Latest Posts:
Asphalt & Rubber
Archive

March 2011

Browsing
Reviews

Ride Review: 2011 Ducati Diavel

By 8 Comments

Even before its launch in Milan last year, the 2011 Ducati Diavel has been the talk of the motorcycle industry since its first spy photo was released. It amuses me that Ducati chose to name the Diavel (say: dee-ahh-vole) after the Bolognese word for the devil. The linguistic foreplay from Ducati is just asking for a response from motorcyclists who feel that Bologna company has over-stepped its prescribed branding boundaries, and sold its soul to the Devil of bottom-line thinking.

While rife with metaphor, there is an important financial reason for the genesis of the Ducati Diavel. As I’ve already explained the business reasons behind Ducati’s choice (or non-choice) to make the Diavel in a previous article. My analysis continues from there, and brings us to the question of: How does the Ducati power cruiser ride, 240mm-wide tire and all?

Setting out to the City of Angels (I seriously couldn’t ask for better fodder from Ducati here), I swung a leg over the Ducati Diavel for a day of riding on some of Los Angeles’s finest and most well know routes. The short answer to how the Diavel fared: damningly well.

Keep Reading
By
News

Zero Motorcycles Gets $17 Million Investment

By No Comments

Using strictly the Charlie Sheen sense of the word, Zero Motorcycles is WINNING right now. Announcing today that it closed another round of financing, Zero has $17 million of a $26 million round confirmed ($9 million still outstanding). The funding continues to be lead by the Invus investment group, who have been the major financial backbone at Zero Motorcycles. A funding round of that size can only mean one thing for a motorcycle company: going into mass production. Surely enough Zero states its intended use of the funds will go towards ramping up its US-based production plans.

Out of all the electric motorcycle vehicle players, Zero has been the most active in the funding department lately, closing round after round of capital investment. With those investments we’ve already seen changes at the Santa Cruz company, with the 2011 Zero Motorcycles line-up featuring upgrade motorcycles, as well as founder Neal Saiki departing the company.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

About as Close as You’re Going to Get to an Apology for the AMA Pro Road Racing Daytona 200

By 14 Comments

To call the Daytona 200 anything less than a disappointment might be fighting words in some circles of motorcycle race fans, and at best the race was a dismal start to the 2011 AMA Pro Road Racing series. From that day’s events, speculation and criticism have surrounded the Daytona 200, its multiple red flags, shortened race distance, and other events that unfolded over the course of its running.

Looking to address those criticisms, AMA Pro Racing has issued a lengthy reply and explanation of how the events unfolded behind the scenes, both in regards to stopping the race for a tire change and regarding repairs to Jason DiSalvo’s motor. AMA race fans hold on tight, because is about as close as you’re going to get to an apology from AMA Pro Racing.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

Cal Crutchlow to Get a Special Spidi Glove by Friday Night

By 3 Comments

After losing the top joint to his pinky finger in a crash during the Monday night testing session at Qatar, Cal Crutchlow has had to have some special gloves from Spidi made in order to accommodate his injured finger and its bandages. Luckily Spidi, the Italian glove manufacturer and Crutchlow sponsor, has been able to rush produce a glove with a larger pinky finger sleeve that incorporates a lycra panel and special reinforcements.

Keep Reading
By
Products

Yamaha Power Beam – A Damper for Your Chassis

By 1 Comment

You can just tell there’s an engineer in Yamaha’s R&D department that dresses up like Wesley Crusher on the weekends just a little too often. Despite how tragically named this product is, Yamaha’s Power Beam is an interesting solution to a problem that few riders have the delicacies of detecting, yet will likely purchase anyway.

Originally developed for the Yamaha YZR-M1 during the 2003 season, the Yamaha Power Beam will initially be made available to 600 lucky T-Max scooter owners in Europe, which on its face makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

However given the hot-rodding culture in Europe that surrounds the T-Max (and the two-wheelers Jell-O like chassis), the “more horsepower than sense” crowd will likely gobble up this latest go-fast trick part from Yamaha.

Looking down the pipe, there is the likelihood that the Yamaha Power Beam will make its way onto future sport bikes from the tuning fork brand. What the Power Beam does is dampen the rate of flex in the chassis, presumably allowing the steel/aluminum frame of the motorcycle to move to its prescribed tolerances, but in a manner that’s more predictable and favorable to a rider’s needs.

