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The outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has wreaked havoc on many things: public health, international transport, the global economy, and much more.

But as we are website about motorcycles and motorcycle road racing, we are primarily concerned on the effect it has had on the MotoGP and WorldSBK seasons.

As of Friday, March 13th 2020, Dorna and the FIM had postponed the Buriram, Austin, and Argentina rounds of MotoGP, and the Jerez round of WorldSBK, and were forced to cancel the MotoGP class at the season opener at Qatar.

Things have changed so fast over the past two weeks that it is almost impossible to keep up. As Twitter racing wit SofaRacer put it, “A month ago, the state of Marc Márquez’ shoulder was the big talking point of the season. Halcyon days.”

Since then, a small, contained outbreak of a new flu-like disease has gone from a curiosity in a remote location far from any traditional racetracks to a global pandemic, sweeping through the racing heartlands of Italy and Spain.

For the 2020 racing year, MotoAmerica has announced that it will run a three-round Mini Cup, in an effort to bridge the gap for young racers into professional racing.

The new series, which will race at Road America, The Ridge Motorsports Park, and PittRace, will have four spec-classes, all of which will use Ohvale motorcycles.

The class breakdown is as follow: 110cc (four-speed); 160cc; 190cc (racers aged up to 14 years); and 190 Adult (racers over the age of 15), with all of the races set to take place on karting tracks at the aforementioned race courses.

For those that haven’t been keeping track on Asphalt & Rubber, the Brap Talk podcast, and on social media, we are spending more than a little bit of time at the track this year, racing with the Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association (OMRRA) to chronicle what it means to become an amateur racer.

I have already outlined my reasons for wanting to go racing, but I wanted to spend the next two article mentioning what I am racing with, both in terms of machinery and gear. First up is an introduction to our racing platform, which for this season is a Kramer HRK Evo2 S.

We have already talked about Kramer’s ready-to-race single-cylinder motorcycles, and in fact our race bike for this series is the same bike featured in that article’s story.

Previously a demo bike for Kramer in the Pacific Northwest, this “S” model machine found its home in my garage, and as you can see from the photo above, it has been on quite the journey since.

I had to hit the archives to find the photo above, because it is a photo from one of my first track days roughly 11 years ago – just before the idea of Asphalt & Rubber started to crossed my mind.

I was just a track day junky back then. Motorcycles were an escape from the endless studies that come with a legal education, and going to school in Pennsylvania meant really only being able to ride on the track, since street riding came with too narrow of a window with the weather for my California-spoiled tastes.

I caught the bug hard though, and through school I probably did a dozen track days a season. I’m not saying some of my massive student loan debt went to fueling my on-track pursuits…but yeah, it did.

In a way, I guess that worked out, as it was a year after graduation that I started doing A&R full-time, and the rest they say is history.

With all that time doing track days though, it is hard to believe that I haven’t done any sort of racing, but there are several reasons for that, and why now is a time I’ve chosen to bite the bullet.

Over the course of this year, we are going to bring you a number of motorcycle stories that focus on the experience of going motorcycle racing at the amateur level. We call the series “Gone Racing”, and if you have been following us on Instagram or listening to the Brap Talk podcast then you have likely already been privy to some of the preparation for these features.

The concept is pretty simple, yours truly will be competing here in Portland with the Oregon Motorcycle Road Racing Association (OMRRA) – as a true blue novice – using a Kramer HKR EVO2 as a racing and testing platform.

The goal of the series is to give a glimpse into what it is like to go from a track day rider to novice racer, and to use that experience as a springboard to explore various topics, like getting a race license, what gear to use, setting up a bike for racing, preparing as a rider, and so forth.

For our A&R Pro readers, we will also have some stories that take a deep dive on various technical topics, like the number of fuels available to racers (aka the cost-benefit analysis of MR12), how to read your tires (aka the dark art of the black round things), and the real difference between braking components (aka why does the Brembo GP4-RR cost as much a decent track bike?).

