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For the 2023 model year, BMW is adding to its M Motorcycle lineup, adding an M1000R streetfighter to its now updated M1000RR superbike. And on that same vein, BMW Motorrad is bringing some real substance for its “motorsports” models.

Whereas the current generation BMW S1000R is a bit…let’s say bland…when compared to a segment filled 200+ horsepower streetfighter road bikes, the new 2023 BMW M1000R is a no-compromises offering from the German brand.

With 205hp on tap, the BMW M1000R debuts with the big horsepower numbers that consumers are looking for, along with a litany of premium pieces that fill this high-end space.

It’s a busy time in the Asphalt & Rubber office, with the entire motorcycle industry deciding that January/February is the perfect time to host events. As such, we should have a flurry of reviews, interviews, and other articles from these events posting to the site over the next few weeks.

For me, this starts two weeks on the road, with my first top near Malaga, Spain for the 2016 MV Agusta Brutale 800 launch – the day’s route see us riding the new Brutale 800 near the Mediterranean Sea today, putting about 150km on the bike.

Things are already off to an interesting start, as we woke up to a sizable earthquake, whose epicenter was just on the other side of the sea, 11km off the coast of Morocco. Hopefully that’s not a bad omen for my fellow riders, though for me it felt like being back in California.

Enough of all that, the purpose of this post is to field questions about the 2016 MV Agusta Brutale 800 from A&R readers, which I can answer in the comments section. If I don’t know an answer, I will try to get a response from the MV Agusta personnel that are here with me in Spain.

You can follow our thoughts on the bike live via FacebookTwitter, and Instagram. You can also try searching for the hashtags: #Brutale800 for the thoughts of our colleagues as well.

For the 2016 model year, the MV Agusta Brutale 800 gets an obvious makeover, with changes coming to the tail section, fuel tank, exhaust, taillight, and LED headlight.

What is less obvious though, are the effects of having to be Euro4 emissions compliant, which drop the Brutale 800’s peak power from 125hp to 116hp, though there is an increase in peak torque, from 59 lbs•ft to 61 lbs•ft.

The crafty folks at Moto.it have gotten their hands on a video that shows the 2016 MV Agusta Brutale 800, which will be getting a modest facelift for the upcoming model year. Details on the model are non-existent at this point, but we can spot obvious style changes on this bike  when compared to the 2015 model.

As such, the tail-section has been replaced with one that uses negative space, like on the MV Agusta Turismo Veloce. Similarly, the fuel tank, exhaust, taillight, and headlight have all been swept backwards, while the intake ducts, and radiator fairings have all been changed.

The chassis and three-cylinder engine seem to be unchanged for 2016, but we’ll have to wait for official word from MV Agusta on that front. Expect to see the 2016 MV Agusta Brutale 800 officially drop on Monday, and be on display at the EICMA show in Milan.

We don’t want to know how our friends at Oliepeil got onto the INTERMOT show floor ahead of its official press opening tomorrow, but the crafty Dutch bloggers have spotted a number of machines that the OEMs had laying around uncovered.

Of course we have been expecting something like a Suzuki GSR1000 for some time now, and just a few months ago, a naked bike badged as the Suzuki GSX-S1000 was spied while it was filming a commercial in Southern California.

Now it seems that Suzuki will be releasing a full-faired version of the bike as well, as it has been spotted on the INTERMOT showroom floor next to its naked compatriot.

I had to check the last time we showed you some of Oberdan Bezzi’s work, and it was over three months ago. The Italian designer has certainly been busy since that time though, as he has produced a number of BMW/Bimota concepts for us to ponder about.

Imagining the Italian company’s current trend of using BMW power plants — as has been seen with the Bimota BB3 — Bezzi’s drawings instead use BMW Motorrad’s popular boxer engine as their base.

The effect is an interesting one, as the BMW’s boxer engine has proven to be the base of the German brands Top 3 selling bikes, and has found interesting applications in the BMW R nineT modular machine, and the BMW Roadster Concept motorcycle.

