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2008

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Rewind back to the 2008, where the MotoGP pit walk was under full swing at the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP. Even without the riders present, the machines themselves drew plenty of attention from the fans, many of whom were probably experiencing their first GP weekend.

The Repsol Honda garage, then home to Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa, inevitably had a particularly large crowd of observers. It turns out that Honda’s stunning RCV attracted more than just the fans. A couple of Yamaha employees had made their way over as well, spending quite a bit of time standing outside the enemy’s gates.

More bad news for BMW owners as the German manufacturer has also released a recall notice for a number of its K-bikes. A problem with the front-wheel bearing could lead the bearing’s corrosion, which would affect the movement of the linkage lever. BMW has not said how many motorcycles this recall will affect, but the issue spans the 2004 to 2010 model years of the following bikes: K1200GT, K1200R, K1200S, K1300GT, K1300R, & K1300S.

According to the NHTSA, motorcycle deaths in the United States dropped by 16% in 2009 compared to the number of deaths in 2008. With 4,462 deaths in 2009 and 5,312 deaths in 2008, this makes for the first time motorcycle death tolls have dropped in the past decade; however federal officials are reluctant to call this a victory in rider safety.

“While we are pleased that the number of motorcycling fatalities dropped dramatically in 2009, a one-year drop isn’t a trend. We need to determine why, and ensure that the decline continues,” said Ed Moreland, AMA Senior Vice President for Government Relations.

miller

FGSport, organizer of the World Superbike Series, announced today that the Miller Motorsports Park circuit, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, has been given the “2008 Organizer of the Year Award”.

This commendation is award to the WSBK venue that shows the the highest level of professionalism, and is able to provide the highest level of standards from an organizational, promotional and sporting point of view. This is obviously a prestigous award to win, if you own a WSBK quality track, but it is especially impressive as this is only Miller Motorsports Park first year partnering with FGSport.

Paolo Flammini, FGSport CEO, declared: “I express my warmest and most sincere congratulations to the circuit management and all its staff and wish them the very best for the season ahead.”

The 2009 round of the Superbike World Championship at the Miller Motorsports Park circuit will take place on May 31st.

Source:

xmas-ktm-1190-rc8

News has just broken that the 2009 KTM 1190cc RC8 will only be sold via KTM’s Priority Delivery Deposit Program, which ends on New Year’s Eve.

Editor’s note: F@#!!!

Which means you have less than 19 days (and counting) until it will be too late to get your hands on Austria’s first purpose-built sportbike. Nothing has been mentioned about the race-inspired RC8R, but we expect a similar arrangement. Oh, and did we mention production numbers will be limited.

Triumph is recalling 87 2008 and 2009 Thruxton motorcycles for problems with the bolts that hold the front brake calipers onto the fork bottoms. Triumph is replacing the bolts in a recall that is supposed to occur during the month of December. Thruxton owners can contact Triumph at 1-678-539-8782. For more information the NHTSA at 1-888-327-4236 or visit safecar.gov.

There were 876 crashes this past GP season. That’s a lot.

Between free practices, qualifying, and races, the 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP series racked up 30% more crashes than last year, with an average of 48 crashes for each race weekend. It should be noted that this was the wettest season in the history of the series, with 16 out of 18 race weekends having at least one day of rain in the official three days of racing. While the rain certainly is a factor, it should also be noted that Randy de Puniet crashed 22 times this season, and only took his shirt off twice.

The crash numbers for the past seasons for the quant-jocks in the room:

1999 – 565
2000 – 633
2001 – 634
2002 – 646
2003 – 705
2004 – 706
2005 – 737
2006 – 647
2007 – 672
2008 – 876

Source: GPone

At least Randy looks really, really, really ridiculously good looking when he crashes.

In case you didn’t see this last MotoGP season, you may not have heard of the shenanigans going on in the Repsol Honda garage. With a very unhappy Nicky Hayden, and what has been described as an imaginary wall across the team’s garage, Nicky’s move to Ducati has been a welcomed change.

With most camps being cheeky as to the details that have surrounded the team falling outs, it is interesting to see what outsiders, who may have some more perspective, have to say about the whole thing. MotoGP.com released a short article about Kevin Schwantz’s perspective on Nicky, but left a very telling quote for the end of the article. Click to see what he said.