Stefan Pierer’s acquisition of Husqvarna continues to baffle me. You will note I say Pierer, and not KTM, bought Husqvarna, since the Austrian CEO used Pierer Industrie AG in the transaction as a means to help side-step European antitrust issues. After all, we can’t have Europe’s largest dirt bike manufacturer, nay largest total motorcycle manufacturer, gobbling up even more brands in the two-wheeled world. But, I digress. Developing three road bikes (Husqvarna Nuda 900, Husqvarna Strada 650, & Husqvarna Terra 650), with three more concepts waiting in the wings (Husqvarna Moab, Husqvarna Baja, & Husqvarna E-G0), it is with even more confusion that we learn that Pierer & Co. intend to kill the Husqvarna Nuda project and its other street siblings.
In case you missed the story last week, Kevin Schwantz is preparing to race in this year’s Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race. For the race, Schwantz will be riding on a team formed by Yukio Kagayama, who in addition to having raced in the MotoGP, World Superbike, and British Superbike Championships, is also a previous Suzuka 8-Hour winner with the Suzuki Endurance Race Team (also joining the three-rider team Noriyuki “Nitro” Haga). Releasing a Q&A about his team’s Suzuka 8-Hour entry, Kagayama-san walks us through how the team came together, what equipment the riders will use, and his outlook on the team’s competitiveness.
A single-cylinder hooligan-maker, the KTM 690 Duke is 330 lbs (curbside without fuel) and 67hp of two-wheeled fun, and we hope that the Austrians bring the KTM 690 Duke R our way as well. While we are on the topic of things missing from KTM’s American line-up, a decent supersport is painfully obvious, yet we can’t see the folks at KTM following the paths of other brands. That’s where our friend Luca Bar comes to mind with his latest concept: the KTM RC4. Using the KTM 690 Duke platform and its LC4 engine, Bar has designed a super-single full-fairing sport bike that takes the Austrian company’s “Ready to Race” DNA and applies it to an idea that is not all that disimilar to the Ducati Supermono.
When I sat down with Claudio Domenicali at the Ducati 1199 Panigale R launch, the now-CEO of Ducati Motor Holding was still just the General Manager of the Italian motorcycle company. Four weeks after our interview though, Gabriele del Torchio would leave Ducati for Alitalia; and Domenicali, a 21-year veteran of both the racing and production departments of Ducati, would take his place at the top of Italy’s most prestigious motorcycle brand. After reading our interview from Austin, Texas after the jump, I think you will agree too.
That Yamaha is working on a seamless gearbox is no secret, with Yamaha’s test riders currently racking up the kilometers around tracks in Japan. Recently, however, Spanish magazine SoloMoto published an article suggesting that Yamaha has already been using its new seamless gearbox since the beginning of the season. My own enquiries to check whether Yamaha was using a seamless gearbox or not always received the same answer: no, Yamaha is not using the seamless gearbox. To test this denial, I went out to the side of the track on Friday morning at Jerez to record the bikes as they went by.
After a very public father/son break-up between Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr., a steroid-ring scandal involving Paul Sr., and finally a bankruptcy proceeding, it appears that Orange County Choppers is the impossible to kill multi-headed hydra of doom that we all knew it was, as the custom chopper shop is once again headed to the small screen and recruiting some talent, on and off the show. Looking for “someone who will work alongside Paul Senior, running the shop and helping build some of the best custom motorcycles in the world,” OCC says it will be back on television with a new show later this month. Please for the love of god, will someone give this man the attention he craves so dearly??! Or, just shoot us in the face.
We love us some concept bikes here at Asphalt & Rubber, and we have featured more than a few pieces of stunning design and imagination on our pages. Though, we can’t remember the last time one of these works of art were brought to us by a legitimate racing team, but that is what we have here with the Team Alstare Superbike Concept. A nod to the former Suzuki team’s return to the World Superbike Championship as the Ducati factory squad with Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini, Alstare has enlisted the help of designer Serge Rusak of Rusak Kreaktive Designworks to ink the shape of its futuristic Superbike concept, while Tryptik Studios handled the 3D modeling prowess.
If you didn’t watch Thursday’s pre-event press conference for MotoGP at Jerez, it is worth a viewing right to the end (assuming you have a MotoGP.com account). Building off the news about the NBA’s Jason Collins coming out as gay in a self-written feature in Sport Illustrated, my good colleague David Emmett had the courage to inquire about the culture and acceptance of the MotoGP paddock for homosexual riders. For the sake of accuracy, after the jump is a full transcript of David’s question, as put to riders Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Stefan Bradl, and Scott Redding, as well as those riders’ responses to David’s inquiry.
News that Suzuki plans on returning to the MotoGP Championship in 2014 should be old information for dedicated Asphalt & Rubber readers, and the Japanese company’s inline-four race bike was already spotted doing test laps last year by the eager eyes at Cycle World. Well the American print-mag has another set of eyebrow-raising high-quality photos of the 2014 Suzuki GSV-R to mull over from the Motegi race track, along with some technical insights provided by the venerable Kevin Cameron.
