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September 2014

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Suzuki GSX-S1000 Coming with a Full Fairing Too?

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We don’t want to know how our friends at Oliepeil got onto the INTERMOT show floor ahead of its official press opening tomorrow, but the crafty Dutch bloggers have spotted a number of machines that the OEMs had laying around uncovered.

Of course we have been expecting something like a Suzuki GSR1000 for some time now, and just a few months ago, a naked bike badged as the Suzuki GSX-S1000 was spied while it was filming a commercial in Southern California.

Now it seems that Suzuki will be releasing a full-faired version of the bike as well, as it has been spotted on the INTERMOT showroom floor next to its naked compatriot.

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LEAKED: Here is the First Photo of the Kawasaki Ninja H2

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Our INTERMOT coverage is in full-swing today, and we bring you the first photo of the Kawasaki Ninja H2. Showing more clearly the wings we spotted in Kawasaki’s last video, we can see now the extent that the Japanese company has gone to in making the H2 more aerodynamic.

Our sources tell us this the “race” version of the supercharged Ninja H2, though what it’s racing, we are not sure — our bets are on either land speed records at Bonneville or the Millennium Falcon.

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2015 Yamaha MT-07 Moto Cage – For Euro Stunters

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Yamaha’s MT platform (that’s the FZ platform to us Americans) continues to spur variations from its three and two-cylinder machines. Called the Yamaha MT-07 Moto Cage, Yamaha’s latest bike seems ready for stunters and street-hooligans.

Think of it as the younger kid-brother to the Yamaha FZ-09 Street Rally, which we saw in the form of the Yamaha Cage-Six concept, and you will have a pretty good idea on what the MT-07 Moto Cage is all about.

At the core of the 2015 Yamaha MT-07 Moto Cage is the same 689cc parallel twin motor, which is good for 74hp, but Yamaha have added engine crash cage, skid plate, radiator guard, and supermoto-style hand protectors. Akrapovic also has a very fetching slip-on for the machine, as an aftermarket item.

Available in November 2014, for the European market, pricing is set at a very cheap €6,690. We doubt very much that Yamaha will bring the Moto Cage to North American soil, since it didn’t do so with the Street Rally…but we can dream.

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2015 Yamaha XJR1300 Racer — Japan’s Cafe Racer

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Yamaha has debuted three machines ahead of the INTERMOT show, and the first two birds of the same feather: the Yamaha XJR1300 and Yamaha XJR1300 Racer. Based around Yamaha’s 1,300cc air-cooled inline-four engine (98hp / 80 lbs•ft), the XJR1300 and XJR1300 Racer take on the lines of the classic “naked bike” aesthetic — building upon Yamaha’s previous offering.

Yamaha says that it has worked closely with motorcycle customizers to update the 2015 Yamaha XJR1300, and the result is an addition to its “Sport Heritage” line, with a decidedly sporty twist coming from the 2015 Yamaha XJR1300 Racer, which has carbon fiber bodywork and clip-on handlebars.

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First Official Photo of the Ducati Scrambler Revealed

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The Ducati Scrambler is set to debut tomorrow at the INTERMOT show, but Ducati has teased us with a quick photo of the upcoming model. Revealed in an animated-GIF, we can see the Ducati Scrambler from head-on, with its ringed LED marker light illuminated.

Above is the full-monty reveal photo, which unsurprisingly really doesn’t show us anything we haven’t already seen from Ducati. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow for all the details and photos, when Ducati finally ends this magic carpet ride. After the jump however is something worth a little bit more of our time, courtesy again of Ducati’s Tumblr blog.

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MotoGP

Sunday Summary at Aragon: Smart Heads vs. Risky Maneuvers for the Win

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What a difference a day makes. “There is no way to fight with the factory Hondas,” Valentino Rossi had said on Saturday. Within a few laps of the start, it turned out that it was not just possible to fight with the Hondas, but to get them in over their heads, and struggling to hold off the Yamaha onslaught.

By the time the checkered flag dropped, the factory Hondas were gone, the first RC213V across the line the LCR of Stefan Bradl, nearly twelve seconds behind the winner, Jorge Lorenzo on the factory M1.

What changed? The weather. Cooler temperatures at the start of the race meant the Hondas struggled to get the hard rear tire to work. The hard rear was never an option for the Yamahas, but the softer rear was still working just fine. From the start, Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi and the surprising Pol Espargaro were pushing the factory Hondas hard.

All of a sudden we had a race on our hands. When the rain came, the excitement stepped up another notch. In the end, strategy and the ability to keep a cool head prevailed. The factory Hondas came up short on both accounts at Aragon.

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MotoGP

Saturday Summary at Aragon: Fast Hondas, Yamaha’s Defective Tires, Surprising Ducatis, & Unstable Weather

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Is Marc Marquez’s season going downhill? You might be tempted to say so, if you judged it by the last three races alone. After utterly dominating the first half of the season, Marquez has won only a single race in the last three outings, finishing a distant fourth in Brno, and crashing out of second place at Misano, before remounting to score a single solitary point.

Look at practice and qualifying at Aragon, however, and Marquez appears to have seized the initiative once again. He had to suffer a Ducati ahead of him on Friday, but on Saturday, he was back to crushing the opposition. Fastest in both sessions of free practice, then smashing the pole record twice. This is a man on a mission. He may not be able to wrap up the title here, but he can at least win.

The way Marquez secured pole was majestic, supremely confident, capable and willing to hang it all out when he needed. He set a new pole record on his first run of the 15 minute session, waited in the garage until the last few minutes, then went out.

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