Earlier this year we showed you the Honda CRF250 Rally concept, the 250cc production equivalent to Honda’s rally raid competition machine, the Honda CRF450 Rally.
That machine appears ready to move from concept to reality, as Honda has trademarked the name in both Europe and the USA, and we expect to see the lightweight adventure bike drop, sooner rather than later.
Could Suzuki’s turbocharged Recursion concept bike be coming to market? There have been rumors already, but that news just got a lot more solid because of Suzuki’s trademark filings this week.
Registering the name “Recursion” in both the US and European markets, for use with motorcycles, the Japanese brand seems set to debut the new model in the coming months.
The question of course then turns to how closely the production machine will be to the concept machine, which features a 588cc intercooled and turbocharged two-cylinder engine. Very closely, we hope.
When the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 first broke cover last year, it was with two model designations: the YZF-R1M and YZF-R1S. Obviously, only one of those machines has come to market, which is peculiar since Yamaha went to some trouble to register both names with the USPTO.
What happened to the YZF-R1S is up for conjecture, though it does seem the model, whatever it may be, is destined to arrive in the US market, as the model name has been spotted in documents filed by Yamaha with the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Drive M7, the Malaysian energy drink firm, has issued a response to the claims by Aspar that Drive had pulled out of sponsoring team at the last minute.
Last Wednesday, the day before the 2015 MotoGP season was due to kick off, Aspar boss Juan Martinez claimed that Drive M7 had only just told him about their decision to pull out of sponsoring the team the day before. Drive M7 disputes that version of events.
When approached by top British motorcycle racing publication Bikesport News for a response to those claims, the Malaysian energy drink company issued a statement explaining that they understood that the 2014 sponsorship agreement – worth €1.8 million – would not be extended due to ongoing claims of trademark infringement.
Let the rumors fly as to what Kawasaki has up its sleeve, because Team Green has registered “Ninja R2” with the US Patent and Trademark office, as well as similar offices internationally.
The trademark application is fairly broad in what the name can be used for, but knowing Kawasaki’s product line, a new motorcycle can be expected from the “Ninja” name.
What that motorcycle could be, is up for debate. Some draw a line between the “Ninja R2” name and the recently revived “Ninja H2” model, and thus see another supercharged machine to come from Kawasaki. Others hear the whispers of a small-displacement sport bike, perhaps one with a stratospheric rev-limit (our pick).
Trademark applications with the USPTO show that Polaris has registered “Victory Charger” as a mark to be used with “electric motorcycles and structural parts therefor.”
The application is a strong hint that we could see an electric cruiser from the Victory brand, which is owned by Polaris, in the coming future.
The news is especially timely, as Polaris just acquired Brammo’s electric motorcycle business, and plans on building electric motorcycles at the company’s facilities in Spirit Lake, IA.
As if there wasn’t already enough fuel for the fire, on a product roadmap for investors, Brammo listed an “eCruiser” as a possible future model — a model that could easily be repurposed for the progressive Victory cruiser brand.
Signs of life are starting to trickle out of Hamamatsu, as Suzuki finally seems to be working on new models for our riding pleasure. First, it was the news that the turbocharged Suzuki Recursion concept is likely to go into production, and now it’s that the Japanese OEM is reviving iconic names from its past: Katana and Gamma.
Suzuki has re-registered the Katana name & logo with both the European and American trademark offices, while the Gamma logo has been re-registered in the EU. What this means precisely in terms of future models is up for debate.
Adding more fuel to the fire, concerning Honda’s long-awaited V4 production superbike, the Japanese manufacturer has registered the trademark “RC213V-S” with the European Union.
As MotoGP fans should already know, next year’s production race bike will be called the Honda RC213V-RS, which should make the more plain “S” designation sound suspiciously like a street-going model.
Not exactly the most glamorous name for a road bike, especially one of this stature, one could not fault Honda for wanting to draw a link between the production model and its GP-racing lineage.
Trademark applications with the European Union have revealed a new sport-tourer model from Yamaha, which uses the FZ-09 / MT-09 three-cylinder standard as its basis, and looks very similar to the old Yamaha TDM models.
The model seems to be very similar to what was envisioned by designer Oberdan Bezzi, which saw the MT-09 / FZ-09 platform turned into a pair of convincing adventure-touring motorcycles, with a TDM variant as well.
Yamaha has made no secret about its plans to develop more three-cylinder machines, as the Japanese company tries to breath life back into its sales figures and model lineup, post-economic meltdown. With this new sport-touring triple now out of the bag, could the writing be on the wall for loyal FZ1 owners?
Harley-Davidson is releasing an electric motorcycle tomorrow, did you know? Something that we were put onto two years ago, alluded to last year, and spied last week, a quick stroll through the US Patent and Trademark filings shows that the “Livewire” name was registered by Harley-Davidson, for use on “motorcycles and structural parts therefor.”
The Honda Super Cub is a rolling definition of an iconic motorcycle. The centerpiece to the famous “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda” ad from the 1960’s, the Super Cub has gone on to be the best selling motorcycle in the world, with Honda recording its 60 millionth sale back in 2008…just three years after it notched its 50 millionth sale to the company’s corporate sales belt.
Perhaps getting the recognition it finally deserves, the Honda Super Cub is the first vehicle to receive a three-dimensional trademark in its home country of Japan. Three-dimensional trademarks are an uncommon thing in the intellectual property realm, and are virtually unheard of in the consumer product space, making the news that much more special for the Super Cub.