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Saturday of WSBK at Chang Circuit with Anant Deboor

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The first ever round of the World Superbikes Championship in Thailand is underway this weekend. Here are a collection of images from the action on Saturday. — the combination of heat and dampness created for some interesting shimmers for the photographers.

As you will see, a rainy morning practice got the riders rather thoughtful. Phillip Island pole-sitter, Jonathan Rea, seemed to begin where he left off in Australia. In Superpole 2, he had five laps out of seven, any one of which could have got him into the Top Five. No wonder, he seemed all smiles afterward. Enjoy the photos!

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Bikes

The New R1 Would Look Hot in Kenny Roberts Livery

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The 2006 Yamaha YZF-R1 LE livery, which was a yellow, black, and white homage to Kenny Roberts Sr., is perhaps the greatest livery ever to adorn an R1, straight from the Yamaha factory.

Whether you are a loyal subject of King Kenny, or you just enjoy the fetching, yet simple, racing design, the Roberts livery is a treasure to see in any form — but especially so at speed.

Giving us a glimpse as to what the 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 would look like with such a limited edition paint scheme, Oberdan Bezzi has once again whet our appetite ahead of a weekend full of riding.

And for you Giacomo Agostini fans, there is something special waiting for you after the jump as well. Enjoy!

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Bikes

Quattrocento by XTR Pepo

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What happens when you take the unassuming French-built MASH 500 and give it the same Spanish treatment that brought us the Radical Ducati brand? Something certainly a lot less bland than the budget-friendly standard, that’s for sure.

Radical Ducati’s Pepo has a new company, XTR Pepo, and he has branched out beyond just restyling Ducati motorcycles.

Accordingly, he just sent us his latest work, the Quattrocento XTR Pepo – and we are glad to see that out-of-the-box designs that are Pepo’s bread and butter remain in the motorcycle industry with his latest creation.

Unsurprisingly, just about all of the MASH 500 that remains is the learner-bike’s engine, and a few pieces of the frame; since as usual Pepo has sourced just about everything else from the leftover parts bin of other motorcycles.

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Bikes

Honda Bulldog Concept Lets the Dogs Out in Osaka

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After first showing us the Honda SFA and Honda CRF250 Rally concepts, Big Red made good on its promise for another motorcycle concept premiere at the Osaka Motorcycle Show, debuting the Honda Bulldog concept.

With the face of a Ruckus, and built to “leisurely” take-on the great outdoors in an unassuming manor, the Honda Bulldog is a stout off-roader that adds a new slant to the term adventure-bike.

With wide 15″ knobby tires, a 28″ seat height, and 400cc parallel-twin engine mated to a six-speed gearbox, the Bulldog certainly isn’t what you expect to see bombing down the trails, yet it sorta makes sense.

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Lifestyle

Video: What Moves You?

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I am always amazed by the sort of people that read Asphalt & Rubber on a daily basis — we have some very talented people in our ranks (including some even very famous ones), and it’s great to get email from them, even if it’s just to say hi.

Along those lines, I got a message from a reader named Brian recently, just showing us a spec commercial he and some friends made about motorcycling a while back. It features a Ducati, so I guess you could say it is aimed at the Ducati community, but honestly I think any motorcyclist would resonate with its words. Enjoy!

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Racing

WSBK: What Kind of Track Is The Chang Circuit in Thailand?

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The Chang International Circuit is an unknown for everyone in World Superbikes this weekend. A new track in a new country represents many challenges for the teams and the riders, as they try to figure the fastest way around it.

It is an unknown for fans, too, most of them only having seen the track layout map on the World Superbike website.

Fortunately, racing has already taken place at the Chang circuit. The Asian Road Racing Championship held a round at the track in November 2014, which included two races from the Supersport 600 class. On its YouTube channel, it also has the full races from every round of the series, including the races at Chang.

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MotoGP

MotoGP: Bridgestone Adds Two More Tires for 2015 Season

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Bridgestone have added two new tires to their 2015 allocation, in response to developments in 2014. A new extra-hard rear will be made available at a few of the more abrasive circuits on the calendar, while the asymmetric front, debuted at Phillip Island last year, will also be available at more tracks.

Two new tires means two new color codings, to distinguish them from the existing allocation of tires. The extra hard rear will carry a yellow stripe around the side, while the asymmetric front will be indentifiable by a light blue band on the sidewall.

The existing color codings for the remainder of the tires remain unchanged, as shown in the tire chart and table below.

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News

Kawasaki Applies for Electric Motorcycle Patent

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Need further proof that the future of motorcycling will include electrics? Take this recently published patent application from Kawasaki, that the Japanese OEM filed for back in 2011.

The claims are fairly rudimentary, though they do include a transmission, with Kawasaki’s lawyers mostly outlining the basics of a motorcycle powered by an electric motor, of course the news is less about the contents of the patent application, and more about the fact that it was applied for, in the first place.

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Rumors

Is KTM Planning a V4-Powered Sport Bike?

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Why would KTM be riding around on a camouflaged Aprilia Tuono V4? That is the question of the day, after a spy photographer caught the Austrian company testing in Spain with such a machine.

The answer of course points to KTM working on a V4 street bike platform, which shouldn’t be too surprising since KTM CEO Stefan Pierer already tipped the media off to the fact that it is working on a MotoGP entry that would be based around a beastly V4 engine called the RC16.

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MotoGP

Valentino Rossi’s Rivals Over the Past 18 Seasons

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It is hard to imagine, but in few days’ time, Valentino Rossi will be starting his 19th season on the world motorcycle racing stage. Over that tenure, The Doctor has encountered more than a few rivals: Loris Capirossi, Sete Gibernau, Max Biaggi, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, and now Marc Marquez…just to name a few.

To help keep all those “friendly” feuds straight, Dainese sent us this interesting infographic that shows Rossi’s career in relationship to the top talent he faced at each stage of his career.

Now 36-years-old, an age where most riders have retired from MotoGP racing, Rossi is looking to add to his total race win tally, and even counts himself a contender for the 2015 MotoGP World Championship.

He’ll have tough competition for that spot, for sure, but The Doctor seems as potent as ever with his racecraft, and the Yamaha YZR-M1 is tipped to be the weapon of choice in 2015. Regardless of your fanboyism, we should have a good season on our hands.

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