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.

WSBK: Race 2 a Chess Match in the Czech Republic

07/10/2011 @ 7:27 am, by Victoria ReidComments Off

Max Biaggi won pole for the 2011 World Superbike round at Brno during Saturday’s Superpole sessions, beating out Marco Melandri, Carlos Checa, and Eugene Laverty, who join him on the front row for the second race of the weekend. Biaggi’s teammate Leon Camier was not so quick, though he did manage to move on to Superpole 3 after a late crash in the first third nearly kept him from setting any time at all. Neither Castrol Honda moved on beyond the final Saturday qualifying practice, nor did most of the Kawasaki riders fare terribly well.

Multiple riders sat out this weekend’s racing, with Lorenzo Lanzi replacing James Toseland at BMW Motorrad Italia, Alex Lowes in for Jonathan Rea at Castrol Honda, and no one filling in for Troy Corser at BMW Motorrad. Toseland rode in the Friday free practice, but was forced to give up his seat after his wrist injury continued to cause problems. Ruben Xaus was also forced to sit out Race 2 after a massive crash in Race 1 on Sunday. Though he did not have any broken bones, he did not race. Chris Vermeulen also did not start the second race.

Biaggi got another good start to take the lead of Race 2, with Melandri, Checa, Laverty, and Fabrizio the top five. Again, Fabrizio made and early pass on Laverty to take fourth as Guintoli looked to join the fray. By the end of the second lap, Biaggi had three tenths on Melandri, with Checa another half second behind. Riders were generally settled in as the early laps ticked down, with Biaggi and Melandri easing away fromt he rest of the field by the end of the fifth lap of twenty.

Though Biaggi appeared to have an easy lead, Melandri remained quite close behind the Aprilia. The central portion of the race appeared to be a bit of a chess match, until Melandri went for the lead on lap eleven through turn three. At the halfway point, Melandri had almost three tenths on Biaggi, with Checa, Fabrizio, and Laverty the top five. Badovini, in sixth, was five seconds behind Laverty as Haslam, Sykes, Lascorz, and Guintoli completed the top ten.

However, Biaggi soon re-took the lead from Melandri, with things not as lucky for teammate Camier. The Briton crashed with eight laps remaining, though he managed to get back on the bike and continue on, though he soon retired. It was also a bad day for home rider Smrz, who lost the front and tumbled out of the race soon thereafter.

As the final laps ticked away, Biaggi maintained his lead of a fluctuating few tenths on Melandri, as Checa drifted back a second behind the leader. Fabrizio in fourth was another nearly two seconds back, as Laverty, Badovini, Haslam, Lascorz, Guintoli, and Haga maintained the top ten with five laps to go. Melandri took the lead back with two laps left, then Biaggi was ahead again, ran wide and kept the inside line and the first position. The final lap brought hard, pushing racing from Melandri, but he was not close enough to actually dive under Biaggi for the win. The Aprilia rider won from pole, keeping Melandri from two wins on the weekend, and Checa completed the podium.

World Superbike Race Results from Race 1 at Brno, Czech Republic:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Diff.
1	1	Max Biaggi	Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team	-
2	33	Marco Melandri	Yamaha WSBK Team	0.222
3	7	Carlos Checa	Althea Racing Ducati	3.558
4	84	Michel Fabrizio	Team Suzuki Alstare	7.863
5	58	Eugene Laverty	Yamaha WSBK Team	7.534
6	86	Ayrton Badovini	BMW Motorrad Italia	18.085
7	91	Leon Haslam	BMW Motorrad	21.650
8	17	Joan Lascorz	Paul Bird Racing Kawasaki	21.962
9	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Team Effenbert-Liberty Ducati	25.306
10	41	Noriyuki Haga	PATA Racing Team Aprilia	27.366
11	44	Roberto Rolfo	Team Pedericini Kawasaki	33.716
12	8	Mark Aitchison	Team Pedericini Kawasaki	36.549
13	57	Lorenzo Lanzi	BMW Motorrad Italia	37.468
14	66	Tom Sykes	Paul Bird Racing Kawasaki	46.878
15	13	Victor Kispataki	Prop-tech ltd. Honda	1:38.074
		Not Classified
	121	Maxime Berger	Supersonic Racing Ducati	5 Laps
	2	Leon Camier	Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team	6 Laps
	96	Jakub Smrz	Team Effenbert-Liberty Ducati	8 Laps
	15	Matteo Baiocco	Barni Racing Team Ducati	11 Laps
	22	Alex Lowes	Castrol Honda	15 Laps

Source: WSBK; Photo:

Tagged under: Brno, Marco Melandri, Max Biaggi, Race 2, race report, world superbike, WSBK

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