2013 Mugen Shinden Ni (神電貳) Revealed

Shipped up and on its way to the Isle of Man, we can finally now see more than test shots of the Mugen Shinden Ni and get its basic racing specifications. The electric superbike that John McGuinness will ride in the 2013 TT Zero race at the Isle of Man TT, the Mugen Shinden Ni represents that evolution of the Japanese firm’s design, having now a TT race under its belt. Like its main competitor MotoCzysz, Team Mugen is eyeing a 110 mph lap around the Mountain Course, which would be a pretty remarkable one-year advancement for either team. With Mr. McPint at the helm, and seemingly brimming with on-board energy, Mugen is a serious contender.

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.

Bimota HB4 Left off of the Moto2 Entry List – FB Corse Vaporware? Bimota to Go It Alone?

01/28/2010 @ 12:13 pm, by Jensen Beeler1 COMMENT

This article takes a doubly interesting turn of events. You may remember that a week ago we brought to you the unveiling of the Bimota HB4 Moto2 race bike. The HB4, the first time a Honda motor has been in a Bimota in 25 years, was to be campaigned by FB Corse in the first running of the 250GP replacement series, Moto2, but has mysteriously been left out of the Moto2 Provisional race list.

Equally unnerving was the postponement of the FB Corse MotoGP & Moto2 press launch, which was allegedly due to FB Corse boss, Andrea Ferrari, undergoing hand surgery. The timing of that postponement drew some skeptical attention since it was right in the middle of the Hoppergate saga, which saw American rider John Hopkins teetering back and forth between riding the FB Corse MotoGP machine or taking a seat in the AMA Pro Superbike series.

Now with Hopkins making his intent to ride in the AMA clear, the FB Corse MotoGP bike yet to be unveiled, and the Bimota HB4 absentee from the Provisional Moto2 racing list, there are rumors circulating in the American and Italian racing camps that this entire thing is a charade and done for publicity.

While it remains unclear what is going on with FB Corse, and what their actually racing intent is, the possibility of a Bimota factory backed team entering into Moto2 seems to be catching steam. After all, we do know the Bimota HB4 is a runner. More as we get it.

Provisional 2010 Moto2 Rider Entry List:

No.	Rider	Ntn	Team	Bike
2	GABOR TALMACSI	HUN	SPEED UP APRILIA	SPEED UP
4	STEFAN BRADL	GER	VIESSMANN KIEFER RACING	SUTER
5	JOAN OLIVE	SPA	JACK&JONES BY A.BANDERAS	PROMOHARRIS
6	ALEX DEBON	SPA	RED BULL AJO MOTORSPORT	FTR
7	AXEL PONS	SPA	PONS RACING	PONS KALEX
9	KENNY NOYES	USA	JACK&JONES BY A.BANDERAS	PROMOHARRIS
10	FONSI NIETO	SPA	G22 HOLIDAYGYM	MORIWAKI
12	THOMAS LUTHI	SWI	INTERWETTEN MORIWAKI RACING	MORIWAKI
14	RATTHAPARK WILAIROT	THA	HONDA-SAG	SUTER
15	ALEX DE ANGELIS	RSM	SCOT RACING TEAM	SCOT
16	JULES CLUZEL	FRA	FORWARD RACING	SUTER
17	KAREL ABRAHAM	CZE	CARDION AB MOTORACING	RSV
24	TONI ELIAS	SPA	GRESINI RACING MOTO2	MORIWAKI
25	ALEX BALDOLINI	ITA	CARETTA TECHNOLOGY RACE DEPT	I.C.P.
29	ANDREA IANNONE	ITA	SPEED UP APRILIA	SPEED UP
35	RAFFAELE DE ROSA	ITA	TECH 3 RACING	TECH 3
37	FABRICIO PERREN	ARG	KINO RACING	KINO
39	ROBERTINO PIETRI	VEN	ITALTRANS S.T.R.	SUTER
40	SERGIO GADEA	SPA	PONS RACING	PONS KALEX
41	ARNE TODE	GER	RACING TEAM GERMANY	SUTER
44	ROBERTO ROLFO	ITA	ITALTRANS S.T.R.	SUTER
45	SCOTT REDDING	GBR	MARC VDS RACING TEAM	SUTER
48	SHOYA TOMIZAWA	JAP	TECHNOMAG-CIP	SUTER
52	LUKAS PESEK	CZE	MATTEONI C.P. RACING	MORIWAKI
53	VALENTIN DEBISE	FRA	WTR SAN MARINO TEAM	ADV
55	HECTOR FAUBEL	SPA	HONDA-SAG	SUTER
56	VLADIMIR LEONOV	RUS	VECTOR KIEFER RACING	SUTER
59	NICOLA CANEPA	ITA	SCOT RACING TEAM	SCOT
60	JULIAN SIMON	SPA	MAPFRE ASPAR TEAM	RSV
61	VLADIMIR IVANOV	RUS	GRESINI RACING MOTO2	MORIWAKI
63	MIKE DI MEGLIO	FRA	MAPFRE ASPAR TEAM	RSV
71	CLAUDIO CORTI	ITA	FORWARD RACING	SUTER
72	YUKI TAKAHASHI	JAP	TECH 3 RACING	TECH 3
75	MATTIA PASINI	ITA	JIR MOTO2	TSR
76	BERNAT MARTINEZ	SPA	BLUSENS BQR	BQR-MOTO2
77	DOMINIQUE AEGERTER	SWI	TECHNOMAG-CIP	SUTER
88	YANNICK GUERRA	SPA	G22 HOLIDAYGYM	MORIWAKI
95	MASHEL AL NAIMI	QAT	BLUSENS BQR	BQR-MOTO2
TBA	TO BE ADVISED	TBA	JIR MOTO2	TSR
RESERVES
27	VINCENT LONBOIS	BEL	MARC VDS RACING TEAM	SUTER
TBA	ANTHONY WEST	AUS	MZ RACING TEAM	MZ

Tagged under: Andrea Ferrari, Bimota, Bimota HB4, Fb Corse, Hopper, Hoppergate, John Hopkins, Moto2, MotoGP, rumor, Rumors, vaporware

Comment:

Asphalt_Rubber says:
January 28, 2010 at 8:13 PM
Bimota HB4 Left off of the Moto2 Entry List – FB Corse Vaporware? Bimota to Go It Alone? – http://bit.ly/ddCl8V #motorcycle

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