Watching freestyle trials riders is an exercise in understanding what most motorcyclists imagine they could do on two-wheels when they dream at night, but could never really hope to achieve in a million years during the waking hours.

Brimming with a skill set of patience, balance, and balls, riders like 12-time World Trials Champion Dougie Lampkin entertain us with their antics in confined spaces, on urban landscapes, and wiith gravity-defying front wheels.

So what happens when Lampkin visits the headquarters of Red Bull Racing? Well the obvious of course: wheelies, stoppies, burnouts…and that was just in the front courtyard.

Things start getting interesting though when Lampkin nips a bite to eat in the café, takes a look inside the F1 team’s giant kiln, and then later decides to jump a priceless Formula 1 race car. All in day’s work for a wanderlusting trials rider — we’ll just keep on dreaming.

I was informed by our favorite Slovenian stunt rider, Rok Bagoroš, that today is apparently Valentine’s Day — the much feared day of forced romance.

For those in the motorcycling community opting not to call today Anna Howard Shaw Day, February 14th is really a day best spent with your special someone — that v-twin or inline-four in your life that really makes your heart race each time you are around her.

To help show your appreciation for everything she does throughout the year, gifts are always welcomed of course, and what girl doesn’t like a new pair of shoes? Some Bridgestone or Pirellis perhaps?

Maybe your special someone is into some more…hardcore, in which case we recommend getting some fresh kneepucks and maybe a chain or two (properly tensioned of course).

Lastly, don’t forget your leather suit, and always practice safe motorcycling.

SPOILER ALERT: Yes it does. Remember that audio clip we posted last week of a then unknown KTM revving its motor in what sounded like a tunnel or warehouse? Well now we have the video to that special moment, and naturally of course “The Beast” was in a bunker, probably in Austria, and the part of some larger government experiment to make super-humans…or something like that.

A mixture of dubstep, octane, and honest hooliganism, the clip has a little bit of something for everyone. Watch the video after the jump, checkout the photos of the KTM 1290 Super Duke R Prototype, read the rest our damn-fine coverage of the 2012 EICMA motorcycle show, and grab a beverage of your choice. It is a Wednesday after all, and that’s the only reason you need to motocelebrate.

Asphalt & Rubber readers are an eclectic group of men and woman, and I am not going sully the romance we have going on here by lying to you guys with some sort of convoluted web of reasoning as to how a nearly team minuted Ken Block / DC Shoes / Ford Focus video is related to motorcycles — because well frankly, it’s not. Yeah sure, there is a 12 second Travis Pastrana cameo tucked-away in there somewhere, and that might be enough material to spin-doctor the snot out of this puppy, but here’s the deal:

First, the video is awesome in that 12-year-old boy discovering bottle rockets sort of way. Second, the video is set in my home town, and we all know how militant I can be about the Golden State, whose border I draw somewhere just south of Ojai. And third, the video is an example of great marketing, and it is such an easy example of what can crossover into motorcycles, it pains me that we here in the two-wheeled world haven’t answered back with something even better. Enjoy after the jump.

Choosing to forgo a legal career and instead blog about motorcycles for a living, I of course have to comment on an interesting case that is about to hit a federal court in South Carolina, which concerns whether motorcyclists have a constitutional right to perform a burnout on their motorcycles. Before we all have a collective eyeroll on legitimizing squidly behavior on city streets, consider the central fact of this case is that the behavior in question was not preformed on a public road, but instead on private property.

The issue here stems from a biker hangout know for its burnout competitions, as Suck Bang Blow of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina found its permit for hosting biker parties to include an interesting outright ban on motorcycle burnouts for the 2012 rally season. This differs a bit from previous years, as past permits from Horry County simply limited the hours and locations that such activities could occur (from noon to 9pm, at the back of the building).

Calling the noise from the burnouts a nuisance, the county has banned all burnouts within its borders, stating it has the right to do so under state law (presumably that reasoning stems from basic nuisance analysis in tort law). SBB disagrees however, and after winning an emergency injunction, has taken the case to federal court. Arguing that burnouts are a protected form of speech that display male machismo (our words, not theirs), the biker bar hopes that federal judges will find that the act of performing a burnout is an action protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Stunting motorcycles, bicycles, tricycles, and sisters-in-law, the name of French trials rider Julien Dupont should be a familiar one to A&R readers by now. Similarly, the name of German car manufacturer Audi should also ring a bell, as the Auto Union’s recent $1.1 billion acquisition of Ducati Motor Holdings is certainly still fresh in every motorcyclist’s mind. A sign of maybe things to come, auto manufacturers have been working on something they call “last-mile transportation” which focuses on the use of short-distance urban transportation.

