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.
News that Suzuki plans on returning to the MotoGP Championship in 2014 should be old information for dedicated Asphalt & Rubber readers, and the Japanese company’s inline-four race bike was already spotted doing test laps last year by the eager eyes at Cycle World. Well the American print-mag has another set of eyebrow-raising high-quality photos of the 2014 Suzuki GSV-R to mull over from the Motegi race track, along with some technical insights provided by the venerable Kevin Cameron.
Any word if it is a MV cast and built engine or are they using a Triumph as a base platform?
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Spy Shot: MV Agusta F3 3-Cylinder Caught Testing – http://bit.ly/MCnx7 #motorcycle
“Any word if it is a MV cast and built engine or are they using a Triumph as a base platform?”
where does someone come up with a comment like that? From the inception of MV Agusta through the contemporary machines, MV Agusta has always been a machine designed, manufactured, and assembled in house. it’s poorly informed speculation like that that starts ridiculus rumors that get passed there have been many variations of cylinder configurations so a possible triple is like another fond homecoming for the brand. not knocking the triumph as they are wonderful at what they do, but MV is another realm altogether.
Spy Shot: MV Agusta F3 3-Cylinder Caught Testing – http://bit.ly/MCnx7 #motorcycle
I found it ironic that the only other current production triples on the market to the best of my knowledge are the Speed Triple and the Daytona/Street Triple the latter being 675cc which is the same capacity as the above MV. I thought I would ask that question.
Wasnt trying to start any rumours just asking a question. How is one supposed to learn if they dont ask questions?
Thank you vintage wrench for your response. Sorry to be hasty in my comment in any way. You made a fair point to follow up and it deserved a respectful response. Many are still not familiar with MV Agusta, at least not as much as in Europe – however it is well worth further exploration as an authentic brand with a rich history to back it up.
I am somewhat familiar with the brand through it’s racing exploits into the ’70′s but that is about it. Havent studied up on the marque since the Castiglioni(sp?)/Cagiva purchase other than checking out their exploits in Super Stock racing and being of the opinion that Tamburini has penned another stunning piece in the F4.
Reality Check, you need a reality check: it’s common for engineers and product developers to use rival brand’s engines for chassis testing and other uses. I don’t have information either way, but who knows what’s going on at Varese with H-D writing the checks and calling the shots? Not me, and not you, I’d wager.
What was the amount of the wager?
Besides Gabe, Perhaps your missing the point which I believe was is mv building producing a bike with an engine supplied by triumph? Answer’s no. There are still countless folks walking around thinking the F4 has A Suzuki engine because a comment was made by an engineer during an interview that MV looked at the GSXR 750 at the time as a benchmark to be surpassed. Many read and saw this and mistook that Suzuki motors were used. One look at the engine and this is clarly not the case and yet the false rumor has been peretuated for years.
I do enjoy the righteous indignation of MV owners/fans upon suggestion that MVs all use engines provided by Suzukis.
hmmmm in all seriousness this triple does sound suspicious. At 675cc one must wonder………..lol
Several points:
1) Triumph doesn’t really have the capacity to be supplying engines to any other manufacture, and wouldn’t in any case. The D675 is the crown jewel in their collection right now.
2) Triumph currently produces 3 triple cylinder engines: 675, 1050, and 2300 in the Rocket III
3) The decision by MV to build a 675 is clearly based on wanting to compete in supersport racing, where rules were recently changed to allow 675 triples to compete with 600 fours.
4) The details as speculated of the MV 675 are significantly different from the Triumph 675: Triumph would be unlikely to supply a motor to a different manufacture producing 10 more horsepower than their own bike, and the Triumph motor doesn’t have variable length intakes or any of the other candy speculated for the MV.
So not a Triumph. It may end up to be a superior bike, but the Daytona is still a wizard bit of kit and the MV will certainly be more expensive. The Triumph 675 engine is also rumored to be capable of being enlarged to over 900cc, which would make it a screamer indeed.
[img]http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff221/Khameron2/screenshot_702.jpg[/img]
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff221/Khameron2/screenshot_702.jpg
me thinks that’s a fake.