During the second AMA Pro Supersport qualifying session at Sears Point, #422 Genki Hagata had a moment that every motorcycle racer knows all too well: a highside. Still completing his out-lap, Hagata’s Yamaha YZF-R6 lost traction at the rear wheel, and then abruptly regained it, which for most riders would usually mean an ejection seat straight into the kitty litter, but not for Genki. Holding onto the bars throughout the incident, Hagata avoided crashing (again, as the case would be for the weekend), and while he missed making the cut-off for Supersport grid by only a few tenths of a second, we still think he was the big winner of AMA Pro Racing’s third road-racing stop of the season.
This, race fans, is Danilo Petrucci, one of the brave souls trying his luck on the future of MotoGP hardware, in his case the doggedly underpowered Came IodaRacing Project machine. Not on a (relatively) zippy Aprilia ART, or a Honda-powered FTR, Petrucci qualifies on the same grid as Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, and brings to this gunfight a knife that packs a whopping 185 bhp, compared to the factory prototype engines that are rumored to be around 260 bhp. As I photograph a race, I see a much different version of the event than TV viewers. I watch the recorded TV broadcast later, and can tell you that there is a lot going on with the Claiming Rule Team bikes that doesn’t make in onto TV.
We are now purely a “suck, squeeze, bang, blow” society, and while that suits many motorists just fine, there are some who enjoy the smell of pre-mix in the morning — you know who you are. You enjoy the sound of angry bees following you from apex to off-camber. You think a displacement for “serious riders” starts at around 250cc. You like your engine compression low, and your powerbands narrow. You sir (or madam), are a two-stroke junky, and we have just the fix you need. Having a bevy of intriguing two-wheeled projects within its walls, the Swiss bike that catches our eye today is the Suter 500 Factory V4: a two-stroke, 500cc, V4, track weapon that puts out over 200 hp and weighs 284 lbs ready to race — no, that is not a typo.
Blurred to protect against spoilers, we’ll just leave things simply by saying that World Superbike’s Race 2 at Donington Park is well worth a watching if you haven’t already seen it. Decided right down to the last few turns, race pundits surely will be discussing the race and its outcome over the next week. Unsurprisingly, geography is playing a major a role in how things are being viewed. Though in a race where a number of questionable passes occurred, it is hard to single out this one event from the plethora of others that occurred during the race, but of course this one had the biggest effect on the race outcome. Click past the jump for the he said, she said, and of course for some slightly sharper photos.
More news from Norton, as the British firm has begun track-testing its V4 road race bike, in preparation of the 2012 Isle of Man TT. Focusing on the bike’s handling, Norton has been working hand-in-hand with Öhlins and Dunlop developing the bike’s chassis. The trio has devised the highly sophisticated “165 mph no hands” test, which supposedly checks the stability of the bike, though we imagine Health & Safety would frown upon it. With the bike’s Aprilia RSV4 motor putting out 195hp at the crank, and with the total race package weighing 419 lbs (195 kg) when it is sopping wet, the Spondon-framed Norton may not be exactly what fans of the famous marques were hoping for after seeing the very appealing Norton NRV 588, though it does seem to be a potent package.
Launching in downtown Los Angeles, the 2012 Brammo Empulse R & 2013 Brammo Empulse broke their cover and officially debuted. Right off the bat from the designations, you can see that Brammo intends for the Empulse R to be a 2012 model, with the base model Emuplse coming out next year (more on that further down). As we expected, the Brammo Empulse R got quite the price bump after its 22-month marination, and will be $18,995 MSRP. Meanwhile when the Brammo Empulse becomes available next year, it will have a slightly more palatable $16,995 price tag.
While the EBR 1190RS race bikes were on the track, their $40,000+ street-legal counterparts were on display outside of the Erik Buell Racing garage. Rocking an American flag livery, I naturally took pictures of this show bike. Eye catching to say the least, nothing says “Made in ‘merica” better than a red, white, and blue color scheme, especially when it is laid over carbon fiber. And while I want to love this bike because of its nuances and outside-of-the-box technical design, I don’t.
