manufacturer with a smaller budget than the Japanese I think it would have been insane to pay Rossi the 12 million euros that they reportedly offered. Judging by how the Panigale is performing in World Superstock I think Ducatisti will have plenty to cheer about next year as it moves to WSBK. While this news may be bad for Ducati’s MotoGP program, and even that is uncertain, it may be better for Ducati as a whole to not have the pressure or negative PR of trying to satisfy a discontent Rossi.
^^True Dat. Eddi La Marra has been tearing it up on the Panigale and WSBK is much more exciting than GP anyway. I’m hoping for someone to campaign an 1199 in AMA SBK.
Stoner to Ducati! ;) …actually, I wonder if Ducati were to offer Stoner the same deal Rossi just snubbed if Stoner would go back? …especially the part about Ducati listening to whatever the rider asks,… the whole “Audi is in charge now and they’ll make sure Ducati does whatever you tell them to do.” …just wondering.
Otherwise, with the money they saved by not re-signing Rossi, heck Ducati could pick up 2 more riders. Crutchlow and Dovi.
I don’t think you’ll see Spies on the Duc….it would be cool to have both Americans riding Red but I think Crutchlow, Dovi or Barbera should fill that roll. Hell, they may even pull Scott Redding from Moto 2 ???
I hope Ducati gives Nicky what he finally deserves….a true number one rider/bike to challenge with….
This will be awesome, Audi/ducati snubbed by Rossi… Those Germans will spend whatever it takes to put any of their riders in front of Rossi from now on.. That will be the primary goal of ducati gp program.
A little sad to see VR go, but very happy for Nicky to be Ducati’s number 1 rider! I really hope Ducati go the distance and improve the bike to make him competitive again.
Probably best thing to happen to Ducati in a long time. Be good to have at least one more battling at the front next year, as Rossi most definitely will be. A two horse race for 18 races would be the end of Motogp.
‘ . . . .confident that its bike and team will be capable of competing at the highest level.’
Well for Nicky, I truly hope so. He’s stuck with them, not aired his laundry in public, and out-finished Vale over and over. Good guy.
On the other hand, unless Audi assigns Dr. Ulrich and the LeMans crew to this moonshot of bringing the Desmo right, Nicky will have a long 2013, though probably longer than FP.