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November 2010

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Oregon Enters the Debate – Considers Lane Splitting

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As a motorcyclists in California, we honestly don’t understand how the other 49 states get along without having lane splitting laws on the books, yet that is the case (for now at least). Although recently Texas and Arizona declined to adopt such provisions for their own motorcyclists, our cousins to the north in Oregon are contemplating allowing lane splitting.

Holding an open forum at 6:30 PM tonight in Portland, the Oregon Governor’s Advisory Committee for Motorcycle Safety is considering a recommendation for a lane splitting provision be included in the Oregonian Traffic Code, if public sentiment at the open forum favors such a move.

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News

Mick Doohan Tells You to Gear Up

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Famed five-time 500GP Champion Mick Doohan wants to make sure you’re wearing all your gear all the time in this latest motorcycle safety commercial that was put together in South Australia. A part of the Motorcycle Accident Commission’s “Gear Up” campaign, we start off seeing a rider wearing just a shirt, jeans, and sneakers flying through the air after his motorcycle has crashed.

As Doohan points out though, this sort of attire is just about as good as riding naked, which in fact our protagonist is, as he is actually only covered in body paint, not clothing. This sort of shock safety video is a continuation of MAC’s first commercial “No Place to Race”, which can be found after the jump.

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Racing

Michael Jordan Motorsports Signs Roger Lee Hayden

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Michael Jordan Motorsports announced today that it has signed Roger Lee Hayden to its 2011 AMA Pro Racing National Guard Superbike Championship team. Hayden will join Ben Bostrom on the MJM Suzuki GSX-R1000, as Aaron Yates has elected to take more time to heal his injured leg, which he broke at Fontana earlier this year.

Hayden comes back to AMA Racing after competing in World Superbike with Kawasaki last season, and taking a one-off MotoGP ride with LCR Honda at Laguna Seca and a Moto2 ride with American Honda at Indianapolis.

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Bikes

Honda NRS 250 Gets a Little Brighter

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Honda continues to taunt us with its upcoming Moto3 contender, the Honda NRS 250. Shedding some more light (that would be literally, not figuratively), on the 250cc four-stroke GP racer, Honda still hasn’t released any details on the machine, but you can expect an 81mm bore and a maximum weight (with rider) of 326 lbs, per the Moto3 regulations that were recently released. Moto3 is scheduled to replace 125GP racing in 2012, but we imagine Honda will divulge info on the NRS 250 well before then. The original and super-enhanced photos of the Honda NRS 250 are after the jump.

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Banter

Lost in Translation: Valentino Rossi’s First Interview

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Further proof that we still have some differences from our neighbors in Europe, there is this video of Valentino Rossi on Italian variety show “Striscia la Notizia”. His first interview since , and that he’ll be missing the Monza Rally (Marco Simoncelli will be taking his place). And yes…that’s a toilet plunger on that man’s head, welcome to late night Italian television.

Source: Two Wheels Blog

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Bikes

Aprilia 5.5 Street by Luca Bar Design

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If you liked the BeOn SXV 450 (and we know you did from the comments and traffic the article got), then you’ll love Luca Bar‘s take on the SXV platform as a more purposeful street bike. Based around the peppier SXV 5.5, the 550cc Aprilia motor and its 70hp of pony power should be more than enough “umpf” to get you into trouble on this svelte frame and body.

While we are suckers for a v-twin (especially in a dirt bike frame), what really catches our attention is the styling Bar has done to the bike. Showing off the motor with a minimalist fairing, and then slinging the exhaust underneath gives that streetfighter/naked look you’re looking for, while the minimalist lines are simple and refined. We’d add one to our garage if it ever left fiction and became reality. Simply delicious.

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Racing

AMG Sponsoring Ducati MotoGP Team

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Announced last night at the L.A. Auto Show, Ducati and AMG (Mercedes-Benz’s tuning house) have formed a partnership between the two brands the will first manifest itself by having the German car tuner sponsoring the Italian company’s MotoGP team. Rumored for over a month now, this announcement finally puts to bed the speculation that Fiat would sponsor Ducati now that Valentino Rossi has joined the Rosso Corse team, and is also the first official sponsorship announcement for Ducati Corse’s 2011 season.

With Rossi healing his wounds back in Italy, Nicky Hayden was on hand for the event with a Ducati Diavel and Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG on stage with him. Asked what he thought about the partnership, Hayden replied, “Well, if this is my company bike and this is my company car, I’d say I’m doing pretty well.” We’d tend to agree.

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Racing

Larry Pegram Says Ciao to Ducati

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Larry Pegram announced today that he will not be riding a Ducati in the AMA American Superbike series. Pegram initially put together the Team Foremost Insurance / Pegram Racing team in 2006 with the help of Ducati North America, and campaigned the Ducati 1198R Superbike last season to a fourth place Championship position. Pegram is expected to announce what bike he will campaign next week, with the idle gossip in the AMA paddock suggesting either a Suzuki or Kawasaki.

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News

Triumph Tiger 800 Pricing Announced for the USA

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Well it didn’t take long for news of Triumph’s pricing information for the United States to surface, after the European pricing came out last week. Announced to Triumph dealers in the United States, the 2011 Triumph Tiger 800 will hit dealership floors with a MSRP of $9,999, while the 2011 Triumph Tiger 800 XC will cost $10,999. ABS for both Tigere 800 models will be an additional $800 option.

Compare that to the BMW F650GS (still an 800cc motorcycle mind you), which has a base price of $9,255 ($10,155 with ABS), and the BMW F800GS’s starting price of $11,395 ($12,295 if you want ABS). We’ll let you decide how Triumph has positioned itself against the two BMW’s, but also bear in mind that it’s hard to find a BMW without the standard options package (a $1,500 package that includes ABS, heated grips, and a ride computer).

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News

Donington Park Returns to the 2011 WSBK Calendar

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Good news for British motorcycle racing fans, as Donington Park has secured a spot on the 2011 World Superbike calendar. But the real good news for the Brits is that WSBK will come to both Donington and Silverstone next year, giving the sometimes rainy island a double-helping of production-based international motorcycle racing.

The announcement signals the rescue of the British track from what seemed like certain death, after planned renovations fell through and the track was unable to secure a Formula 1 bid, leaving the Donington Park leasees without a dime to spend, and without a track circuit to run (construction had begun to make the track conform to Formula 1 standards).

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Racing

Photos: BMW S1000RR WSBK Hits the Wind Tunnel

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As the BMW World Superbike team prepares for the 2011 season, Leon Haslam and Troy Corser took a break from their training regiment to spend some time in BMW’s wind tunnel facility in Bavaria. Looking to hone the maximum performance out of the S1000RR, both riders worked on their optimal streamlined body positions in speeds up to 150 mph. The BMW WSBK team also looked at the S1000RR’s fairing, examining how to optimize the bike’s Cx or coefficient of drag (we assume any modifications that were made were WSBK legal of course).

The team will get to test its results later this month in Jerez, and in the meantime Haslam and Corser will be shipped off to a BMW fitness training bootcamp with fellow BMW riders James Toseland and Ayrton Badovini from the BMW Italia squad, along with members of the BMW Enduro team. We don’t like the sound of this training camp, but BMW has given us 12 high-quality shots of the S1000RR in the wind tunnel, which we enjoyed.

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