Continuing our live chat video series on YouTube with members of the motorcycle industry, on Monday, June 15th at 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT, Asphalt & Rubber will be sitting down with Joe Karvonen, of Kramer Motorcycles USA
As usual for our live chats, I will of course have some questions of my own for Joe, but we want to make the show interactive, so we will be taking questions from the audience as well.
Last week, Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP boss Davide Brivio held a teleconference with a number of journalists to face questions on a broad range of topics.
Brivio talked about the possibility of MotoGP resuming again at Jerez, as Dorna has announced, and what that would entail for Suzuki and for the paddock. He discussed how the manufacturers are working together to cut costs, putting an end to the long-running dispute which has divided the MSMA members, which I examined in detail on my site in this story.
Brivio also fielded questions on the 2020 MotoGP season, and how Suzuki saw the advantages and disadvantages of a curtailed season with a limited number of races taking place on an even smaller number of circuits. And he went into some detail on the contract extensions signed with riders Alex Rins and Joan Mir.
Below is the second half of the interview Davide Brivio gave to journalists:
For a few weeks, it looked like racing in 2020 might be impossible. But as the peak of the COVID-19 crisis appears to have passed in many parts of Europe, there are a few rays of hope that racing might resume before the end of the year.
At the moment, Dorna have put plans in place to hold two races at Jerez, on July 19th and 26th, with more races to follow.
These plans see factories and teams start to slowly ramp up their preparations for racing in Jerez. At the same time, the factories are having to come to terms with the still-emerging post-coronavirus economic reality.
Measures have already been put in place to cut costs, including a freeze on engine development and aerodynamics until 2021, while the factories and teams are considering further proposals to cut costs and secure the future of the sport.
On Monday, the Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP team organized a press teleconference with team manager Davide Brivio, in which he discussed this, and many other subjects.
Brivio talked about starting the championship in Jerez, the impact of the coronavirus on Suzuki and on the MotoGP championship, and about Suzuki’s plans for a satellite squad. He also talked about what life in the paddock could look like when racing resumes.
Got big plans for the weekend? Of course you don’t, you’re stuck inside like the rest of us. But, we can help with that and ease your motorcycle cravings at the same time.
On Saturday, April 25th at 11am PST / 8pm CEST, Asphalt & Rubber will be sitting down with MV Agusta CEO Timur Sardarov for a live chat on YouTube, and you can join us.
I have some questions of my own for Timur, but we want to make the show interactive, so we will be taking questions from the audience as well.
Episode 138 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and as you might expect from the title of the show, this one is a deep-dive into the career of three-time world champion Freddie Spencer.
To guide us on this trip through motorcycle racing history,, we have Steve English and Neil Morrison on the microphones.
On July 4th, 1916, Augusta and Adeline Van Buren mounted their Indian Model F motorcycles, and departed from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY, to start a journey that would take them 5,500 miles across America to Los Angeles, CA, over dirt roads, rough trails, and more.
Their objective was to prove that women could handle riding a motorcycle over long distances, and as a consequence, were fit to serve their country as motorcycle dispatch riders in the US military.
Two months later, after becoming the first people to reach the top of Pike’s Peak by motorized vehicle, they rolled into Los Angeles to complete their journey, following it up with a quick sojourn to Tijuana, Mexico, having proved their point.
The sisters’ quest went unheeded: although women would serve as dispatch riders in the WRENS, the British Navy, the US military would not employ women motorcyclists until the Second World War.
Women riders have always faced greater hurdles to riding and competing in motorcycle racing than their male counterparts. Beryl Swain became the first woman to race the Isle of Man TT in 1962, which prompted the FIM to ban women from competing, deeming motorcycle racing an unsuitable occupation for a woman.
That ban was later reversed, and riders like Taru Rinne, Tomoko Igata, and Katja Poensgen competed in Grand Prix racing, though their paths were never smooth.
In an exclusive interview with Asphalt & Rubber, MV Agusta CEO Timur Sardarov has revealed that the Italian motorcycle marque will release a lineup of 350cc twin-cylinder motorcycles.
The bikes will continue MV Agusta’s position as a premium motorcycle brand, but offer more opportunities for riders, not only in the Western markets, but in countries where smaller displacement motorcycles prevail.
“MV Agusta is entering the biggest relevant market in the world, which is 350c to 500cc,” Timur Sardarov revealed to Asphalt & Rubber.
On Saturday night, Karel Abraham told a meeting of his fans that he would not be back in MotoGP. The Czech rider found out on Friday that the Avintia team wanted to end their relationship, when he received an email from a notary representing the team stating in Spanish that the team would be terminating his contract.
The move can as a massive shock to Abraham. It had been completely unexpected, as he had been told at Valencia that he would be back with the team in 2020, and to turn up for the test at Jerez. Only on Saturday was he told not to travel to Jerez.
Abraham had already made arrangements, however. He also needed to recover his leathers and various other belongings which had been sitting in the Avintia truck when it was driven to Jerez for the test.
While he was at the Jerez circuit picking up his belongings, Israeli TV commentator Tammy Gorali, present in Jerez to report on the test, grabbed him and spoke to him for on our behalf. That gave Abraham a chance to give his side of the story.
What will change under MotoGP’s revised aerodynamic rules for 2020? In mid-July the Grand Prix Commission reached agreement on how to address ‘grey areas’ in the current regulations.
Their focus had been sharpened by a rare public spat involving five of the six manufacturers over the legality of Ducati’s swingarm spoiler, which went to the MotoGP Court of Appeal.
With the full 2020 amendments yet to be published, we spoke to MotoGP Director of Technology Corrado Cecchinelli to find out what to expect in terms of the future aerodynamic (and electronics) regulations. Here is a transcript of that conversation.
Episode 108 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a WorldSBK show. As such, this means that we see Steve English joined by Gordon Ritchie on the mics, as they are now our WorldSBK reporting duo for the 2019 season.
Recording straight from the United Kingdom, the guys talk about the on-track action at Donington Park, where we saw some big movement in the championship standings, after a miserable weekend of riding for Alvaro Bautista.
Coming weekend, history will be made. For the first time, Grand Prix racing will welcome vehicles not powered by internal combustion engines, as the MotoE series makes its debut at the Sachsenring. It is the very first step on the long path toward a future where batteries replace burning hydrocarbons.
But the series got off to a rocky start, even before the first race. At the second test of the electric bike racing series, a fire started in the special tent containing all of the bikes, batteries, and chargers, destroying everything and wiping out the entire series in one fell swoop.
Since March, Nicolas Goubert, director of the MotoE series for Dorna, Energica, who build the spec electric bikes to be raced in the series, and Enel, who supply the charging technology to maintain the bikes, have worked at double speed to rebuild everything needed for the series, and get it ready for the inaugural race at the Sachsenring.
In Le Mans, I spoke at length to Goubert about the progress made in preparing the series, the challenges they had faced, and the lessons learned from the fire in Jerez. The fire highlighted some of the difficulties of an electric bike series, but just staging the series raises logistical and technical issues which nobody had foreseen.
Here is part 2 of the interview. If you want to read part 1, catch it here.