Cities like London are starting to impose congestion taxes, in an effort to curb road congestion in dense urban areas, as well as boost funding for roadway infrastructure. Despite the “drill at home” effort here in the US, the price of gas is surely only going to increase over the coming decade. Putting all this together, the long-term prospect of personal transportation is going to have to change dramatically over the next few generations, and car manufacturers know it.

Hoping to change with the times, we have seen car manufacturers and even motorcycle manufacturers dabble with the concept of branded motorcycles, scooters, and other sorts of low-impact transportation devices. One such endeavor from that train of thought is the Audi E-Bike. An exceptionally good looking piece of kit, the bike features a moped-like electric drivetrain, in addition to the traditional human-powered system. Carbon everything, LED headlight & taillight, frame-embeded dashboard, etc.

Oh, and that Dupont fellow? Well, someone has to make riding an electric bicycle look cool, right?

You may remember Rok Bagoroš from his two-wheeled escapades on the KTM 125 Duke, but the 23-year-old Slovenian stunt rider has just graduated to KTM’s big-boy hooligan machine: the KTM 690 Duke. With the Austrian manufacturer making a special KTM 690 Duke to suit the needs of Bagoroš, the folks at Kiska have also given the new Duke a nice personalized and edgy look to the bike to fit Rok’s style.

“There’s a BIG difference between the two bikes,” says Rok. “The bike has five times more power then the Duke 125 and any mistake can result in a crash, as I’ve already discovered. The bike has amazing power but I’m slowly getting it under control. I have to remember that this is my first big stunt bike and so I have to learn how to handle the extra power and convert it into spectacular tricks that will be fun to do and thrilling for the fans.”

While Rok gets used to his new toy, we will just have to lament the fact that KTM is still not bringing this bike to the United States. Enjoy the photos and video after the jump, it is likely as close as you will get to the KTM 690 Duke on USA soil.

If you want to end your Wednesday on a high-note, look no further than this video of Julien Welsch (Facebook & Twitter). Riding his Triumph Street Triple through woods enduro-style (yes, with knobbies and all), the famed stunt rider makes this fish-of-water look like its has lungs for gils.

Throw in some great photography, a dubstep soundtrack that doesn’t make you want to bang your head against the wall, & some epic riding, and well…for three minutes and twenty-nine seconds you won’t have anything bad to say about the French (je plaisantais mes amis!). In other news, somewhere in Leicestershire, a Triumph engineer is quietly sobbing.

BRD Motorcycles continues to make progress with the company’s first electric motorcycle: the BRD RedShift. Asphalt & Rubber thoroughly enjoyed our time on BRD RedShift SM prototype when I rode it around the Infineon karting track, which makes me confident that the San Franciscan company’s small legion of wait-listed buyers will be pleasantly surprised by the electric motorcycle’s pep when it becomes available later this year.

Producing now a quick video of the BRD RedShift SM hooning around San Francisco, it could be that the guys at BRD want to build a little buzz about the RedShift before the company goes to Indianapolis to woo potential dealerships at the Indy Dealer Expo. Or maybe, the over-aged children at BRD couldn’t help but have a little fun between their 25hr work days. Either way, stunt rider Ryan Moore finds a way to put his creative and electronically-powered stamp on all the fine neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Bonus points for the pan-around shot in front of the Broadway strip clubs guys…not that we’ve been there.

Julien Dupont blah blah blah Arthur Coutard blah blah blah trials, awesome, BBQ sauce. Yes, that crazy French trials rider-turned-urban stunt monsieur is at it again, this time with hetro-life partner Arthur Coutard at his side in the French Alps. Continuing his “Ride the World” video series, Dupont & Co. haven’t picked a city for this adventure this time, instead choosing to do things in a more au naturel setting. With more Frenchness on tap than a silent black & white film tragedy about mimes with baguettes, you’ll have more “je ne sais quoi” than you can shake a croissant at after the jump.