Tag

horsepower

Browsing

Tomorrow, we will see the next iteration of the Harley-Davidson Sportster – a move tipped by the Bar & Shield brand’s not to subtle “From Evolution to Revolution” premiere tagline.

That tagline is a nod to the names of the Evolution motor that powered the previous Sportster generation, as well as Revolution being the name of Harley-Davidson’s new motor platform, which also powers the Pan America 1250 adventure bike.

The new Sportster is tipped to look a lot like the Harley-Davidson 1250 Custom that Milwaukee has been teasing, and now the latest reports are saying that the new Sportster will have a potent 120hp on tap.

Aprilia is continuing its curious launches for its 2021 motorcycles, trickling out information about the machines over multiple “debut” releases.

While we still wait for a glimpse of the right-hand side of the 2021 Aprilia RSV4, today we are getting some new information about the soon-to-be-released Aprilia Tuono 660, which is going to change how this bike is perceived in the US market.

Ever since 2018 when A&R first caught wind of the Aprilia RS 660, we knew this twin-cylinder sport bike was going to be a class killer.

Up until its introduction, the middleweight twins segment has been full of either outdated legacy machines, or bikes that serve a price point above all else.

There is nothing wrong with that per se, but it left the door open for a brand like Aprilia to come in and mix things up with a cutting edge motorcycle.

That is where we are today with the Aprilia RS 660, with its high-power, high-revving parallel-twin engine, its advanced electronics, and its track-tuned chassis.

Last week we brought you a report that said that the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R made over 40hp at the wheel at a recent dyno test.

The report attributed no source, which made that horsepower claim a bit hard to verify, but today we seem to have found where that power figure came from, thanks to our friends in Indonesia at the TMC Blog.

Slovenian exhaust maker Akrapovič briefly listed the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R on its website, showing both the stock horsepower and torque figures for the quarter-liter four-cylinder monster, but also the gains made from the company’s racing exhaust line.

It is a little strange that Kawasaki has yet to release any specifics about the Ninja ZX-25R model, especially when markets around the world are gearing up for their order and delivery. After all, customers need to know what they are buying.

One of the key pieces of missing data, what everyone is anxious to know, is how much power this quarter-sized four-cylinder engine can produce, as it screams its way to 17,000 rpm.

We seem to have that answer today though, albeit unofficially, as a report is quoting a dyno run that saw 41.4hp at 15,350rpm and a peak torque output of 15.3 lbs•ft (20.8 Nm) at 12,700rpm.

Nestled deep in the announcement that MV Agusta has raised €40 million and has a new CEO is a slightly less business-focused news item, one which concerns the soon-to-be-released MV Agusta Brutale 1000.

The new streetfighter will make 212cv – making it the most powerful production naked bike on the market, with a top speed of 193 mph. Do we have your attention? Good.

It is by pure happenstance that the featured story at the top of the Asphalt & Rubber homepage is about the new Ducati Hypermotard, which also coincides with today’s story that highlights more info about the 2019 model. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

With that said, more information about the new Ducati Hypermotard has leaked, though it will depend on who you ask what those specifics are when it comes to this new machine. This is because we have conflicting reports from the British site BikeSocial and Italy’s GPone.

Both sites have proven themselves to be reliable in the past, which makes it difficult to decipher their differing opinions on the new power and weight figures of the Ducati Hypermotard. So, let’s dive into what we know, and what we don’t know.

Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer has two announcements for us today. The first is one is perhaps not that shocking (figuratively), because the Energica Ego and Energica Eva motorcycle have both been homologated as Euro4 compliant.

The second piece of news is a bit more shocking (literally) though, as both the Ego and Eva will see power increases for the 2017 model year. As such, the 2017 Energica Ego will see a 145hp peak power figure, while the 2017 Energica Eva will top the sheets at 108hp.

After leaking twice yesterday, Honda has officially dropped details and photos on its highly anticipated adventure-tourer, the 2016 Honda Africa Twin. A continuation of the legacy by the same name, the new Honda Africa Twin is an off-road focused machine that will go head-to-head with the big ADV bikes already on the market.

Built around a 998cc parallel-twin engine, which makes 94hp and 72 lbs•ft of torque, the Africa Twin tips the scales at the curb at 503 lbs (standard model, first photos after the jump) / 534 lbs (DCT/ABS models, shown above).

Spec-sheet off-road racers are likely not going to be happy with these numbers, though they measure well against the KTM 1190 Adventure R and BMW R1200GS Adventure.

What we think ADV riders will come around to is Honda’s off-road built dual-clutch transmission, which will have the benefit of making shifts while out of the saddle much easier, and giving clutch-free operation, much like a Rekluse clutch.

Last night we brought you a leaked video of the new Honda Africa Twin, which revealed the off-road oriented adventure bike in all its glory. Today, we get to see the leaked specs of the Honda CRF1000L (the model designation of the Africa Twin), along with what looks like an official high-resolution photo.

The spec-sheet for the Africa Twin has long been something of interest for ADV fans, with the obvious questions being 1) how much horsepower will it make? and 2) how much will it weight. The answers are 94hp, and 458 lbs dry (467 lbs with ABS, 489 lbs with DCT).

With the Honda RC213V-S debuting at Catalunya last week, much has already been said about Big Red’s road-going GP bike…especially in terms of how it compares to other halo bike motorcycles that have been 0r currently are on the market.

So, in the interest of exploring solely the most basic attributes from a motorcycle’s technical specification sheet, we have compiled a spreadsheet to see how the Honda RC213V-S stacks up against its most analogous street bikes.

As such, we have compiled the horsepower, dry weight, and cost of the the Ducati Desmosedici RR, Ducati 1199 Superleggera, Kawasaki Ninja H2R, MV Agusta F4 RC, EBR 1190RS, and Yamaha YZF-R1 motorcycles — you can see the easy-to-read chart (after the jump), and make your own comparisons to the RC213V-S.