A surprise addition to BMW Motorrad’s 2013 model line-up, zie Germans have announced a new middleweight adventure-tourer, the 2013 BMW F800GS Adventure. Like its larger predecessor, the BMW F800GS Adventure is a more travel-ready and off-road capable build of the recently updated BMW F800GS motorcycle. Featuring a larger windscreen, panniers, and a bigger fuel tank capacity (2.1 gallons larger, for a total of 6.3 gallons of fuel), the BMW F800GS Adventure keeps the same 85 hp, liquid-cooled, 798cc, parallel-twin engine found on the F800GS, as well as the same chassis configuration. Pricing in the US will be $13,550 for the base model BWM F800GS Adventure.
Honda has begun teasing its NRS250 race bike, which many believe will be the basis to the company’s involvement in the Moto3 racing class that will replace 125GP racing in 2012. NRS stands for “Next Racing Standard”, not to be confused with NSR series of two-stroke machines from Honda (Editor’s note: Great naming convention, right?), and not much is known about the bike beyond these dark photos.
UPDATE: Get your first glimpse of the MV Agusta F3 here.
In what can only be described as a terse press release, MV Agusta has released two teaser photos of its upcoming MV Agusta F3, the three-cylinder supersport bike that Claudio Castiglioni hopes will save his company. Known to be using a three-cylinder motor, it has been previously reported that the MV Agusta F3 would be a 675cc machine, just like the Triumph Daytona 675. However the Italian brand has confirmed that it will be using a 600cc displacement for its street machine, while giving us a glimpse of the bike without its F4 camouflage.
Erik Buell Racing continues to pump the interwebs with material on its EBR 1190RS street bike, the 1190cc v-twin American street bike. In what looks to be Part 1 of a multiple-part video series, EBR throws a bunch of cut-scenes together, giving us only a quick glimpse of the 1190RS. Although details are scarce about the winged-stead, we do know that the Erik Buell Racing 1190RS will be based of EBR’s 1190RR race bike, which was based in-turn off the now defunct Buell Barracuda 2.
Unfortunately Harley-Davidson closed down Buell before the Barracuda 2 could make it into production, thus gaining the ire of Buelltisti (we think that’s a word) around the world. Reports that the EBR 1190RS can be fueled by the sheer will of Erik Buell and tears of a unicorn might be exagereated, but we’re not certain. Enough fluff text, check the video after the jump.
KTM is hard at work on its new 125cc streetbike (which still needs a name) geared to young riders. Debuted at the EICMA show in Milan last year, KTM hopes to bring young riders into the “Ready to Race” brand at an early age. Accordingly, KTM released two concepts last year which centered around a 125cc four-stroke motor.
With a concept for track riding and a concept for stunting, KTM hopes this new bike will strike a nerve with what young riders think is cool about motorcycling. The bikes looked pretty good to us when we saw them first-hand in Milan, and from the looks of this teaser video, the R&D behind the concepts is coming along quite nicely.
Triumph is announcing a new adventure bike model on its dedicated website and Facebook page today, which for now is dubbed the Triumph Adventure. Presumably based off an sub-1050cc three-cylinder motor, the 2011 Triumph Adventure is expected to debut at the 2010 EICMA show, and come in two varieties: street and off-road.
It’s less than a week from the unveiling of the 2010 MV Agusta F4, and already we’ve been teased with a photo of the front of the motorcycle, and a render of its rear. Helping to fan the fire to the ungoing hype that’s surrounded the new F4, MV Agusta has released a teaser video that shows the bike off even more. Video after the jump.
In exactly one week’s time, A&R will be toughing it out in the harsh Milanese winter, sipping our cappucino, while MV Agusta shows us the latest iteration of their F4 Superbike. After releasing photos of the new 2010 MV Agusta Brutale, and teasing us with the front-view of the F4, we were a little worried the design of the new MV flagship (rendered above) was going to be a little stale. Will the new MV live up to the hyperbole? Only time will tell. Rumored bike details after the jump.
Ducati has officially acknowledged the existence of the upcoming Multistrada 1200, making a dedicated mini site for the adventure tourer. There’s not a lot there now in regards to information (there’s only a countdown timer to EICMA and a teaser video), but it does at least confirm the rumor of the bike’s name not being Stradaperta (we still like that name better). We’ll be in Milan in 10 days, bringing you as much information about the most hyped Ducati to date. Video and pictures after the jump
Not to be out done by Honda, Ducati has released its own teaser video for the new 1198 and 1198S Superbikes. It’s nicely done, although we could do without the bullet-cam style fading in the corners. Trust me guys, I don’t need a tunnel vision effect when these bikes are on the screen.
Source: motoblog.it
Grazie Maestro
Devoid of tacky voiceovers, over-used quick cuts, and general sensationalism, it is good to see every now and then an ad agency that let’s the product do the talking. Thus, in the interest of parody, I will do the same, except for the quick note that this is clearly a European/Japanese advert since such “wreak-less endangerment” of dragging knee pucks on public roads would land Honda in court quicker than a hot cup of coffee.
Source: moto.Caradisiac
Meep! Meep!
