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June 2009

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Thursday, the organizers (ASO) of the Dakar Rally announced that the event will only allow 450cc motorcycls in the professional class. Taking the news a bit hard, KTM has now claimed that the new class regulations are specifically “designed to end the dominance of KTM” in the historic and difficult race.

Unable to field and prep 450cc rally bikes, the Austrian company has announced that it will cut the race completely out of its schedule and budget, leaving nearly 50 riders SOL for bikes and/or sponsorships.

michelin-motogp

With Moto2 being an ever evolving race class, there is still some speculation as to whom its official partners will be. Repsol seems to be an almost lock on supplying oil and lubricants to the over-pepped 600cc Honda powerplants, as the Spanish company has a strangle hold on the MotoGP racing series.

What may come as a surprise to race fans though, is the resurgance of Michelin in prototype racing. After a less than stellar season last year in MotoGP, . Now, the French company is allegedly poised to sign a contract with Dorna to be the sole-tire provider with the fledgling Moto2 race class. This rumor seems to put out Dunlop, which has had a long history with the 250GP series.

With Moto2 constantly changing and adopting, we’ll believe this rumor as being possible for now; but, as always, time will tell.

Source: Moto.Caradisiac

motoczysz-final-ttxgp-4

As we said Monday, we had photos of the MotoCzysz in its final TTXGP race form, and here they are out in the wild now for all to see.

Looking at the photos, we can see that MotoCzysz chose to keep 6 of the 10 battery packs visible in the final design, 3 on each side. We can also see the chain connecting the 3 motors below the number 5 on the silver and red fairing. A slightly confusing touch is the C1 logo placed in the fairing. C1 is the name given to their MotoGP project which was recently abandoned to pursue the TTXGP electric motorcycle race at Isle Of Man.

Of all the TTXGP bikes that have broken cover over the last week the MotoCzysz may have been the most anticipated besides the Brammo TTR. We have to say the E1pc looks as good as it sounds with all three electric motors drawing max current.

Also from the pictures we can see the iPhone powered dash unit, which we assume is bringing speed, acceleration, pitch, and lateral-g information to rider via the phone’s bevy of built-in gadgetry. Take that in contrast to the almost rudimentry on/kill switch that looks so easy a Geico spokesperson could use it. Green for go, Red for stop.

Another note is the top-down view on the triple clamps. Gone are the pre-load and compression knobs most motorcyclists are familiar with, instead we see a hollow tube that goes down to the proprietary MotoCzysz fork/suspension assembly, another carry-over from the deceased MotoGP hopeful.

MotoCzysz still has not revealed much about the internals of this D1gi1al Superbike, a term they filed a trademark for at the USPTO. However, we do know this bike is designed to be flexible in power and tuning so it will be available to the consumer at multiple price points.

Source: MotoCzysz

mission-one-swing-arm

The day of reckoning for the TTXGP entrants is almost upon us. In just a short matter of months we’ve seen a handful of dedicated teams take on the challenge of building a fully electrically powered superbike motorcycle fit for FIM sanctioned racing.

Not at an easy feat to say the least.

Now granted, there’s still the matter of 30+ mile course to be covered, and of course all the chaos and excitement of race day, but all of the entrants should be proud of the hard work, and sleepless nights we’re sure they have encountered on their way to the Isle of Man TT.

2008-benelli-tornadotre1130e

While Ducati is recording , times are significantly tighter at Benelli, that other Italian motorcycle manufacturer. With many of its workers on part-time status (and with the Government paying part of their paycheck), production at the Benelli factory has been scaled back to around 1,000 motorcycles for 2009, down from the 20,000 the company had anticipated to make when it set it goals back in 2007.

This year, Chinese owner, Qiang Jiang, is taking a closer look at the Italian acquistion, with the possibility of folding the company not ruled out. This just a few months after Qiang Jiang pumped $26 million into the Italian brand.

loris-capirossi-best-braker-mugello

How could we talk about , and not touch on the slowest man of Mugello? No we don’t mean Sete Gibernau who has had a remarkably unremarkable season. We mean the Luxors of Late Braking, the Princes of Passing, and the Bastards of Barging in, those rider who hold on for just a split second longer than the rest before grabbing a fistful of brake after a long straight away.

Well, he clever folk at Brembo did some analytic interpretations from the data-logging the teams used at Mugello, and have figured out who the best brakers were at the Italian circuit this weekend. Results after the jump.