“Make Motorcycles Great Again” – that should be the battle cry for the American motorcycle industry for 2019 and onward.

We have talked at great length about the various ways that the motorcycle industry in the United States can revamp itself for life in the 21st century, and while there isn’t a single silver bullet to fix motorcycling in the USA, there are several pillars that such a plan can rest upon.

One of those pillars is getting young riders involved on two-wheels, and on the race track there is no better way to do that than with mini-moto racing. It is cheap and approachable…and most importantly, it is fun.

Getting onto a local cart track with a motorcycle can be done for a fraction of the cost of big bikes on proper road race circuits, and your budget is really only constrained by how good you are at hunting for deals on Craigslist.

Though if you really want to go all out, we present to you the Ohvale GP-0. The pinnacle of the sport, the Daytona 190 model from Ohvale will set you back a solid $6,900 MSRP. Other models from Ohvale are also available, with the 110cc version starting at $4,500 MSRP.

God-given ability can be a crutch or curse depending on the mindset of an athlete. Talent can take you all the way to the top, but eventually you'll face a challenge that can only be overcome through hard work.

Lessons need to be learned along the way to ensure success, and only a handful of riders ever make it to MotoGP on their talent alone.

Most riders marry talent with dedication at an early age in the Grand Prix paddock, and some have had to learn those lessons at a very young age. Vince Lombardi once said that “the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

In any sport, to get to the very top you need dedication as well as raw talent, but how far can natural ability get you in motorcycle racing? We set out to answer that question at the recent Qatar Grand Prix.

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Episode 69 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is a special one, since it is our recent live show, which was held at the Dainese D-Store in San Francisco

The show covers a number of topics, and starts out with a discussion about the recent news that the FIM has picked its spec-motorcycle for the upcoming FIM Moto-e Cup series.

From there, we move into a conversation about the state of the motorcycle industry, and how organizations like the AMA and MIC represent motorcycling – or don’t, as the case may be. 

This then leads into a talk about the industry as a whole in the United States, which is on the decline, and how we can fix that downward trend. The show then goes into a Q&A session, which continues these topics.

The conversations are pretty interesting, and well-worth listening to. Thank you again to all the Two Enthusiasts enthusiasts who spend their Wednesday night with us in San Francisco!

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.

Episode 68 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is one of our last shows recorded in 2017, and it’s a good one.

In this show, we start out with a discussion about the TVS Apache RR 310S – a bike that is very likely to become the basis for BMW’s next sport bike. This then leads to a discussion about the supersport class, and how to make more compelling models for enthusiasts.

Our attention then turns to the coming rule changes for the World Superbike Championship, and the rumors of similar movements in the MotoAmerica Championship. These changes will also have effects on future production machines, which we speculate upon.

The show wraps up with an interesting discussion about the motorcycle media landscape and what it means to be a “journalist” in this industry, and during this point in time in media consumption.

All in all, it’s a very interesting show, and we think you will enjoy it.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.

In Episode 67 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast we cover some big news in the industry. We start by talking about the MAG Group’s recent bankruptcy announcement, and Yamaha’s recent stock buyback, both of which came within a week of each other and are rather complicated to explain.

Our focus then moves to racing, as Ben Spies announced that he will be returning to motorcycle racing, though now on a dirt bike. This launches us into a discussion about bringing up talent to the top levels of motorcycle racing, and how yesterday’s formula for making a champion doesn’t apply to today.

This then spurs a conversation about the changing landscape of the motorcycle industry, and how two-wheeled brands will have to adapt from baby-boomer focused strategies to a focus on younger generations.

The show is pretty interesting and covers a wide-range of topics that are percolating in the industry right now. We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com

One last note for our Californian listeners, we will be doing a live show at the Dainese D-Store in San Franciscoon December 13th, at 6:30pm (the show mentions an incorrect time, as schedules have changed since we recorded the show). We hope to see you there!

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well.