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December 2010

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What gets rewarded, gets done. That’s a concept I learned on my first day of business school (big shout out to Dr. Denny Gioia). While we were being taught in the context of managing a workforce, it applies just as easily to people in general, for example in a government’s influence over its citizenry. This point was clearly not lost on Kevin Richardson, an American who answered Volkswagen’s call to build a better speed camera for traffic enforcement.

A part of Volkwagen’s Fun Theory experiments, Richardson designed, built, and implemented a sort of speed camera lottery. Ticketing motorists it catches speeding, Richardson’s speed camera also rewards people who comply with the posted speed limit, entering law abiding citizens into a lottery whose pot consists of a portion of the fines collected by speeders caught on the camera. Brilliant! But does it work?

In the calendar circles (yes apparently these groups exist), receiving the Pirelli Calendar is a sort of holy grail. Intended for friends and VIPs of the tire company, Pirelli employs elite fashion photographers and models for its annual, mixing the shine and gloss of high fashion with with dirt and grime motorsports, with a few naked women thrown in for good measure. Going with a Greco-Roman theme for 2011, Pirelli has tapped Karl Lagerfeld to shoot the calendar, with actress Julianne Moore playing the role of Hera. In total there are 21 models (16 female, 5 male) in 36 photos throughout the calendar’s pages. Because we know A&R readers are really into Greek mythology, a full cast list and some safe for work images are after the jump.

We know it’s a cryptic headline, but there’s a big HUGE move happening today in India as far as motorcycles are concerned, and we couldn’t help being overly dramatic. Holding a 26% stake in Hero Honda, Honda announced that it will be selling its position in Indian joint-venture, the world’s largest two-wheel manufacturer, to the Hero Group’s founders, the Munjal family, and various investment funds.

Honda in turn will be pumping its resources into its own fully-owned subsidiary in India called Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI). Buying its stock back at a discounted rate, the Honda will be selling the stock to Hero Honda for $1.2 billion, presumably in exchange for a larger percentage of the company’s early revenue (Honda currently takes home 2.5% of Hero Honda’s yearly revenue).

The masked crusader has left Moto2, as Antonio Banderas’ Jack&Jones team has lost its marquee sponsorship. With no way to fund the team, this move by Jack&Jones leaves Kenny Noyes and Gabor Talmacsi high and dry for a ride in the 2011 season. Unless Noyes can find another ride in the four months leading up to the start of next season, Moto2 will be out its only American rider. Noyes had mediocre results during the 2010 season, finishing 24th in the Moto2 World Championship, with some Moto2 commentators attributing that result to his Harris chassis, which wasn’t on par with the FTR, Moriwaki, and Suter packages.

Jeremy Burgess and crew are reportedly having a meeting with Ducati Corse in Bologna this week in order to discuss and finalize the basic outline for the Ducati Desmosedici GP11. The biggest question on the agenda is whether to use the “Screamer” or “Big Bang” motor for next year.

Other items likely to be discussed include the weight balance of the GP11 (something we already saw Burgess and Rossi working on in Valencia), and the forward fairing design. Tweets from Rossi’s Mechanic Alex Briggs confirm that he and Burgess were at least headed into Rome from Australia this weekend, seemingly confirming this report.

Perhaps our only gripe with the 2011 KTM 125 Duke (besides of course that it’s not coming to America), is the too small for American roads 125cc displacement. With no graduated licensing programs to be found, unlike our European brethren, the 125cc learner format just doesn’t seem to work in our “can travel anywhere by car” society here in the United States. Not to fret says KTM though, as a 250cc or even 300cc version of the orange pocket rocket is under development at the Austrian company.

We think 250cc/300cc would be an ideal size for blasting from stoplight to stoplight on city streets, both for new riders and veteran hooligans alike, and it won’t take much to place the outwardly similarly sized motor in the KTM 125 Duke frame. Thinking along those same veins, KTM says an 18 month trail time is expected from the 125 Duke launch to when we’ll see the next larger iteration.

When it comes to Ducati motorcycles, none stands apart from the rest quite like the MH900e. Designed by the one and only Pierre Terblanche, the MH900e is more like art that you can ride than it is a motorcycle that looks good, which might explain the ridiculously high price tag on an eBay auction that is currently offering two low mileage machines for the measly sum of $995,000.

Before you spit your coffee out, that high price tag comes with a guarantee that 50% of the auction proceeds will end up going to charity (the auctioneer seems to prefer Habit for Humanity, but for that kind of money we’re sure you can pick the charity of your choosing despite words that he’ll “consider it”), which comes out to be at least a $497,500 donation because of the high starting price on the auction.

Of course that still means you are paying half a million dollars for two motorcycles that normally retail for about $20,000 each…but the author seems to think it could get you on TV for your efforts (let’s imagine the on-screen title to that one)…ok, now spit your coffee out. To us it all just seems like a ploy to use a charitable cause to make you forget about the fact you’re overpaying for two motorcycles by about $450,000. Greed is good, but apparently vanity is better.

Appropriately in time for the holidays with its deliciously red paint job, we bring you the Deus Ex Machina New Blood Sportster. Taking a 2004 Harley-Davidson 1200cc Sportster, the guys from down under have massaged their magic into this once dull v-twin, and made an eye-catching motorcycle (per usual). The most striking piece of the motorcycle is perhaps the hand-built exhaust pipe, which is half street-tracker, and half sportbike in inspiration. Then there is of course the matte blood red meets cream paint job that accents the otherwise blacked out bike. We think the effect is killer, and makes the Sportster design more palatable without going overboard.

We’re eagerly awaiting December 17th here at the Asphalt & Rubber office, as that is the official movie premiere of Tron: Legacy. A mix of computer geekiness, state-of-the-art special effects, The Dude, Olivia Wilde, and of course lightcycles, Tron: Legacy is about as close to an A&R wet dream as you can get.

While we try and contain ourselves from giggling like little schoolgirls, technology news blog TechCrunch got a chance to sit down with Daniel Simon, the designer of the new Tron lightcycle (you might remember Simon from his renowned Cosmic Motors work), and ask him about revisiting the lightcycle design (air flaps!) in Tron: Legacy. That interview and a boatload of Tron: Legacy concept sketches are after the jump.

File this one under stuff we couldn’t make up if we tried (although the fake press release would be awesome). Dorna Sports, media rights holder to our one and only MotoGP World Championship racing series, has been declared the “Best Spanish Business”…in Italy…by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce…in Italy…yeah it just got that weird.

Apparently the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, which operates in Italy and helps facilitate business operations between the two countries, has made it a habit to recognize Spanish businesses that have a substantial amount of their business in Italy, and promote the economies of both countries, which is great, if not slightly strange.

If you ever wanted to know what a 1200cc VR6 motor sounds like on a dyno, well today’s your lucky day my friend. German restart Horex Motorcycles has put its 15° six-cylinder motor through its paces recently, and had the foresight to record the event on video. With a motor no wider than an inline-four, listen while the Horex VR6 concept idles and revs with German efficiency. And oh that whistle sound, yeah we forgot to mention this is the supercharged 200hp variant. Happy Friday.