Keep Reading
By
Opinion/Editorial

Do Something Good for Japan, & Yourself. Buy Honda Stock

By 4 Comments

As we sit halfway around the world, essentially powerless to change the events unfolding in Japan, there still comes the feeling that we should be doing something, anything, to aid the people affected by the recent 9.0 earthquake, subsequent tsunami, and unfolding nuclear disaster.

Rising to a call of action, Moto for Japan is an effort by a group of motorcyclists that donates money to the American Red Cross via an inspired charitable platform developed by none other than Hollywood’s Edward Norton. The effort has been making the rounds on the internet the past two days, and its creators, Greg Hatton and Jon Bekefy, should be praised for their thoughtful thinking.

Perhaps a different take on how to best bring aid to Japan, I got an interesting message from Mark Gardiner, who pointed out “Japan is not Haiti. By the time we can actually deliver bottled water and blankets to the scene, people will have walked to parts of Japan that are relatively unscathed. If you want to help Japan, buy Honda stock.” I think ‘The Backmarker’ is grasping a key point here, and with permission, we’ve reproduced his article on the subject as a guest post after the jump. – Jensen

Keep Reading
By
News

30 Years of Troy Lee Designs

By 1 Comment

Troy Lee Designs is celebrating 30 years of customizing helmets “For The World’s Fastest Racers” this year, and Honda Powersports has made a nice video that talks to Troy about how he came into the sport, his work, and how his business has grown and evolved over the past three decades.

Troy Lee Designs is obviously know for its custom helmets, which have adorned many a racers’ head, and the firm is also responsible for the paint and livery for the Rizla Suzuki team (along with some other creative work for the MotoGP squad). As for Honda’s involvement, there is now the 2011 Troy Lee Designs Supercross Team, which sees rider Cody Seely battling it out on the dirt for TLD with the Honda race package.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

WSBK: Kawasaki & BMW Italia Testing at Aragon

By No Comments

Motorland Aragon will host a private test for the factory Kawasaki and BMW Motorrad Italia World Superbike teams Thursday and Friday this week. Though Kawasaki had a good bit of winter testing both at the official WSBK .

Importantly for Kawasaki, Chris Vermeulen is expected to test in Spain. After injuries and surgery kept him out of much of the 2010 season, the Australian hoped to return at his home round but was unable to pass the physical. He sat out testing and racing in Australia, remaining at home and working on his physical therapy.

Keep Reading
By
News

The Top 15 Motorcycling Roads According to AMA Members

By 15 Comments

The American Motorcyclist Association has taken nominations and votes on where the best motorcycling roads in the United States are located. With over 100 roads were submitted, the organization’s 230,000 person membership voted on the entries via the AMA’s website (although were not told how many actually voted). With the tallies finally in, the AMA has chosen 15 routes in all, with some honorable mentions as well.

With an equal showing of roads in the west coast, Rocky Mountains, and southern states, the AMA’s list also includes roads in the midwest and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, seemingly leaving not region unaccounted for in the results. Did your favorite road gain the top spot as “The Best Motorcycling Road” according to AMA members? Find out after the jump.

Keep Reading
By
Racing

FIM e-Power/TTXGP Merger Well Underway

By 2 Comments

Rumors of an FIM e-Power and TTXGP merger have been quietly floating around for the past week, and before we could report on those whispers of the event, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme has scooped us with the story that it has been holding conversations with the folks at TTXGP regarding the two series running joint events during the 2011 electric motorcycle season, with a possible final joint Championship to take place at the end of the year.

Sources close to the talks have told Asphalt & Rubber that a merger between the two series is imminent, with many of the stakeholders already signing-off on the deal. The likely outcome would be a series that lives on with the e-Power name, promoted by none other than Dorna Motor Sports, of MotoGP media fame. The FIM’s impetus seems to be in consolidating the two diverging series, and finally integrating them into established professional road racing.

Conversely, TTXGP will be able to find a financial exit from the rumored deal, something its investors will surely be happy to see. TTXGP has been able to piggyback off of local and club racing events, making deals with the tracks themselves, rather than the organizing bodies, in an effort to expand rapidly. While TTXGP has seen push-back from the Isle of Man TT, FIM, and AMA, the series has proven to be more adept at marketing itself than the FIM with its e-Power.

More on this as we get it, for now both parties are only admitting to the fact that they are talking about “collaborating” with one another. Joint statement from the FIM & TTXGP after the jump, along with their 2011 racing calendars.

Keep Reading
By