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March 2011

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The saga of rehabilitating Chris Vermeulen’s knee continues this weekend at the second round of the World Superbike season. The Australian will participate in the practice and qualifying sessions beginning Friday at Donington Park, but he may sit out the races on Sunday.

This news comes after Vermeulen missed the season opener and winter testing at Phillip Island because his knee has not recovered as quickly as planned, and it was hoped that skipping his home race would allow Vermeulen time to recover enough to race the rest of this season, but it seems the Australian and his factory Kawasaki team are taking this weekend one session at a time.

The former MotoGP rider spent some time testing at Motorland Aragon in Spain last week (where compatriot James Toseland fractured his wrist, forcing him to sit out this WSBK weekend) and just yesterday spent some more time on the seat riding around Cadwell Park. After this most recent outing, Vermeulen tweeted, “was great to get back on the bike but still work to do on my knee to be race fit.”

MV Agusta is hosting it dealers meeting this weekend, and it is expected that the Italian company will unveil details on its upcoming 2011-2012 model line-up. With information coming forth about its new smaller Brutale 675 “B3”, a naked version of the companies recently unveiled MV Agusta F3 three-cylinder supersport, MV Agusta is likely to have the bike on sale as early as February 2012, with a base price of €8,990.

This puts the MV Agusta Brutale 675 squarely in the Triumph Street Triple’s price range, but bests its British counterpart with a claimed 120hp (de-tuned from the F3’s expected 140hp output). Also expected to be announced at the dealer meeting is the company’s plan for the releasing the MV Agusta F3, and news of a 201hp MV Agusta F4 “Corsacorta”.

As Moto Morini marches closer to its April 13th auction date, a new potential buyer has come out of the woodwork for the troubled Italian company. Thomas Bleiner, an Austrian entrepreneur, has his eyes set on the Moto Morini facility with an interesting idea or two up his sleeve.

The proposal for the purchase is expected to be an interesting one, as Bleiner and his partner Gianni Farneda plan on making the dollar and cents of the deal work by installing a 1.1 megawatt photoelectric power system on the roof of the Bologna facility. Bleiner and Farneda have been heavily involved in the solar industry, developing a new photoelectric paint that uses nano technology.

Bleiner and his group believe they could have the factory up and running as early as June with at least eight employees returning to work. With the Granferro and Corsair lines seemingly to be ready to roll, Bleiner says the company could even make a November EICMA appearance. If this sounds a bit too good to be true, then perhaps it is, as Bleiner and his partners have yet to actually submit a bid to Moto Morini’s receiver, despite making the rounds to the Italian magazines and newspapers about their intent to purchase the brand.

Today we have a concept sketch that should appeal to A&R‘s Ducatisti readership, as Isaac Chavira brings us his rendition of a Ducati Monster 848R. The name sort of gives off what’s going on here, as Chavira has incorporated the 848’s superbike motor into a Monster chassis (a Monster 796 chassis to be exact).

While the Monster line has become Ducati’s air-cooled street machine, we like where Chivra’s head is at when explains his choice for using the 848 Superbike’s water-cooled motor: “As you’ll see I have given it a heart transplant stuffing the 848’s motor into the Monsters chassis. After all they gave it a menacing name, why not have the heart of a beast right?”

In addition to what was going on with AMA Pro Racing’s multiple restarts to the Daytona 200, the racing organization has handed Josh Herrin a one-event suspension for his part in the last lap crash that saw Taylor Knapp and Dane Westby hitting the tarmac. Herrin’s coming in contact with Westby’s brake lever, causing his brakes to lock and exacerbate the incident, has not only caused him to receive a suspension and subsequent probation from the incident, but AMA Pro Racing has also fined Graves Motorsports, Herrin’s team, for its rider’s actions. Find AMA Pro Racing’s press release and a video of the incident after the jump.

Leading into the Qatar GP the talk was all about Repsol Honda, namely the blistering fast paces of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, who seemed to be on a different level from everyone else, even teammate Andrea Dovizioso. However after seeing Pedrosa’s race performance be hampered by a lingering shoulder injury that, which was causing his arm to go numb and lose strength during the race, question marks began to develop over whether the Spaniard would be able to fight for the Championship like he did last season.

Responding to these worries, Repsol Honda has released a press release that talks more about Pedrosa’s shoulder condition, which was questionable at the end of the Qatar GP. After returning from Doha, medical checks performed on Pedrosa confirmed that his shoulder was not 100%, but was only suffering from a small stretch in the plexus, which is gradually improving, but will need more time to finish healing completely.

Our friends across the pond are set to get the new Honda Crossrunner this summer, with pricing slated at £9,075 OTR. The VFR800 based V4 motor has been wedged into a new adventure bike chassis, finally giving the winged brand something to compete against the BMW GS, Ducati Multistrada 1200, KTM Adventure, Yamaha Super Ténéré, etc. Perhaps a little late to the party with the Crossrunner, we’ve heard relatively little chatter about the bike since its EICMA launch back in November. No word yet on American pricing or availability.

When will the first true electric motorcycle from an large OEM hit dealer floors? Pretty soon by what we’re hearing come out of Austria lately. KTM’s Freeride is fairly straight-forward in concept, as it takes the tried and true KTM off-road package, and puts an electrical drive train inside it (easy enough, right?). Designed with help from Austrian firm Kiska, the KTM Freeride looks like a dirt bike, smells like a dirt bike…well, you get the idea.

While KTM Freeride concept has reportedly been more than peppy during testing, it’s big drawback during development has always been its battery life. That’s apparently about to change, as KTM’s lastest version has reportedly more power on-board (there’s been tremendous amounts of progress in battery density in just the past six months), and is set to come out later this year (we’d assume an EICMA launch in November).

Ben Spies is on the factory Yamaha YZR-M1 this year, and is already showing that he has the mettle to battle up front in MotoGP with the best of the best. A former AMA Champion and World Superbike Champion, Spies has his eyes on motorcycling’s ultimate prize, but it’s been a long road to where he is now for the young Texan racer.

Talking about his start in motorcycle racing, Alpinestars has done a quick video on Spies as a part of the company’s “Beyond the Riders” campaign. Like the videos with Jorge Lorenzo & the Repsol Honda riders, there’s some interesting things to hear from our stars of the Premier Class, which tell the story we don’t see on TV. Watch Ben’s story after the jump.

If you’re not in the motorcycle industry, the name Aldo Drudi might still ring a bell, as the Italian designer has done work with some of the biggest names in the sport like, Marco Luchinelli, Kevin Schwantz, Mick Doohan, Alex Crivillé, Kenny Roberts Jr, Marco Melandri, Manuel Poggiali, and Valentino Rossi. Most recently Drudi has inked the livery for American Honda’s Moto2 wildcard at the Indianapolis GP, and of course worked on Valentino Rossi’s helmets and Ducati livery.