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Michael Dunlop Enters Lightweight TT Race – Looking for Six Race Wins at 2014 Isle of Man TT

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After an impressive four victories at the 2013 Isle of Man TT, Michael Dunlop has announced his entry into the Lightweight TT race for 2014, and thus a bid to win six solo races in 2014.

Although Dunlop has admittedly not been concerned with the Lightweight TT in the past, when you’re on a mission to take six podiums in one week, you take wins wherever you can get them.

Having already tied Phillip McCallen’s 1996 mark of four wins, Dunlop is seeking to dethrone Ian Hutchinson from his five-win campaign of 2010.

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MotoGP

Aprilia Mounting a Return to MotoGP in 2016

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Towards the end of the 800cc era, MotoGP looked to be in dire condition. Grids were dwindling, factories were reducing their participation, and teams were in difficult financial straits indeed. By the end of 2011, there were just 17 full time entries, Suzuki was down to a single rider, and were about to pull out entirely for 2012.

How different the situation looks today. The CRTs have served their purpose – to persuade the factories to help fill the grid, and supply the teams with (relatively) affordable equipment – and the reduction in costs brought about in part by the spec electronics is enticing factories back to MotoGP.

Suzuki is in full testing mode, and getting ready to return to racing full time in 2015, and Aprilia is working towards a full-time return in 2016.

In a recent interview with the official MotoGP.com website, Aprilia Corse’s new boss Romano Albesiano gave a brief outline of their plans. The Italian factory will continue to work with the IODA Racing team for 2014 to collect data on the electronics and tires, which they will use as input on an entirely new project being worked on for 2016.

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Lifestyle

Girl’z MotoCamp – For Ladies Only

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Motorcycles are a good time out. If you are reading Asphalt & Rubber, then you already know this simple truth. So with such a basic offering, why do we struggle to bring more people into this sport?

We have already seen the FIM’s recent efforts to encourage and foster female road racers at the international level, but what are we doing at the domestic level?

How are we encouraging this sport and this industry to the other 50% of the American population, especially when we don’t have a robust female community that uses two-wheels for their urban commute?

Well recently one such answer to that question came in the form of the girls-only Girl’z MotoCamp put on by our friend Shelina Moreda.

An FIM and AMA Pro Racing rider, Moreda is no stranger to racing in a man’s world, and she is well aware of the limited number of entry points for ladies into motorcycling  — you may have seen that she recently penned a story on A&R about teaching at the FIM girls camp in Spain, just a few months ago.

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Columns

Factory Tour: Agostini vs. Rossi – It’s Not What You Think

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Towards the end of last year, I spent some time bumming around Italy, and one of my many stops was the Dainese headquarters in Vicenza, Italy. A company that is responsible for protecting many of the top motorcycle racers, as well as Yours Truly, Dainese is a company focused on safety, but this focus is really a bi-product of the Italian company’s thirst for competition.

Competition is of course about finding out who is the best, and at the pinnacle of that decision is finding out who is the Greatest of All Time, or G.O.A.T. And in motorcycle racing, when you think of the term “G.O.A.T.” two names come to mind: Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi.

Motorcycle racing fans can debate well into the night as to which of these Italian racers is truly the greatest. Regardless who you pick though, both men are legends, and both men have been supported throughout their careers by Dainese.

That brings us back to my trip to Vicenza, because the battle between these two great riders continues, just not in the way you would suspect.

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Bikes

Harley-Davidson Powered Prius Found on eBay

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The guys and gals over at Autoblog never cease to disappoint when it comes to finding some of the most outrageous automotive concoctions on the internet, and today is no exception.

Someone had the audacity/genius, to completely rip out the guts of a 2008 Toyota Prius, and stuff in a Harley Davidson motor from 1986.

While some will be cringing in terror and anger after seeing the Captain Planet mobile so horribly butchered, remember that the “Toyohog”, as the team calls it, was built to compete in the 24 Hours of LeMons, and maybe win the “Albert Gore Jr. Carbon Neutral Cup”, one of the many LeMons season prizes.

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Bikes

This Is Pretty Much What the Monster 800 Will Look Like

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With the advent of the Ducati Monster 1200, it was only a matter of time before Ducati’s middleweight liquid-cooled “Monster 800” would be spotted, and unsurprisingly the machines have a great deal in common.

The one big difference seems to be that the 821cc Monster gets a double-sided swingarm, which has become Ducati’s new way of differentiating between its big and medium displacement models of the same machine, see entry for Ducati 899 Panigale.

With the spied Ducati Monster 800 looking ready for primetime, and Audi’s ownership of Ducati seeing new models debuting outside of EICMA and INTERMOT, a pre-fall launch isn’t out of the question — in fact it’s been the norm with 2015 model year bikes for a variety of brands.

Giving us an excellent glimpse into what the Ducati Monster 800 would look like, Luca Bar has again used his Photoshop skills to render up images of the still unreleased “baby” Monster. Seriously, if there wasn’t Luca’s logo on these photos, we could probably pass them off as five-fingered studio shots. Nice work Luca!

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Bikes

Photos of the Mugen Shinden Ni sans Fairings

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Given the competitive nature of the electric racing realm, its rare to see the big high-power bikes without their fairings, as teams are reluctant to reveal their secret sauce. Debuting the Mugen Shinden San this past weekend in Tokyo though, Team Mugen did just that, giving us a glimpse into the inner workings of the team’s 2013 race bike, the Mugen Shinden Ni.

You don’t have to be an electron-head to get excited by these photos, as any race bike with a carbon fiber frame and swingarm is pretty drool-worthy, though the Shinden Ni’s carbon fiber battery enclosure does hide a great deal of the electric superbike’s geek factor. While the sheer size of the battery bike is impressive, it was expected when the Shinden was first announced.

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Racing

Mission Motors Providing Mugen with Electric Powertrain

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One of the more interesting details to come from the Mugen Shinden San electric superbike reveal is that a familiar name is helping power the Japanese motorcycle: Mission Motors.

One of the inaugural racing teams at the first Isle of Man TT electric race, Mission Motors has since focused its business model on providing OEMs with HEV/EV powertrains — you may remember its motorcycle project was spun into a new company, Mission Motorcycles.

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Bikes

Mugen Shinden San (神電 参) Electric Superbike Revealed

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Mugen’s third purpose-built electric superbike for the Isle of Man TT, the Mugen Shinden San, has been revealed in Japan. Campaigning two machines for this year’s TT Zero race, Mugen has John McGuiness and Bruce Anstey at the helm of its “Shinden San” bikes, as the duo looks for a one-two finish in this year’s race.

With MotoCzysz not racing at the Isle of Man this year, Mugen is a hot favorite to take the top podium spots, as well as crack the 110 mph barrier for electrics on the historic Snaefell Mountain Course (Mugen is targeting a 115 mph lap).

An evolution on the company’s previous designs, the Shinden San fits 134hp — 10hp more than last year, thanks to a new smaller three-phase brushless motor provided by Mission Motors — into its 529lbs bulk.

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News

Honda Breaks World Record for Fastest Lawn Mower

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For those of you who are fans of the Stig, you may remember his infamous “Mean Mower” episode from Top Gear’s Speed Week 2013, as he blasted around the track on a lawn mower that sounded more like an Aston Martin than a two-stroke.

As comical as it was, that mower was producing 109hp, and had a 0-60 time of four seconds, all while retaining the ability to cut the grass and corners.

That Mean Mower is back and this time, and at the IDIADA proving ground in Tarragona, Spain, it broke a Guinness World Record.

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