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.
I’d be willing to bet money that is actually going to be an 848 Multistrada, not Hyper.
What sense would this make? Just put a MTS 1200 in Urban mode and you’ve got a 100 hp bike.
And why would you make an 848 Hyper when there is already an 848 Streetfighter? They would be in direct competition. Furthermore, they would do it for all the people who don’t want to buy a 1200 cc multistrada. The Multistrada 620 was well received, and I know a lot of shorter/more petite folk that would like a smaller Multi.
Given that an 848 Hyper could just be an 848 Streetfighter and/or Multi just with different bodywork and long travel suspension, it’s not really that silly an idea, different clothes and forks won’t exactly need a huge development expense.
Please tell me why they would make an 848 when there’s already a 796?
Some of us prefer 848 and 796 over 1100 and 1199…
Also, depending on where you are located, taxes and insurance makes a bike under 1000cc’s more practical and cost effective…
Maybe Spies should race an 800cc M1, at least he would stand a better chance at winning a race in MotoGP this year…
Great now they take the air cooled motor that they have displaced from the hypermotard and stick it in the frame of the 848 they took the water cooled motor out of, raise the clipons two inches, and give us the new light weight, low maintenance SuperSport many of us are wanting.
Motolady… Even though the displacement numbers are the close the performance aspects are completely different. The 848 mill would easily out perform the 1100 air cooled motor but has the every day ride-ability of the 796. I’m wondering with the versatility of the 848 11° engine if it wouldn’t make both the 796 & 1100 motors obsolete and then having the Hyper Motard run as a single displacement bike.
@MotoLady: I’ll take you up on that bet. $1,000.00 to the charity of the winners choice.
On another note, its good to see that perhaps all future ducati bikes will have a aluminum tank. =)
I WANT to find this RELEVANT… (-_-)’
Maybe i will after i see the final Product…right now is so MEH.
I’m with FastBikeGear… My ’05 800 SS needs an updated sister….
I want mini Multi, ST or SS model .. :) if they didnt comeout with either I have to go with Triumph 800 or BMW 800GS.
@Bern
That is what I was thinking.
Make a single hypermotard with a liquid cooled, 15,000 adjustment interval motor. Keep the traction control and fancy trim off it to keep the price reasonable and you got a nice little bike, with a beefy yet controllable power band.
I would love to have this bike in this mule/test form. Bare aluminum, ridiculous exhaust. It just looks mean. Like something that would be in the new Road Warrior.
It would make for a great setup. I am so happy Ducati is getting away from 7,500 mile service intervals on all their models.
Another thing…Ducati, IF U ARE LISTENING AT ALL…do something about your SHITTY FUEL TANKS ( both the swelling and the LACK of capacity PROBLEMS, thank u).
Another “great” bike using motard in their name …. pls no.
So, we’ll have a more costly bike (4v), water cooling, heavier bike. I thought the 2v air cooled Ducatis were fun, simple, and light weight. Seems that abandoning the trellis frame, selling MTS at 20k USD and cruisers are Ducatis new cash market. Bye bye Ducati, I was done with you after the ballooning fuel tanks, but doubling up your product line with a Hyper next to a Streetfighter makes zero sense to me.
For those of the saying you don’t understand the streetfighter and the hyper, have you ridden both? I have. I was going to buy the hyper 1100 but my friend convinced me to wait for the 848 streetfighter, which I took on a nice long test ride last weekend. It’s better than it was, but for me, the seating position of the hyper is much better. The placement of the handlebars in relation to the seat and foot pegs is perfect for a tall guy like me (6’3″). The streetfighter felt like the 1100 monster – better than the 696 monster but no where close to as comfortable as the hyper, no matter how much you customize it. It comes down to what’s comfortable for each person and for me, the hyper is by far the best fit. Will I wait for this? Probably. But if I come across a screaming deal on an 1100 hyper, I’m buying it!
@spanishduc
I am glad I am not the only one that puts ergonomics first on bikes. I have similar size issues (6’2″ 200lbs)
You can always tell the sport riders that put miles down on their bike every year by caring about ergos an such, as opposed to the squids who think a bike like the Hyper is “underpowered”.
This has been getting tossed around on the Ducati forums the last several days. Most are pretty sure it’s an 848 Multi and not a Hyper. Look at the rack on tail section. That thing screams put a giant ugly box here and hang saddle bags from it’s sides.
Spanishduc I just came across a smoking deal on zero mileage 08 1100 hyper for 7K. Absolutley loving this thing. Now if I could just unload this Buell LOL
In my opinion its 848 Multistrada. Thats realy good idea :)
Being the owner of an 1100 evo sp, I have to tell you that anyone familiar with current Hypermotards doesnt want a new hyper that makes LESS torque, at a 5000..yes 5000.. higher RPM. You have redlined and shifted on a 1100 before a 848 motor reaches peak torque. This is trading massive low end grunt for high rpm higher speed performance. Great, but you sit perfectly upright with zero wind protection on a hyper. Extra speed isn’t a great thing.
@Laurence:
I would gladly give 2K rpm ( maybe more ) for 10lbs-ft more than what i have (SV1000N)….redlines suposedly @10K but she fades off quickly after 9K.
U got it, not much point on having power so high in the Tach and so much top-end speed when your “windshield” consist of one round headlite and one tiny instrument cluster.
I rarely go beyond 6K, so………………………………..I think i see an H-D on my future…LMAO.