With the announcement of the introduction of price caps for brakes and suspension in MotoGP from 2015, the Grand Prix Commission, MotoGP’s rule-making body, appears to have finally found an effective way of controlling costs in the series. Instead of trying to control costs indirectly and seeing their efforts kicked into touch by the law of unintended consequences, the rule-makers have decided to attempt to go straight to the heart of the problem.

Will capping prices unleash a whole set of unintended consequences of its own? Will, as some fear, the move to cap prices lead to a drop in quality and therefore a reduction in R&D in the areas which are price-capped? And will the price cap act as a barrier to new entrants, or stimulate them? These are hard questions with no easy answers, yet there are reasons to believe that price caps are the most effective way of controlling costs, while the risks normally associated with a price cap, such as a reduction in quality, are lower in a racing paddock than they are in other environments.

Another Brno, that is the hope of every MotoGP fan around the world after qualifying sessions like the one at Motegi on Saturday. The breathtaking battle in the Czech Republic, which saw Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo on each others’ tails all race long and the result settled in almost the final corner, was the natural outcome of two equally-matched men on very different, but equally-matched machines. There was nothing to choose between the two during qualifying at Brno, and there was nothing to choose between them during the race.

Motegi is shaping up to be similar. Both Lorenzo and Pedrosa have very similar pace, and both have the consistency, the talent, and the desire to push to the end. Jorge Lorenzo may have taken pole – the 50th of his career and one of his finest, with a blistering lap in near-perfect condition to destroy the existing pole record – but Pedrosa’s race pace is fractionally faster than that of the polesitter. Where Lorenzo’s near-robotic consistency has him lapping in the low 1’46.1s, Pedrosa is posting high 1’46.0s. The two men are separated by hundredths of a second only, and appear to have the measure of each other.

The wildcard in all of this is chatter. The problem, which has plagued the Honda all year, reappeared with a vengeance in the middle of qualifying for Pedrosa, leaving him struggling to get up to speed and to mount a serious challenge for pole. “Suddenly I had some big chatter,” Pedrosa said at the press conference, “I was in and out of the box trying to change things.”

The problem was all the more unsettling for being so unexpected. “It’s a bit strange,” Pedrosa said. “We didn’t have chattering in the morning or yesterday, just today in the qualifying. Not even in the first part of the qualifying.” Whether the issue is being caused by the setup Pedrosa uses when chasing a qualifying time remains to be seen, but if Pedrosa’s crew cannot eliminate it in tomorrow’s warm up, the Repsol Honda man’s title chances could be over.

It’s hard to believe that for over a decade, the Suzuki Hayabusa has gone relatively unchanged from its original form. Sure, there have been some updates — a nose-job here, a face-lift there, but let’s be honest, the engineer responsible for the Suzuki GSX1300R has mostly just been pushing paper around his desk since the Clinton administration.

That tradition has not come to a close for the next model year, though the 2013 Suzuki Hayabusa does get some massaging from the Japanese brand. Updated with an anti-locking brakes system (ABS), the 2012 Suzuki GSX1300R, as it name implies, joins the rest of the GSX-R family in getting Brembo Monobloc calipers.

While the 2013 Aprilia RSV4 Factory APRC may look like the same dominant superbike that has been blowing the doors off at bike shootouts, but the company from Noale has made some subtle changes to its V4 street weapon, the most noticeable of which is a three-level dual-channel ABS system from Bosch. The ABS unit can be completely disengaged, should a rider feel it necessary to retain the ability to lock-up the newly added Brembo M430/M50 calipers (the same brake calipers as the Ducati 1199 Panigale), and brings the Aprilia RSV4 in-line with its other liter-bike competitors.

While Aprilia could have stopped there and called things a day, the Italian brand has made further changes to the Aprilia RSV4 Factory APRC’s stock engine placement in the chassis, as well as other refinements in the RSV4′s exhaust and ECU. The result is a lower center of gravity, and a mild boost in peak horsepower and mid-range torque, which brings the revised RSV4 Factory up to 181.4hp at the crank and 86.3 lbs•ft of peak torque @ 10,500 rpm.

After the fickle weather which has dogged the first three European rounds of MotoGP, the first day of practice at Barcelona weekend got off to a dry, warm and sunny start. It was just what the teams and riders needed, some dry track time to work on the issues they face: for Honda, the chatter which they have suffered since the introduction of the RCV213V in the middle of last year, for Ducati, the lack of rear grip and poor drive out of corners, and for Yamaha, well, nothing really, it’s a pretty good bike as it is.

Conditions were pretty near ideal, though the blazing afternoon sun made the track a little too hot to get the best out of the tires, and it showed in the times. In the MotoGP class, Jorge Lorenzo posted a time well inside the race lap record, while in Moto2, Thomas Luthi obliterated the outright lap record in the morning session. Only Moto3 lagged behind, the brand new four-stroke class still a way off the times set by the 125cc bikes which they replaced.

I’m going to come out and say that I loved the 2011 Triumph Speed Triple when it came out. A divisive model with the Triumph’s loyal fan base, the revised Speed Triple’s aesthetics are a marked improvement over the earlier generations in my book, which was the only thing that kept the peppy three-cylinder machine out of my personal garage. Now to thoroughly ruining my Christmas wish list, the British brand has added the 2012 Triumph Speed Triple R to its EICMA debut list, with the “R” designation denoting the bike’s upgraded Öhlins suspension, Brembo brakes, and PVM wheels.

Brembo has released a list containing the Top 10 late-brakers at the Italian GP in Mugello. Taken from teams’ telemetry from the Qualifying Practice, Brembo compiled the list based off who was applying the most braking force coming off the front straight-away, and into Turn 1. Of note, the list was based off only teams who use Brembo brakes, which means LCR Honda and San Carlos Gresini Honda were left off the list (they use Nissin), we therefore don’t have data for Toni Elias, Hiroshi Aoyama, and Marco Simoncelli.

The San Donato bend at Mugello sees riders slow from 203 mph coming down the long straightaway to 75 mph into the apex of the first turn. One of the first tracks on the MotoGP calendar, Mugello recently repaved its course, meaning the Italian track has become especially smooth and grippy, and under the weekend’s sun, it was warm and ready for MotoGP action. Make your guesses now as to whom was the King of the Brake Lever, and check your answers after the jump.

Founded in 1911, Benelli is celebrating its 100th year anniversary at EICMA this year with special “Century Racer” versions of its Tornado Naked Tre (TnT), the company’s naked three-cylinder street bike. The Benelli TnT 1130 “Century Racer” (a Benelli TnT 899 “Century Racer” is also being made available) features a desaturated green color scheme that honors Renzo Pasolini, and will be on display at the show in Milan. Along with the Century Racers, Benelli will have an exhibit that traces the company’s motorcycling history throughout its years. More details about the company’s 2011 model line after the jump.

When we caught our first glimpse of the 2011 Suzuki GSX-R600 & 2011 Suzuki GSX-R 750 motorcycles, one of the things that struck us about the new bikes, besides the redesigned front fairing and 20lbs of missing mass, was the use of Brembo calipers as an OEM part. A premium part that’s usually reserved for premium brand motorcycles, Brembo and Suzuki have signed at three-year agreement that sees the Italian company supplying the Japanese manufacturer with braking bits for its GSX-R line.

Brembo, a company known for helping your bike slow down and stop, is entering into the helmet making business. While we normally associate the Brembo brand with high-performance parts and racing, the company’s first foray into the mainstream consumer market will be your everyday motorcycle/scooter rider and the thing between their ears. Photos and details after the jump.