If you’ve bought an Öhlins shock or Öhlins steering damper in the last year and half or so, you may want to check your part’s serial number as it may be affected one of the two recalls Öhlins just issued for the company’s aftermarket suspension pieces.
It’s finally here. After much speculation and teasing, the 2015 MV Agusta F4 RC superbike is finally officially official, with official pictures and official specs to boot.
Confirming much of what we already knew, MV Agusta’s spec sheet has the F4 RC making 212 hp with the race exhaust, or 202.5 hp in street trim, while peak torque is 84.8 lbs•ft in either configuration.
Thanks to carbon fiber fairings, titanium connecting bolts and exhaust, lithium-ion battery, forged aluminum wheels, and magnesium casings, the MV Agusta F4 RC is 33 lbs lighter than the RR model, with a 386 lbs dry weight.
As expected, the 2015 MV Agusta F4 RC is equipped with the MVICS 2.0 electronics system, which includes traction control, ABS, rear-wheel lift control, and quick-shifter.
When the R1 was first launched it became an instant icon. A tri-axis engine with a GP style chassis was cutting edge technology back in 1998.
The bike has evolved through the years with fuel injection, a crossplane crank, and electronic systems amongst the hundreds of development upgrades.
The original R1 design focus was primarily for the street, however that has all changed for 2015, with Yamaha’s Engineer’s instructed to design a bike mainly for the track.
A team of 50 design engineers worked closely with Yamaha’s MotoGP team and test riders from divisions in Japan, Europe, and the US, including Valentino Rossi and US rider Josh Hayes, to come up with perhaps the most technologically advanced electronics package on a motorcycle ever made available to the riding public.
Many of the senior engineers were in attendance at Sydney Motorsport Park – Eastern Creek in Australia for the R1 world launch, providing excellent technical support for the test riders and a unique insight into the challenges they each faced creating the new R1.
The 4.5km Brabham circuit provided a world-class test track for the 100 journos who descended from all over the globe to experience the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 and R1M for the first time.
The diverse range of 18 corners, including one of the fastest turns in Australia, approached at nearly 300kmh, was perfect to test all the attributes of a new motorcycle.
Our test group had some quick guys including Josh Brookes, Steve Martin, and Cam Donald, so there was no hanging about.
What look to be official photos of the MV Agusta F4 RC have leaked out onto the internet, along with a slide from MV Agusta’s media presentation on the machine. The photos give us our first glimpse into Varese’s homologation special, complete with a special two-can exhaust by Termignoni.
The leaked slide confirms some of the numbers being thrown around about the F4 RC, namely that it will have 212hp, 81.86 lbs•ft of torque, weigh 175kg dry, and cost €36,900 (we already know that the MV Agusta F4 RC will cost $46,000 in the USA).
The 2015 Aprilia RSV4 RR represents a solid update to Noale’s already impressive superbike. Making 201hp, and dropping three pounds, the RSV4 RR features a bevy of other finer detail refinements, include a second-generation APRC electronics package. So how do you make a motorcycle like that better? Enter the Aprilia RSV4 RF.
Taking the Aprilia Race Package, which adds Öhlins suspension pieces and forged aluminum wheels, and adding a special livery that honors Aprilia’s racing success, you get the 2015 Aprilia RSV4 RF.
Aprilia hasn’t mentioned how much the RF will be over the RR, but we don’t think they will have any trouble selling them. More photos after the jump.
While the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 is pretty impressive in its own right, the folks at Iwata weren’t content to let things be, and thus have produced the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1M. An exclusive extension of the R1, Yamaha calls the R1M the closest thing there is to the company’s GP machine, the Yamaha YZR-M1.
Featuring the same 200hp “CP4” crossplane 998cc inline-four engine as the base model, Yamaha has added Öhlins’ ERS semi-active suspension pieces to the superbike, along with carbon fiber fairings, and a robust GPS-powered data acquisition system.
The Yamaha YZF-R1M utilizes the powerful electronics package that Yamaha has developed, with traction control, launch control, wheelie control, slide control, and anti-locking brakes all acting in unison through the inertial measurement unit (IMU).
Able to know how the motorcycle is moving through six-axis, the Yamaha YZF-R1M can then tailor how it responds to rider and road inputs, via the engine, the suspension, and the brakes.
Marc VDS Racing are to move up to MotoGP, fielding a factory Honda RC213V for Scott Redding. The deal was announced late on Sunday night via the Marc VDS Racing Twitter feed, after meetings between the team, Honda, and team owner Marc van der Straten.
The agreement means that the Marc VDS team will field a factory Honda RC213V for the next three seasons, through 2017. The duration of the contract had been a critical point in the negotiations, allowing the team to spread the costs out over a longer period, and showing HRC’s support for both the team and Redding.
The Yamaha YZF-R1 is a fantastic machine, in just about any iteration you can find. A potent weapon on the track, the R1 might not have all the bells and whistles that are found on European superbikes, but the Japanese liter-bike makes up for it with precision handling, great reliability, and gobs of tractable power.
This is great for two-wheeled enthusiasts, who ride the twisties or at local track days, but Yamaha’s crown jewel poses as a tough mark to beat when someone goes looking for something “more” from the design. DR Moto might have that answer though, for track enthusiasts who want something closer to what they see on Sunday’s race day, without the compromises that come with production/street machines.
There aren’t too many product lines in the motorcycle industry that can claim a thirty-year heritage, and with the whimper of marketing coming from Kawasaki, you would hardly know that the Ninja has been on the scene for three decades now.
To fix that problem, the 2015 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R has been released early to help Team Green celebrate the Ninja’s birthday. However, don’t get your hopes too high, the changes for 2015 are only skin-deep, and are comprised of the following:
The Honda CBR1000RR is a great street bike, albeit a little long-in-the-tooth in the fast-paced liter-bike category. The big hope and rumor for the 2013 EICMA show was that Honda would have its V4-powered superbike finally ready for debut, though plans for that machine seem to have been delayed…again.
Instead, Big Red has for us the 2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP, which is basically your standard Fireblade with premium kit bolted onto it, along with a very gentle engine massaging.
This sort of dual-pronged approach is fairly standard fare for the European brands (did you see what Ducati just did with the Monster 1200 and Monster 1200 S?), but for a Japanese OEM like Honda, it is a pretty revolutionary approach to model segmentation, but we digress.
An interesting development on the aftermarket side of things has graced our desks, as Öhlins has released a “suspension control unit” (SCU) that upgrades the electronically adjustable suspension on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S so that it becomes a semi-active suspension system. Whhhaaaat??!
So, if you’re the proud owner of a pre-2013 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S, and you think that your electronically controlled Öhlins suspension is no longer boss, now that Ducati has released its Sachs-powered “Skyhook” semi-active suspension pieces on its new batch of Multistrada sport-tourers, there is a remedy for your motolust.