Silverstone has taken the wraps off its modified Grand Prix circuit, dubbed the “Arena”. The British track has poured in €4 million and spent the past five months renovating itself with an addition 2,500 feet of racing distance. With the modified circuit, engineers expect the Arena to have some of the fastest speeds in Formula One and MotoGP. Helping launch the new circuit was the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, who cut the ceremonial ribbon.
Big Dog Motorcycles is recalling a number of its 2004 model motorcycles, including the Chopper, Bulldog, Ridgeback, Mastiff, Boxer, and Pitbull models. These affected motorcycles have a possibly loose connection between the harness connector and the electronic harness controller, which affects over 1,800 individual motorcycles, and puts their owners at risk.
We don’t expect Ducati to start making dirt-derived motorcycles anytime soon, but that didn’t stop Italian motorcycle sketcher Oberdan Bezzi from inking a pair of drawings that explore this unlikely scenario. Named the Desmotard and Desmocross, Bezzi takes a fairly standard approach to the aesthetics of dirt bikes, and adds a few Ducati inspired touches. If you close your eyes and imagine a Ducati SX bike, is this what you see? It’s hard for us to say yes to that question, but we do love the naming convention being used.
Yes silly season is well upon us now for MotoGP, and rumors are swelling after Livio Suppo spent time with Casey Stoner and his father during the MotoGP testing at Jerez, Spain. Suppo, who moved to HRC after 11 years with Ducati, is rumored to have met with Stoner in order to have the Australian rider make a switch of teams in 2011. The Honda marketing manager made it clear when he jumped ship from Ducati that he would be back for Stoner, a rumor that’s been confirmed by Loris Capirossi, and passed around the paddock more than a few times.
It doesn’t seem like a topic that really needs that much explaining, but after suffering through this weekend’s MotoGP race coverage here in the United States, it would seem there is some confusion on how to properly pronounce “Lorenzo”, as in Jorge Lorenzo’s last name. Continue reading if you want to see a leviathan description of Spanish language and how it relates to motorcycle racing in an admittedly over-the-top and pretentious sort of way.
A crash caused by Shoya Tomizawa and Simone Corsi sent riders tumbling yesterday in the Moto2 race at Jerez. Colliding in the apex of the corner with Corsi, Tomizawa’s Moto2 race bike spilled oil onto the Spanish track, which saw eight other riders hitting the tarmac. With nine bikes in all falling victim to the oil slick, the Moto2 race had to be red flagged and restarted. Watch the bikes fall like dominos in the video after the jump.
Even though the official TTXGP entry list isn’t due to be out until Monday morning, Asphalt & Rubber has been working hard to find out what electric motorcycle manufacturers would be at Infineon for the first round of TTXGP. We already expect Zero to show up on something that doesn’t rhyme with Ravizen, but what about Mission Motors, MotoCzysz, and Brammo? The answer to that question would be: no, no, and maybe…but probably not.
After hearing that Werkstatt Racing and Repair would soon be taking delivery of the first Mavizen to hit US soil, our ears piqued because we were under the impression that Zero Motorcycles must surely have recieved their Mavizens already, after announcing that the team would field two Mavizen bikes in the TTXGP series a while back.
With that apparently not the case, rumors suggested that Zero would be using another non-proprietary chassis at the first round of the TTXGP series at Infineon Raceway. While Zero wasn’t able to comment on their racing plans to us before the weekend, we do have some clues on what the company has up its sleeve from what we know already. More after the jump.