The competitors for the 91st Pikes Peak International Hill Climb have just concluded a two-day tire test at the Colorado road course, and it should perhaps come as no surprise that our boy Carlin Dunne has posted the outright fastest lap for a motorcycle during the tire test (the Santa Barbara native set the outright two-wheeled course record last year on his Ducati Multistrada 1200 S). What is surprising about Carlin’s result at the tire test is that he was on the Lightning Motorcycles electric superbike. That’s right, the fastest bike so far for 2013′s Race to the Clouds is a 200+ hp electric superbike that is refueled with solar energy. Petrol heads, eat your heart out.
Talking to the Indy Star, Mark Miles (CEO of Hulman & Co, the parent company to Indianapolis Motor Speedway) has put some doubt into the historic venue’s commitment to host the MotoGP Championship. Having a contract to run the race through the 2014 season, Miles said that IMS might opt-out of the final year in its agreement with Dorna (IMS apparently has this option for a brief window after the 2013 Indianapolis GP). However while the news has focused so far on IMS’s ability to opt-out, both Dorna and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have options in their contract to go through with the 2014 round, and with a bevy of variables in the air, we may or may not see three American GP rounds next year.
Surprise! America will be getting a 847cc three-cylinder naked bike for the 2014 model year, the 2014 Yamaha FZ-09. Replacing the Yamaha FZ8 in the Japanese company’s line-up, the FZ-09 is the first motorcycle from the tuning fork brand to sport the Yamaha’s new line of three-cylinder engines. The Yamaha FZ-09 comes about as the MIC is reporting its second-consecutive year of growth in the 751+cc sport bike segment, as well as increase in commuter riding over short-distance sport riding. With those trends in mind, Yamaha has punched out the displacement on its middleweight naked bike, and focused on giving riders a comfortable, yet stout, motorcycle. Priced at $7,990 MSRP, we think Yamaha hit the nail pretty much on the head with this one.
In the past few years I’ve come to believe that, while superior physical differences (their reflexes and fine motor skills) are significant, it’s the mental differences that are the most interesting. I suppose anyone who has ridden a motorcycle even a bit beyond one’s comfort zone can appreciate some part of the physical aspect of riding a racing bike. For most of us, even the speed of racers in local events is impressive compared to our street riding. While the skills with throttle, brakes, and balance are on a level similar to the best athletes in other sports, I think that what really sets motorcycle racers apart is their ability to overcome fear.
The progress in the last five years on electric motorcycles has been astounding. Taking their first laps around the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course, a 87.434 mph pace was the best an electric motorcycle could do at the prestigious road race in 2009 — a pace that was on par with the 50cc record set in 1971. In just five years after the first laps were taken by electric motorcycles at Snaefell, these machines have grown their average lap speeds by over 20 mph at the TT Zero race, setting a new record of 109.675 mph in 2013, and boasting a rate of improvement of roughly 5 mph each year since 2009. If hitting 142.2 mph down the Sulby Straight speed trap wasn’t further proof of the speeds these bikes are achieving, maybe some visual evidence will help support the notion.
Darius Glover is a dirt bike racer. Like you and me, he lives to ride, and when he is on two-wheels he feels the freedom that only other motorcyclists can truly understand. The thing is though, Darius is paralyzed from the waist down. Where others would give up their dreams and this sport, Darius at the age of 15 instead pushed onward. No pity parties, no excuses, just simply a daily example of where there is a will, there is a way, and a reminder that you can achieve anything that you put your mind to. It’s hard not to get a bit choked up listening to Darius tell his story, but you walk away feeling uplifted after feeling his attitude come across the screen.
Any race where 1,500 riders start, 500 qualify, and only 14 finish, has got to be an epic competition, and considering the fact that the Erzberg Rodeo starts in the excavation pit of an Austrian mine…well, it takes a special rider to be enticed by such an event. One such special rider is Graham Jarvis, who was the first of the fourteen men to reach the 20th and final checkpoint. Taking 2 hours and 52 seconds to complete the course, Jarvis made the 2013 Erzberg Rodeo look downright easy. However, with one look at the race-day conditions from this past weekend, we know it was anything but.
