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February 2011

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Kickboxer Concept Gets Diesel and AWD Variants

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Back in 2009 we fell in love with the Kickboxer concept by Ian McElroy, who taught himself some SolidWorks and dreamt of a motorcycle powered by a turbocharged Subaru WRX engine. Well McElroy is back with two variations on his original Kickboxer design: one with a diesel motor (also sourced from Subaru), along with an all-wheel drive model.

To make the AWD configuration work, McElroy employed a dual-chain drive design that uses a jack shaft, idler sprocket, and a drive axle with a U-joint. While the original Kickboxer was designed in the 3D modeling software to be precise enough to produce, we’re not sure about all of the engineering behind McElroy’s AWD design (that’s a polite way of saying this author was a social science major in college), but the idea is certainly intriguing.

The diesel Kickboxer though, it’s so crazy it just might work…we’ll just have to wait for someone to build one. Renders galore after the jump.

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Racing

Casey Stoner Leads MotoGP Testing at Sepang

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Casey Stoner set the pace today at MotoGP’s second off-season test at Sepang. The Australian, and the rest of the four factory Honda riders, proved to be very impressive on the Malaysian track, as the 2011 Honda RC212V seems to be hitting its stride just before the season opener in Qatar in a few weeks.

The Honda riders don’t have things all sewn up though, as the Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo was looking very fast, as were Americans Ben Spies and Colin Edwards. Earlier in the day, nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi even cracked into the Top 5 on the standings, and despite finishing the day just over a second behind Stoner, the Italian was upbeat about the team’s progress and his physical condition.

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Racing

Jonathan Rea Might Miss Phillip Island WSBK Race

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Jonathan Rea could miss the season opening World Superbike race at Phillip Island this weekend after crashing there during testing Tuesday. Rea went off at Turn 3 when his Castrol Honda caught fire from an oil leak. Though Rea has not sustained major injuries, he has broken and dislocated the ring finger on his left hand, and was flown to Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for tests. When combined with the general soreness from getting off the bike at 130 mph and the lingering issues from his fall last week at the Honda private test at Phillip Island, Rea is questionable for the race this weekend.

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News

Confirmed: 2012 Husqvarna Street Bike to Debut at EICMA

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Husky fans are going to have something to talk about for the next 8 months as BMW Motorrad VP Hermann Bohrer has confirmed that the Husqvarna brand would be dipping its toe into the street bike waters with a new bike launching at EICMA later this year. Said to have German technology with Italian design, the new Husky will be a middleweight adventure bike that features a BMW F800GS parallel-twin motor that’s been increased to 900cc in displacement, which makes it not too dissimilar from the Husqvarna Mille 3 concept (shown above) we saw last year at the Italian trade show.

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Racing

Carlos Checa Dominates at Phillip Island Test

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Carlos Checa was fastest overall, with a lap time of 1:30.578, as the final World Superbike winter test ended Tuesday at Phillip Island. That time was also nearly a half second faster than the existing lap record set by Regis Laconi in 2009, and almost 1.3 sec faster than Troy Corser’s race lap record from 2007. In addition to Checa, Sylvain Guintoli, Jonathan Rea, Jakub Smrz, and Joan Lascorz completed the fastest five. Rea’s time from Tuesday morning kept him third fastest despite a crash at Turn 3 in the afternoon that resulted in an injured hand. No word is available yet on the specifics of his injury.

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Rumors

New KTM Superbike Coming in 2012?

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With the announcements of KTM lopping $3,500 of the KTM 1198 RC8 R’s price tag, thus replacing the RC8 as the base superbike model in its line-up, and the new 2011 KTM RC8 R Race Spec track bike, something appears to be afoot with the Austrian brand. It’s no secret that with the down economy, RC8s (along with just about every other sport bike) haven’t exactly been flying off the dealer floors, which has lead to some speculation that the reduced price on the higher spec model could be purely to help spur sales of the “Ready to Race” awesomebike. We disagree in part.

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Bikes

2012 Honda Goldwing Gets Minor Tweaks

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There must be a new rule in the tourer market segment where “all new bikes” consist of minor revisions to existing machines, as Honda has apparently taken a page out of Harley-Davidson’s playbook, and done an exciting upgrade to the 2012 Honda Goldwing. While rumors were overly-hyped that an all-new Goldwing would be making an American appearance, it appears instead that the Honda engineers have gone on to further improve upon their design of the legendary touring motorcycle.

No longer built in America at Honda’s now defunct Marysville, Ohio plant, the Japanese produced 2012 Honda Goldwing comes with a slightly larger price tag, but boasts some improvements to justify the cost. Revamped bodywork, larger capacity luggage pieces, improved built-in GPS with iPod/MP3 player support, and revised suspension complete the changes for the new Goldwing. It’s hard to impress sport bike guys with a big bike like the Honda Goldwing, but if you’re interested in buying the gold standard (no pun intended) of motorcycle touring, things just got a bit more appealing we imagine.

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Racing

Photo of the Week: Five Star Rating

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2010 World Superbike Champion Max Biaggi will be adding a fifth star to his leathers in 2011, the existing four representing his previous world titles. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, four of his five titles have been on Aprilia machines, the first four being consecutive 250cc GP Championships between 1994 and 1997.

Max has re-signed with Aprilia for another two years and will begin his title defense next weekend when the WSBK season kicks off at Philip Island. The above photo is from the Miller Motorsports Park round in 2010, where Max won twice after Carlos Checa’s Ducati quit while in comfortable leads in both races.

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Bikes

F1 Tracker by Marcus Moto Design

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We really want to hate this F1 Tracker concept by Marcus Moto Design, we really do. While the BMX-style handlebars might be palatable, the huge 1970’s F1-inspired air scoop is not only awkwardly eye-catching, but could potentially make things interesting from a practicality point-of-view. So we won’t hold it against of our dear readers if the comments section is full of snarky anonymous posts blasting the F1 Tracker into motorcycling hell…honest.

But before you set phasers to kill, take a second look at this design, because there is some sheer brilliance in it. Air scoops aside (we must admit, it does grow on you after a while), the F1 Tracker’s lines have a great flat-tracker meets sport bike quality to them that makes you with the Italian company would pick-up on some of the ideas Marcus is putting down here…and then there’s the carbon fiber…everything. We like that.

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Bikes

2011 Yamaha YZR-M1 Technical Specifications

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Along with the official unveiling of the 2011 Yamaha MotoGP team & livery, the Japanese manufacturer has also released photos of the 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1, with accompanying technical specifications. Unsurprisingly, Yamaha is keeping many of its exact specifications close to the chest, but test reports indicate that a refined chassis, and a slightly more powerful motor have been added to the 2011 YZR-M1.

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Racing

Yamaha’s 2011 MotoGP Livery Unveiling

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Yup, it’s official folks: Yamaha will run without a title sponsor for the 2011 MotoGP season (at least initially), as the team’s official race livery was unveiled at Sepang today (actually, we’re releasing these photos ahead of the official announcement, so in a way this post is coming from the future), along with the official unveiling of the 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1 MotoGP race bike.

Trading a corporate sponsor for a “50th Year in Road Racing Championship Grand Prix” emblem, Yamaha has seemingly been unable to woo a title backer onto its carbon fiber fairings after Fiat’s departure, despite winning the team, rider, and manufacturer Championships in the 2010 season. Check out the full gallery after the jump.

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