Here dubbed the “Bimota BB4”, these concepts come in a variety of sporty standard, cafe racer, and streetfighter varieties that Bezzi’s simply calls a “Café Fighter” concept.

It’s hard to pick our favorite from the bunch, but we are enthusiastic about the idea of a boxer-powered Bimota. We doubt we’ll see such a move from the now Swiss-owned brand, but like a good concept sketch, it’s good to dream.

Ducati is hosting its press launch of the 2015 Ducati Monster 821 in Bologna right now, which means that the Italian motorcycle company also just released a ton of high-resoltuion photos of its new water-cooled baby Monster on the interwebs.

Visually very similar to the Monster 1200, the Monster 821 distinguishes itself with lower-spec components, and more noticeably with a double-sided swingarm.

Featuring the same 821cc Testastretta 11° engine (112hp and 65.9 lbs•ft) that is found on the Ducati Hypermotard and Ducati Hyperstrada, the Monster 821 tips the scales at 395.7 lbs (dry) – just 5 lbs less than its 1,200cc counterpart. Other features include traction control, ABS brakes, and a ride-by-wire throttle.

Expect to see the 2015 Ducati Monster 821 in  a Ducati dealership near you next month. Pricing is set at $11,495 for the in red and white models, while the “Dark” is priced at $10,995.

We already showed you the first glimpse of the 2014 Kawasaki Z1000 two weeks ago, but with just a few days until the start of the 2013 EICMA show, Kawasaki’s new naked bike is giving us the full monty, courtesy of Japan’s Mr. Bike. Getting a chance to film the new Kawasaki Z1000 with up-close panning shots, we are even treated to the new Z’s exhaust note.

For the new model year, things seem to be mainly an aesthetic overhaul — the great internet debate is now whether the new Z1000 retains its predecessor’s 136hp motor, or whether the machine gets the 140hp lump from the Kawasaki Z1000SX. One would presume the latter, though both engines are of the same ilk and difficult to distinguish from visually.

That BMW is making a streetfighter version of its venerable S1000RR superbike is no secret, as we have seen the “BMW S1000R” naked bike already before from the lenses of Europe’s plethora of spy photographers. Today we get another glimpse of what zie Germans have been up to in their workshops, and what we expect them to debut at the EICMA show in Milan later this fall.

Caught head-on and from the side (see after the jump), we get a good look at what appears to be a final, or near final, headlight assembly, and true to BMW form, it is winking at us. From the side, we can see that the naked bike retains many of the S1000RR’s components, including its exhaust design. Of course, the real question will be what’s inside the cylinder casings.

Yamaha is gearing up to debut some models, this much we know. Both the US and European arms of the tuning fork brand have been in full marketing/PR swing lately, and today’s quick video teaser just confirms as much.

What exactly Yamaha is gearing up to promote though is a different story, however we do know that the Japanese brand sees three-cylinder engines as the way forward with its motorcycle designs.

Teasing today what appears to be an upright-sitting street bike, we can only assume that Yamaha has some sort of new naked or streetfighter machine it is readying for mass consumption.

With the video coming from Yamaha Europe though, one can guess as to whether this particular motorcycle will be a small-displacement machine, Europe-only model, or what exactly. Could it be the first three-cylinder machine from Yamaha? Time will tell, and we won’t have long to wait.

The eagle eyes over at the Italian magazine Motociclismo have caught BMW testing the naked-bike version of the BMW S1000RR out in Italy. A machine that has long been rumored, and expected to be the encore production of the Germany company’s very successful superbike project, the streetfightered RR is expected to have the same four-cylinder superbike motor, though likely in a lower state of tune.

Dressed in BMW’s typical black and white swirl camouflage, it is hard to see all the details of the new motorcycle, though the front fairing looks ahem interesting. Building off an already existing model, a naked RR is the logical next machine to come from zie Germans, and if it debuts as a 2014 machine, then we can expect to see it at the EICMA show in Milan later this year in November (there is no INTERMOT show this year).