While normally, MotoGP fans never get enough of seeing Valentino Rossi on TV, there is one shot they would (for the most part) gladly be spared. As he leaves the pits, Rossi stands on the footpegs, and pulls his leathers from between his buttocks, before sitting back down again and leaving. These rituals – part useful limbering up, part invocation of Lady Luck – are something many riders perform, in their attempt to exert control over themselves, and over their environment. In a fascinating press release – by far the most interesting we have received in many months – the Aspar team today provided a discussion and explanation of what riders are trying to achieve through the use of these rituals.
Hoping to make it four wins in a row, it goes without saying that the MotoCzysz crew is working hard to close the gap to the John McGuinness and the Mugen team. However, having Team Principal Michael Czysz stuck back in the US, undergoing cancer treatments, must certainly add another level of motivation for the on-island MotoCzysz crew. Making time in their busy schedule, Asphalt & Rubber got to take some up-close photos of the 2013 MotoCzysz E1pc. The most obvious changes made to the MotoCzysz E1pc for the 2013 TT Zero race are the use conventional suspension pieces. Of course, it’s not a completely standard suspension setup, as MotoCzysz has developed its own adjustable triple clamp that incorporates tunable lateral flex parameters.
Max Biaggi is to make a surprise return to riding a MotoGP machine. The former 250 and World Superbike champion will take a seat on Ben Spies’ Ignite Pramac Ducati as part of a one-day test at Mugello, as part of Ducati’s testing program, according to Italian site GPOne. Spies was scheduled to stay on at Mugello to take part in a two-day test, but after the first day of practice at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, it was clear to both Spies and Ducati that his shoulder was still too weak to ride a MotoGP machine. With work continuing on the Desmosedici, it was important for Ducati to get as much data as possible on their bike, and so Biaggi was offered the chance to ride the machine.
Please tell me that I am misunderstanding this post. The akcnoledgment at the bottom tells me that you support the ACLU? This is an organization that is formed opn comunist principles. They hide that fact but it is fact none the less.
I’d like to put the Armed Forces of the United States in here. Whether they be current members serving in Afghanistan or Iraq, or Veterans of wars long past, their sacrifices and contributions to our country and its’ freedom shall not be forgotten.
I’ll second the show of respect to our millitary veterans for their brave sacrifice.
ACLU? You must be kidding.
The ACLU protects Joe R.’s right to be wrong.
@ irksome.
Do your own research before you say that i’m wrong. I am correct!
I’d love to hear some of these “facts.”
Great blog post. It’s nice to re-read some of the actual lines from the declaration and take a step back from the modern hyper-critica and think about why and how the US became what it is. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A body of men who took a step back, looked at the problems of the world and said, there is something better for us. I bet these guys would have rode motorcycles if they could….
Joe R. YOU are the one who needs to do the research as you have made the claim that the ACLU is based on Communist principles. But then again, so is real christianity. The ACLU fights for everyone. Are you a Tea Bagger by chance who also thinks that Thomas Paine is what Glenn Beck says he is?
“This is an organization that is formed opn comunist principles.” Cite your sources, please.
Yeah, the ACLU never does any good. Maybe they should not defend this guy:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/15/AR2010061505556.html
Ok, sorry couldn’t reply sooner. I had work to do. Look guys, I have done my own research long ago. I could give you many, many things but I will give you just one and you can do your own research if you are so inclined. Roger Baldwin the founder of the organization stated the following.
Roger Baldwin: “I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class… Communism is the goal.”
Many otherfounding members have similar or more progressive ideals. You make up your own mind.
I am not talking about an arcticle in the washington post. I am talking about the true ideals of the organization.
