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.
The front looks a bit like those multi-eyed fish Bart Simpson is fishing out of one of those nuclear polluted ponds of Mr Burns.
What was the last turbo or supercharged bike to be produced for North America.
I remember a friend having a turbo seca.
And you’re right, with such an emphasis on performance from not only the supersport machines but also in other segments (power cruisers) I’m surprised we haven’t seen much forced induction.
“to better position the ZX-14 against the increasingly more powerful 1,0000 superbikes”
Wow! Where do I find one of these 10,000 cc bikes? Must accelerate something fierce
Sweet! Forced induction makes great sense. I think if it weren’t for out-dated raceing regs that most all performance street bikes would be forced induction – just a great way of getting more power and wider power curve from a smaller, lighter package. Its been a huge boon to cages, PWCs and sleds. Kawak has the 300hp Ultra 150 blower in its back pocket…
I like the looks of that teaser photo. If they are going for a more rounded look it would be a welcome design relief from the “copy me” angles that have been around for years
I’m with BikePilot – SWEEEEET!!!! I’m drooling already! Having owned 2 Hayabusa’s, I can only wish that Suzuki is thinking the same thing.
Like BikePilot already said…they are forehead deep with forced induction (Ultra 250X, 260X & 300X) and the last one is a BEAST…a Blown ZX-14 ? BRING IT…U won’t hear me complaining.
Suzuki…did u hear that ? Get to work.
Bring back the Stratosphere Concept with the I-6, Supercharge it and put it into production…and dump that Horrid B-King Lump.
And Honda should produce the Evo 6 and blow it too.
Just a crazy idea…how about going back to 1200cc but blown ? Just saying…lol (^_^ )
I’d be more interested to see what forced induction could do for low displacement models. The thought of a 300lb 80hp-100hp supercharged Kawasaki ZX-5R is salivating.
@sunstroke,
80-100 hp from a supercharged 500cc inline 4?
id be expecting that from a naturally aspirated bike.
andw this supercharged 1400 shouldnt be anything new for kawasaki,
the supercharge these hypersport motors in their jet skis :)
@Kevin
Honda CX 500T is also a turbo production bike.
Yes we need more supercharged superbikes (eye roll) …. because that’s what sells, right?
hmmmm, GSXR750T. Yeah I could enjoy that. Especially if they go with the aerocharger turbo…constant boost almost zero lag.
I guess they are toy story fans. :-)
http://www.cgtopia.eu/artikelimg/toystory-alien.jpg
Rumor: New Kawasaki ZX-14 Facelift Coming This Month? Supercharged Hypersport Later? – http://aspha.lt/rb #motorcycle
Awesome. It has always been my goal to own a turbo bike, plenty of people building turbo Hayabusas. But factory super charger, that would be good. No need to spend thousands of dollars on top of the bike. And now that the bike world is catching up with the car world as far as flashing ECUs etc. it should just be a matter of upping the boost for more power. Nice.
Hmmm the current ZX-14 reminds me of a cross between an orca and Waternoose from Monsters, Inc.
Turbo tech is at a place now where it just makes so much sense, not only for boosting peak hp, but for creating a wide, fat power curve. Look at the current direct injection, turbocharged motors from Ford, BMW, Kia/Hyundai, Audi, etc. All making great power, light packages and super-wide power curves.
A DI, turbo’d ~600cc, 300lbs supermoto single would be awesome. Something like this should allow KTM SMR990-like power in a package no heavier or more bulky than a 690 duke.
Two of my riding buddies have older ZX-14′s and I’ve ridden them; they’re rather understated in their overkill nature — so smooth you don’t know you’re doing triple digits in 2nd. Great bikes, but I don’t want one because I live it a place where my 140hp bike is already overkill. I’d rather see supercharging smaller displacement bikes, because the ZX-14 is hardly underpowered, and I can NEVER enjoy it’s full supercharged awesomeness because cops would definitely see the dimensional warping it would cause. That said, for the sake of absurd fun, I hope Kawi does make the ZX a total uncompromising beast!
August 31th…and no word about it. LMAO. Oh, well there’s always Intermot and or Milan.