Back in 2009 Suzuki and Volkswagen made some headlines, as the German automaker took a 19.9% stake in the Japanese manufacturer. The basic points of the agreement were that Volkswagen would get access to Suzuki’s small-displacement motors and Indian presence, while the latter would benefit from Volkswagen’s larger-vehicle technologies, etc.

Seemingly however doomed from the start, the partnership in motorcycle circles erroneously spurred some interesting thoughts of a Volkswagen motorcycle coming to fruition. While industry journalists spun gold out of hay, the two behemoth manufacturers failed to come to terms on any of their proposed partnership goals, leaving both parties to wonder why they were interested in each other, let alone financially intwined.

In this third video of four (see Part 1 & 2 here), BMW sat down some experts to talk about how mobility will change in the future. It’s funny to hear the issues the different sides propose and talk about in regards to automobiles, as they’re the very same sort of subjects we’ve talked about on Asphalt & Rubber in regards to motorcycles.

Some of the key debates explored in Part 3 of the Wherever You Want to Go series include vehicles as purely a form transportation, the “three internets”, the rise of electric vehicles, and of course whether the future of mobility will be fun. There are valid points all around the table in this video, and almost all of it applies to the future of motorcycles (except maybe the automated land train thing…we don’t see that working for two-wheeled machines). Check it out after the jump, and chew on it over the long weekend.

BMW is halfway through releasing a four-part video on the future of transportation, which explores a multitude of ideas including infrastructure, city dwelling, personal transport, population growth, and the environment. BMW obviously is approaching the issue with its automotive hat squarely on its head, and doesn’t directly deal with motorcycles, but when you stop and think about it, cars and bikes are wrapped up in the same situation. While the only the first two videos have been released, there’s already some interesting concepts to think about.

While we wait for Part 3 (Feb. 15th) and Part 4 (Feb. 22nd), chew on these facts and figures: over 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, automobiles are parked about 90% of the time, and there’s roughly five parking spots for every car (that’s 1,500 sqft of space just for a single car!). It sure seems like motorcycles could help solve that utilization/space problem.

Honda has closed its books for the first quarter of 2010, and the company’s motorcycle, scooter, and ATV sales are up 28.2% over Q1 of 2009. Selling over 2.8 million units (compare that to Q1 2009′s 2.25 million units), Honda’s sales created $3.7 billion in net sales. Honda reported $3 billion in net sales during the same time period last year. While the Asian markets powered most of Honda’s sales, North American sales were up 11% to 60,000 units sold.

Harley-Davidson is issuing a recall on its 2009 & 2010 touring line made between June 6, 2008, and Nov. 19, 2009, which consists of 111,569 motorcycles in total. The recall is due to concerns over the fuel tank mounts on these motorcycles, which might distort in a collision, possibly leaking fuel, and thus causing a fire.

Walking into the office of a company is always an interesting experience. For a company, the work place is the first expression of the company’s culture. Similarly, workspaces are often a reflection of the people that work inside them, an occupational rorschach test if you will. Yet, despite its importance and revealing nature, a company headquarters is rarely experienced by the end-consumer. It is an interesting disparity that occurs in every industry, and the electric motorcycle scene is no different.

Rumors are circulating that Suzuki is about unveil its 2010 motorcycle line-up, which will reportedly feature an all new 1,250cc Bandit, new GSX-F, and an updated GSX1000R. With the Gixxer 1000 being completely revamped just last year, we’re not sure if that means just new colors for 2010, or if Suzuki will be making modest performance enhancements, like we saw with the 2010 Honda CBR1000RR and 2010 Yamaha YZF-R6.

Those are all the details we know now, more as it comes to us. Remember to always tip your waiter, and your daily motorcycle blog.

The NHTSA is considering whether anti-locking braking systems (ABS) should become a mandatory component to new motorcycles on American roads. ABS has certainly become an increasingly prevalent optional feature on street bikes, with sportbikes just recently catching onto the trend.

Honda first released the VFR Interceptor with ABS back in 2002, and both BMW and Honda released bikes with optional ABS this year. We’ve also seen other safety features from cars finding their way into motorcycles, with integrated airbags in leather suits, and bikes offering rear-wheel traction control systems.

To us, this seems like a logical extension of existing technology into motorcycles, but for the NHTSA this is more serious issue of climbing motorcycle crashes, as both more riders take to the streets, and new riders join the motorcycling ranks.

J.D. Power and Associates has just released a report that details some of the major reasons why motorcycle buyers purchase one bike over another. After talking to over 3000 customers in September and October, the report outlines four major factors for purchasing desiions, namely: why a buyer bought from one brand rather than another. The short answer is: The Dealer, the long answer is after the jump.

You may remember the Bimota DB7 Oronero. How could you not? With all that carbon fiber, and rediculous 1:1 power to weight ratio (164bhp to 164kg). It may shock you…now brace yourself…but Bimota actually is going to sell other bikes next year as well.

Shocking? Yes we know. Read more after the jump.