If there’s one lesson we can take from Sunday’s race at Estoril, it’s this: “I’ve always said we know Casey’s the guy that’s the fastest guy in the world. Maybe over the seasons he hasn’t put the championships together, but by far he’s the best guy in the world.” Cal Crutchlow is not known for mincing his words, and his description of Casey Stoner pulls no punches. But given the fact that Stoner only managed to win the Portuguese round of MotoGP by a second and a bit, is that not a little exaggerated?
Brammo is back for electric motorcycle racing in the North American TTXGP series, as the Ashland-based company is set to defend it’s #1 plate this year with Steve Atlas on board ( Shelina Moreda is slated to join the team later in the season). Gaining a title sponsorship from Icon, Brammo arrived at Sears Point with some edgy graphics on the 2012 Brammo Empulse RR. Dropping roughly 35 lbs in weight, and gaining roughly 50hp over the bike they ran at last year’s season opener, Brammo is making most of those gains in its revised motor and power inverter for the newest Empulse RR.
As you can imagine, the bulk of the commentary, both from readers and from professional journalists, has centered around the absurdity of the claim, with even jokes being offered about how an aged BMW rider should be thanking the German motorcycle brand for saving him money on Viagra, etc. The situation reminds me of the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit. You know the story, right?. A woman buys a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, spills it on herself while in the car, and sues the bastards for her incompetence. True to litigious American form, the unthinkable happened, and a jury awarded this gold-digging woman millions of dollars. It is repudiating, and it stands for everything that is wrong with the legal system, or so we would be lead to believe — especially by the media.
Ducati North America has announced the delivery dates of its 2010 model line-up to the US dealerships, with the bulk of the new Ducati’s arriving in February, while the Multistrada 1200 comes to us in April & May. Click past the jump for a full price and arrival schedule.
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After unveiling the 2010 Ducati Hypermotard 1100 EVO SP, we were impressed with the new performance specs, but the look of the bike really hadn’t changed that much. Enticing us to empty our wallets further, Ducati put together an EVO SP will an assortment of their official Ducati accessories kit, and the result is stunning. Click past the jump to see the pictures of it straight from the floors of EICMA.
It seems Ducati is not going to waste any time in revamping the Hypermotard 1100, after the recent launch of the 2010 Ducati Hypermotard 796 (pictured above) caused some surprise with the public on its subtle design differences, and similar power characteristics.
Due to be unveiled at the upcoming EICMA show in Milan, Italy, the 2010 Ducati Hypermotard 1100 will get a power boost, as well as a revised chassis, handlebars, and other design bits that will bring the original HM in-line with the 796′s look and power.
Sometimes rumors don’t take long to come to fruition. Take the case of the 2010 Ducati Hypermotard. Just last week we reported that Ducati had a 696 DS motor based babytard in the works, and today Ducati has officially announced that motorcycle. As we expected the new bike is named the Hypermotard 796, and it shares almost all of the same core design elements as its larger counter-part, including the bar-end mirrors (as we expected).
The biggest news with this release is that the Hypermotard 796 will live up to its name, boasting a 808cc displacement (88mm x 66mm bore & stroke respectively). Many had said the Hypermotard 796 would still feature the 696cc displacement dispite its nomenclature. Ducati instead stroked out the 696 motor, resulting in a comparable 81hp to the Monster 696, while boosting torque to 55.7lb•ft. More details after the jump.
French site Moto-Station is reporting, and multiple other sites are confirming, that Ducati is about to debut a Hypermotard 796. Just as the current Hypermotard 1100 borrows on the basic design of the Monster 1100, the 796 will center around the same 696cc, air-cooled, two-valve, motor found in the Monster 696.
Bikes like the Ducati Hypermotard, KTM SuperDuke, and Aprilia Dorsoduro have been gaining in popularity not only in the United States, but also abroad. It is only a logical progression then that there would be some desire to start a formal racing series for these big-bore “hypermotards”, and Europe’s UEM European Supermoto Championship has that answer with a new “Hypermoto” racing class. The Hypermoto class will be open to motorcycles of 600cc and larger, with 1 or 2 cylinders, and can be either 2-strokes or 4-strokes. Races will take place on the same tracks as the Supermoto Championship (S1), minus the dirt sections. All riders will use Dunlop tires (eight tires per weekend), and have to be over the age of 16.
Source: Supermoto Central & Motoblog.it
