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50-Year-Old Jeremy McWilliams Will Wildcard at Silverstone on the Brough Superior Moto2 Race Bike

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Jeremy McWilliams is to make a return to Grand Prix racing at the ripe old age of 50. The Northern Irish racer is to ride the Brough Superior Carbon 2 Moto2 machine at Silverstone as a wildcard.

It will be McWilliams’ first Grand Prix since 2007, when he rode the ill-fated Ilmor, which was withdrawn after just one race due to a failure to raise sponsorship. Since then, McWilliams has been active in both the US and Ireland, racing in the XR1200 championship, which serves as a support race to the AMA, and racing on the roads in Northern Ireland.

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Bikes

Kawasaki ZX3-RR Concept by ICON

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Icon might not be the first brand you think of when you talk about road racing apparel, but the Oregonian company is certainly trying to evolve from its Stunt Life roots, into other aspects of two-wheeled culture.

Pushing into the more lifestyle, adventure, and sport segments of the industry, we have already seen Icon’s penchant for concept bikes, which I can atest haven’t really resonated with our sport-bike focused readers. I think today will be a little different though.

Teaming up with Kawasaki, Icon has built what it calls the Kawasaki ZX3-RR concept. Based off the Kawasaki Ninja 300, the Kawasaki ZX3-RR sees new bodywork and a slew of performance parts added to make a spec-series cup bike for young riders. It looks the business.

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MotoGP

MotoGP Riders Step-Up for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

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You would have to live a life devoid of social media — raising some interesting issues about how you’re on Asphalt & Rubber in the first place — not to know about the Ice Bucket Challenge videos that occurring to help raise awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The campaign is pretty straight forward: someone nominates you to dump a bucket of ice water on your head, you post up a video of you accepting the challenge, and then you nominate a three other people to take the challenge themselves within 24hrs — or, you can opt for the drier and warmer alternative, and donate $100 to the ALS Association.

It’s all good clean wholesome fun, and it really doesn’t matter if you cut a check or take a dunk, the ALSA benefits either way from the money and/or increased exposure. A clever pieces of marketing, the Ice Bucket Challenge has reportedly increased donations to the ALSA nearly ten-fold, and it’s not uncommon to see celebrities getting in on the fun, even in the MotoGP paddock.

First up was Jorge Lorenzo unsurprisingly, as the Spaniard has often used his fame to help charities. After taking an ice bath, Lorenzo challenged fellow Movistar Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, current MotoGP points-leader Marc Marquez, and recent race-winner Dani Pedrosa, well…the results are after the jump.

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MotoGP

The Pressure of Contracts: Bradley Smith Explains How a New Tech 3 Deal Helped Him Ride Better

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One belief common among motorcycle racing fans is that racers will ride harder while they are negotiating a new contract, only to slack off once the contract is in the bag.

Ask a rider about this, and they deny it fervently, saying they have to ride just as hard after a new contract is signed as they did before. That their contract situation affects their performance is beyond question, though it is not as simple as it appears.

Bradley Smith is a case in point. Since the start of the season, the Englishman has known he has been riding for his place next year, with Yamaha and Tech 3 taking a seriously look at riders in both Moto2 and Moto3 to replace him.

The pressure was starting to get to Smith, the Tech 3 man crashing rather too frequently, with the low point being the race at the Sachsenring. Smith crashed four times that weekend, twice on Friday, once on Saturday, and again in the race. It was a very tough weekend indeed.

So when Smith signed a new deal with the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha team ahead of the race at Brno, there was a palpable sense of relief. With this future secure for another year, he could get concentrate on racing again with a clear mind, and without the pressure of his results being judged every race.

Over the course of the weekend at Brno, we asked Smith how he felt after his contract extension, and what effect he felt it had had on his results. His answers were revealing, and provide an insight into the pressure which all MotoGP riders must function under.

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Bikes

More Power for the Suzuki GSX-R600 & GSX-R750 in 2015?

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It looks like Suzuki is getting ready to update its sport bike offering, as Suzuki Motor America has gotten new emissions filings from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the 2015 Suzuki GSX-R600 and 2015 Suzuki GSX-R750.

New CARB emissions are required when manufacturers make modifications to the engines of the machines that they are selling in the Golden State, which means that we can expect updates for the Suzuki GSX-R600 & Suzuki GSX-R750 (with no change in CARB’s weird weight measurement figures, an entirely new model is unlikely).

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MotoGP

Yamaha USA’s Awesome Video Tribute to Colin Edwards

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In two weekends from, now grand prix motorcycle racing will be at Silverstone, and while the MotoGP Championship marches on, its progression means that soon we won’t have the color that Colin Edwards brings to the GP paddock.

Beloved by British motorcycle racing fans, Silverstone is sort of the last stop on the Texas Tornado’s farewell tour. But before we release Colin back into the wild (perhaps with a warning label), the motorcycle community has some goodbyes to make.

Our first chance will be on the Thursday of that race weekend, as Edwards will open the bidding at the Riders for Health Day of Champions auction (an awesome event, you should all attend if possible)…it’s surely going to be entertaining. Sunday’s race should be memorable as well.

And speaking of memories, Yamaha USA has compiled a very touching and well done video of Edwards’ career on two wheels. It’s after the jump, and worth watching…maybe twice.

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Bikes

BMW S1000RR Gets Updated for 2015

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Despite being five years old, the BMW S1000RR remains one of the best sport bikes you can buy on the market. This is do largely to BMW bringing a bevy of European top-tier features to the superbike, but pricing it inline with its Japanese counterparts, thus creating tremendous bang for the buck for sport bike enthusiasts.

For the 2013 model year, the Bavarians raised their game with its more exclusive BMW HP4 offering, which brought semi-active suspension into liter-bike mix. Now with the Bosch MSC cornering ABS module, BMW continues to raise the game in what was once a segment that lived solely in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Now for 2015, it seems that BMW is set to update the S1000RR, as a revised version of the bike has been spotted in Germany, sporting noticeably different bodywork and other features.

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Bikes

Photos: Here is the 2015 BMW S1000XR

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It has taken various names in the press (e.g. the BMW S1000F), but trademark applications in Germany and in the USA tell us that the Bavarians have settled on calling their new sport-tourer the BMW S1000XR — and it is debuting in just a few weeks’ time at the INTERMOT show in Cologne.

Luckily for us, a spy photographer has caught the 2015 BMW S1000XR out testing ahead of its debut, with only the badges and headlights covered in tape. While we already had a good view of the BMW S1000XR when it was testing, these photos reveal the off-the-assemblyline shape of the latest Bavarian machine, and we like what we see.

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Banter

Video: Rider Nails the Landing After a Nasty Crash

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The upside to having rampant insurance fraud with motor vehicles is the increased use of dashboard cameras, at least that’s our selfish take on the situation currently in Russia. If that’s truly the case, then the crowning achievement of that philosophy is surely the following video.

Going far too fast for the flow of traffic, our protagonist finds himself quickly cut-off by a car that is changing lanes. What happens next is entirely predictable, yet incredibly not. We don’t want to give it away, just watch it after the jump…no pun intended. Thanks for the tip Taco Ben!

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