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.
A surprise addition to BMW Motorrad’s 2013 model line-up, zie Germans have announced a new middleweight adventure-tourer, the 2013 BMW F800GS Adventure. Like its larger predecessor, the BMW F800GS Adventure is a more travel-ready and off-road capable build of the recently updated BMW F800GS motorcycle. Featuring a larger windscreen, panniers, and a bigger fuel tank capacity (2.1 gallons larger, for a total of 6.3 gallons of fuel), the BMW F800GS Adventure keeps the same 85 hp, liquid-cooled, 798cc, parallel-twin engine found on the F800GS, as well as the same chassis configuration. Pricing in the US will be $13,550 for the base model BWM F800GS Adventure.
Former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz has certainly been in the news a bit these past few months, mostly for his involvement and falling out with the Circuit of the Americas and the Americas GP, but also more recently for his comments regarding Dani Pedrosa — we also sat down with Mr. Schwantz in Austin, and the Texan gave us some sobering insight into the future of American road racing. As if all that wasn’t enough, Schwantz is making a return to two-wheeled racing, and has entered the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race with Team Kagayama racing alongside Noriyuki Haga and team owner Yukio Kagayama.
An interesting development on the aftermarket side of things has graced our desks, as Öhlins has released a “suspension control unit” (SCU) that upgrades the electronically adjustable suspension on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S so that it becomes a semi-active suspension system. Whhhaaaat??! So, if you’re the proud owner of a pre-2013 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S, and you think that your electronically controlled Öhlins suspension is no longer boss, now that Ducati has released its Sachs-powered “Skyhook” semi-active suspension pieces on its new batch of Multistrada sport-tourers, there is a remedy for your motolust.
Triumph Motorcycles is recalling certain model year 2011-2012 Triumph Daytona 675 and Triumph Street Triple motorcycles, along with certain 2012 Triumph Thunderbird and Triumph Thunderbird Storm motorcycles, for wheels that were assembled with bearings of an unknown quality.
As we saw with the 2013 Triumph Street Triple, the 2013 Triumph Daytona 675 supersport gets a slew of modifications for the next model year. Reworking the Daytona 675′s three-cylinder motor, Triumph has been able to coax an additional 2hp and 2 lbs•ft of torque from the British-born sport bike. Revising the frame and bodywork, Triumph has also shed 3 lbs from the 2013 Triumph Daytona 675.
Accordingly, the Triumph Daytona 675 is now good for 126hp @ 12,600 (redline is 14,400 rpm), while power has been improved throughout the rev range. One of the more obvious changes to the 2013 Triumph Daytona 675 is the adoption of a GP-style low-slung exhaust, in favor of the previous undertail unit. Certain to offend some purists, we think the change has been tastefully done, and it helps to centralize the mass on the three-cylinder track weapon.
Expected only to get a modest makeover for the new model year, we now have proof that the 2013 Triumph Daytona 675 will bring us mostly only cosmetic upgrades in its new revision. Featuring a frame and updated bodywork, perhaps the most noticeable change to the Triumph Daytona 675 is the absence of an undertail exhaust on the three-cylinder supersport, which has been replaced with a GP-style side exhaust can and routing.
Anticipated to be receiving the same update as we saw with the 2013 Triumph Street Triple, the Daytona 675′s motor has likely been untouched, while the new frame and subframe assemblies benefit from a weight reduction (13 lbs on the Street Triple), and improved handling characteristics. We can likely expect similar gains on the 2013 Triumph Daytona 675, with the GP-style exhaust helping Triumph get past stricter European emissions standards.
Expect to see the official unveiling of the 2013 Triumph Daytona 675 at the EICMA show on November 12th. Two more photos are after the jump.
Triumph is recalling 10,366 units of its 2006-2009 S Street Triple, Street Triple R, and Daytona 675 motorcycles for a faulty regulator/rectifier, which can overheat and prevent the motorcycle from charging properly, or at all. With the electrical system not charging the battery, the battery could fully discharge, and ultimately stall the motorcycle. As such, there is a risk of a crash and personal injury to the rider and/or passengers should the motorcycle stall because of the discharged battery.
Triumph has taken the wraps off its 2012 Triumph Daytona 675, revealing only minor changes will come to the three-cylinder supersport before its rumored major update in 2013. Available now in “Phantom Black” or “Diablo Red” paint, the new Triumph Daytona 675 gets only cosemetic changes for next year, such as Triumph’s sports script font on the fuel tank, new “Daytona” decals, and the Daytona 675R‘s black bellypan. Other changes also include Triumph logo emblazoned clutch and alternator covers, while the motor gets murdered out further. Lastly, the 2012 Triumph Daytona 675 will also recieve blacked-out rearsets and brake discs.
According to MCN, this is a “spy photo” of the 2012 Triumph Daytona 675, which was spotted outside of Triumph’s Hinckley factory. The British mag says that it has other, much more clearer photos, that clearly show the new Daytona in detail (of course, we’ll have to take their infallible word on this since they didn’t publish them online), revealing a new styling update, and complete mechanical design overhaul. Gone is the underseat exhaust, though the front looks fairly similar, with a center running light seemingly added. Expect to see the new Daytona 675 debut later this year.
Source: MCN
Triumph for some time now has had these glaring holes in its model line-up, which it has only begun to address with the launching of bikes like the 2011 Triumph Tiger 800 and 2011 Triumph Tiger 800 XC.
One hole that still remains in this Swiss cheese product offering is a liter class sportbike. Up until the recent release of the 2011 Triumph Daytona 675R, the Daytona 675 has been single-handedly holding down Triumph’s sportbike offering; while the British company’s naked plus-sized Speed Triple has nearly become the Branch Davidian of the street biking cult status, giving Triumph fans plenty of ammo to speculate upon when Triumph would release a fully-faired 1050cc three-cylinder machine that came from the best of these two bikes.
