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MV Agusta F3: The €9,000 Motorcycle that Castiglioni Hopes Will Save the Company

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UPDATE: The MV Agusta F3 has officially broken cover.

Italian news site Il Sole 24 Ore sat down with the new owner of MV Agutsa, Claudio Castiglioni, and asked the Italian perhaps the most pertinent question about his new company: what’s next? Striking to the point of things, Castiglioni says much of MV Agusta’s future will depend on the company’s new three-cylinder motorcycles, which the company hopes to sell 10,000 of during the next model year.

Officially now called the MV Agusta F3, Castiglioni was also forthright on some of the details. Already rumored to be a 675cc three-cylinder powered motorcycle, Castiglioni has confirmed this setup along with the fact that there will be at least two price points, with a base and sport model being available.

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News

Harley-Davidson Drops Sidecars for Trikes

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Harley-Davidson is further consolidating its business categories, as the Milwaukee brand announced last week that it would be discontinuing its sidecar line. Interest in Harley-Davidson sidecars has been waning over the years, and with the introduction of the Tri-Glide family of trikes, Harley-Davidson has seen its sidecars sales plummet. The 2011 model year will be the last year the Harley-Davidson sidecars will be available, and the company plans on shutting down production once the forecasted 2011 number of sidecars is finished at the factory.

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Racing

Suzuki to Stay in MotoGP Through 2011

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With the factory Suzuki team flailing near the bottom of the pack, many have expected the ill-fated teal team to withdraw from the series. However Suzuki has a contract with Dorna through 2011, which would prevent the team from leaving MotoGP, but as we saw with Kawasaki in the 2009 season, even Dorna can’t force a manufacturer to race. Putting the issue to bed during the British Superbike round at Brands Hatch, Suzuki Team Boss Paul Denning said that the Suzuki GP team would “100%” be in MotoGP next year.

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News

MV Agusta Purchase Terms & Details

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After Asphalt & Rubber broke the news about the MV Agusta purchase last week, many of the details about Harley-Davidson’s sale of MV Agusta to the Castiglioni were known or rumored at the time of the purchase’s announcement later in the day; however the exact figures and terms of the agreement were not officially known. Having filed the appropriate forms with the SEC, Harley-Davidson (a publicly traded company) has had to disclose the terms of MV Agusta’s sale, which don’t paint a favorable picture for the Milwaukee brand, but show how Castiglioni “bought” his company back despite bids coming from other parties.

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Recall

Yamaha Recalls 54,000 YZF-R6 Motorcycles

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Someone better check the tape measures at Yamaha Motors as the tuning fork brand is having to recall 54,000 YZF-R6 motorcycles built between 2005 & 2010. The recall centers around the mounting of the frontside reflectors (you know, the pieces of plastic that most riders take off before they even leave the dealership), which were not mounted high enough (about 1″ too low) at the factory, and thus fail to meet DOT spec.

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News

Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200 on the Way

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In what must be a case of an over-anxious webmaster, Aprilia’s dealer portal and service manual section now has links to manuals for Dorsoduro 1200 and Dorsoduro 1200 ABS models. Rumored to be in the works since the Dorsoduro 750 came out, the new 1200 will feature an 1197cc v-twin motor, and weigh 492lbs at the curb.

Power figures haven’t been quoted yet, but with the added displacement and increased compression, the Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200 should be able to handle that heft a bit better, but still would seem to pale in comparison to its rivals.

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Racing

Silly Season: Dovizioso to Gresini, Melandri to WSBK

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Just because Ducati won’t announce that they’ve signed Valentino Rossi, doesn’t meant that silly season in the MotoGP paddock can’t continue. The latest rumors coming out of GP racing is the departure of Marco Melandri to World Superbike, supposedly to a BMW ride, and Andrea Dovizioso finding himself riding with Gresini Honda, on a factory supported Honda RC212V. The move apparently comes because of Honda’s obligation to Dovizioso, and desire to keep the currently #2 rider in the world: Dani Pedrosa.

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Banter

The 70mph Computer Case

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Do you roll your own box? Are you a case modder? Do high school kids talk about your l337 h4x0r skillz? When you read the MotoCzysz product names like the D1g1tal Dr1ve Superbike, do they make perfect sense to you? We answered no to those questions too, but here’s the work of one Canadian who clearly uses his computer for more than just publishing articles on a silly motorcycle blog. From the ashes of a 50cc pocket bike, a user by the name of Saibot has created the ultimate motorcycle case mod. Photos after the jump. w00t!

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News

Officially Official: Harley-Davidson “Sells” MV Agusta to Castiglioni Family

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There has to be a bevy of high-fives going on in Milwaukee right now, as Harley-Davidson has finally unloaded MV Agusta from its holdings (we broke the news on the purchase earlier this morning). Harley-Davidson bought MV Agusta for $109 million back in 2008 (most of which was bad debt), and now just a little over two years later is making a tidy profit of…well, nothing. After wiping the books clean, investing in new infrastructre, and getting MV Agusta back on track with an all new model line-up (with a bike on the way), Harley-Davidson saw a paltry sum of €1 cross its desks. Harley-Davidson shares are down 3.5% as of this writing.

Instead Harley-Davidson is calling things even with the Castiglioni family, who would have seen a stock pay-out had the company exchanged hands with another buyer, like TPG for instance. The Castiglioni’s stock was worth somewhere between €20-€30 million, and now with 100% ownership, the Italians are free to once again run MV Agusta into the ground, just like they did leading up to 2008.

Harley-Davidson & MV Agusta press releases are after the jump. One interesting point of note that taking the helm of MV Agusta is former Ducati General Manager and Chief Engineer Massimo Bordi. Bordi was once offered the job of CEO at Ducati, but turned it down, and the position was filled by Gabriele del Torchio, Ducati’s current CEO. Bordi’s last item of business at Ducati was trying to sell the Italian brand to Harley-Davidson, which makes for some good irony in today’s announcement.

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Recall

Ducati Recalls Multistrada for Three Defects

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Before anyone cracks the joke, no Ducati is not recalling the 2010 Multistrada 1200 for it’s bird-beaked appearance. Instead, the Italian manufacturer is recalling the sport-touring motorcycle for some faulty screws in the bike’s center stand and steering head, and also for faulty throttle cable routing that causes the cable to rub against the bike’s radiator. Issuing three separate recalls for these problems, the screw recalls affect all MTS 1200 models, while the center stand issue is related only to the Multistrada 1200 S Touring model.

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