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: Superpole Results from Misano

06/20/2009 @ 6:10 pm, by Jensen Beeler1 COMMENT

World Superbike this year has not lacked for worthy moments during racing, but the Superpole event is starting to become a drama in its own right that helps wet our appetites for Sunday’s racing. Every race Saturday, riders gamble on when to make use of their qualifiers, and each round of the Superpole is filled with strategy and intrigue. Misano would be no different.

Ben Spies found himself, for the first time, not the winner of a Superpole at WSBK, after the young American misjudged his timing, and finished his last lap after the checkered flag had already been waived. Thus, Spies would not be able to get more hot-lap in for the Gipper, and solidify his eighth Superpole victory.

With over 3/10ths of a second between him and the Superpole winner, there was nothing Spies could do about it, except agree with the spats of rain that had been drizzling the track off-and-on in their own form of protest to the day’s events.

The mistake, however, would mean two other riders would get a chance to shine in a sunlight of their own. Jakub Smrz and Johnny Rea would take the 1 and 2 spots, respectively, as Fabrizio and Haga took 4th and 6th place positions, respectively.

Tomorrow Spies will get two opportunities for redemption, and if today is any indication he could also have a chance to make-up some needed points in the WSBK Championship.

Superpole Results from World Superbike at Misano, Italy:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff
1	96	J. Smrz	Ducati 1098R	1’35.435
2	65	J. Rea	Honda CBR1000RR	1’35.609	0.174
3	19	B. Spies	Yamaha YZF R1	1’35.631	0.196
4	84	M. Fabrizio	Ducati 1098R	1’35.811	0.376
5	67	S. Byrne	Ducati 1098R	1’36.224	0.789
6	41	N. Haga	Ducati 1098R	1’36.277	0.842
7	7	C. Checa	Honda CBR1000RR	1’36.537	1.102
8	9	R. Kiyonari	Honda CBR1000RR	1’36.884	1.449
Out after Superpole 2
9	3	M. Biaggi	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	1’36.439	0.382
10	91	L. Haslam	Honda CBR1000RR	1’36.510	0.453
11	10	F. Nieto	Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9	1’36.510	0.453
12	56	S. Nakano	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	1’36.682	0.625
13	71	Y. Kagayama	Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9	1’36.916	0.859
14	66	T. Sykes	Yamaha YZF R1	1’36.978	0.921
15	11	T. Corser	BMW S1000 RR	1’36.994	0.937
16	57	L. Lanzi	Ducati 1098R	1’37.209	1.152
Out after Superpole 1
17	36	G. Lavilla	Ducati 1098R	1’37.266	1.212
18	111	R. Xaus	BMW S1000 RR	1’37.300	1.246
19	23	B. Parkes	Kawasaki ZX 10R	1’37.361	1.307
20	2	J. Hacking	Kawasaki ZX 10R	1’38.558	2.504

Tagged under: Ben Spies, italy, Jakub Smrz, Johnny Rea, Misano, rain, Superpole, world superbike, World Superbike Championship, WSBK

Comment:

Asphalt_Rubber says:
June 20, 2009 at 10:10 PM
WSBK: Superpole Results from Misano – http://tinyurl.com/klbo77 #motorcycle

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