So, you have the supposed statement of one of the founders about his personal beliefs. You’ve got jack diddly squat about the ORGANIZATION. Besides, Communism is a FAILED religon that only diaper-filing breast-feading Conservative Republicans give any thought to.
You have a right to your opinion. Some of us are just not as ready to be willing slaves to the State. Its more repulsive to lie to ourselves that we’re billy baddasses while groveling on our knees than it is to actually stand up.
http://www.carlosmiller.com
Land of the free and the home of the brave my ass!
Why so angry Tom? Did Limbaugh pee in your fair-trade organic matcha? Obama is in office, you should be happy now! (Lol, rolling eyes)
Joe R: It is well documented, you are right about the ACLU. You are not the only one who knows this. Never mind the Lib-tard peanut gallery.
There is no government. Only a vehicle for special interests to control us by threatening with death, economic ruination, or life in a cage. The old have built a welfare society upon the backs of the young. The poor stay poor. The middle-aged do all the work. Universal socialism for the elderly is consuming this country. 70% of all Federal revenues fund social initiatives which aren’t even enumerated in the Constitution (approx. $2trilion). Over 50% of the total Federal budget ($1.5T) is spent on the elderly in the form of pension, medical, and interest on the debt to pay the pension and medical bills. It is the greatest generational theft the world has ever known.
The old were deceived by politicians who were eager to take their money and leave them with nothing but promises. Healthcare reform, anyone?. Our generation cannot be so stupid. Democrats created this mess and they continue to make it worse. Republicans are dumb enough to believe they can build an artificial free market to pay for it all.
They will all burn in hell.
Happy July 4th. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
Great post. The government is certainly deeply flawed, all the more reason to remember the principles on which we based our revolution to free ourselves from the last tyrannical government.
The liberal/conservative divide doesn’t split in terms of liberty vs tyranny, it never has. The conservatives would leave us, at least in theory, free to conduct our economic affairs mostly as we like, but won’t allow us to watch the TV we want, have the porn we want, ride motorcycles when and where we want, marry who we like, dress how we like, consume, inject or inhale what we like, avail ourselves of the medical treatments most likely to help us or order virtually any other aspect of our lives in the way we wish free of their supervision.
It is combating these many attacks on personal liberties where the ACLU earns its keep. Sure its gets bogged down in other matters and tends to be pretty “liberal”, but its a strand of liberalism that’s needed to keep the social conservatives from turning this into a fascist state.
Similarly, the liberals would eventually lead us into socialism and subsequent economic collapse (wait, too late for that?). Many organizations push against this as well – FEE, CATO, The Locke Institute, The Institute for Justice, the entire field of Austrian Economics and many others.
Sadly neither political camp will really help the situation. Few voters think through a coherent political philosophy, finding it easier to vote for the president with the nicer hair, the more trendy campaign or the most lucrative bribes. Politicians then serve up what the masses clamor for. This has lead to two parties, neither of which has a consistent identity. Republicans taxed and spent like mad, the Democrats have done little to improve individual, personal liberties. Rather than press each other where they fundamentally agree they seem to be converging into a socially conservative, economically liberal totalitarian entity that will have both our personal liberties as well as our wallets.
No single political personality is going to save us from our own willingness to steal our fellow citizens’ cash (even if our method of coercion is the state), our haughty belief that we should dictate morals to each other or our general apathy that leads to incoherent policy and rampant special interest successes.
Truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror…
Now, anyone have directions for a certain Gulch in Colorado? I’m sure the riding there will be fantastic;)
ACLwhat???, not at all. Obama is a Democrat. I am not. That you would think that is enough shows that the depth of your thinking is as deep as a Limbaugh buy gold commercial. Some of us prefer to drag our knees through a corner….not to live on them.
You know, I blame the framers of the Constitution. They set up a system where things would be endlessly debated, where it would be very difficult to get anything done unless it was apparent to almost everyone that the thing needed doing, and where when something was finally decided, it could be overturned at any point down the road. Oh wait…that was the whole point.