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November 2015

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The Venerable Suzuki SV650 Returns for 2017

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The Suzuki SV650 is easily becoming an iconic model in the Japanese brand’s history, with new and experienced riders enjoy what the 650cc v-twin sport bike has to offer.

An ideal starter machine for learning motorcycles, the Suzuki SV650 is also a popular choice with track day enthusiasts and racer. It’s just a versatile, cheap, and fun motorcycle to ride.

For the 2017 model year (available early/mid-2016), Suzuki is bringing the SV650 back to its lineup, with both an ABS and non-ABS model. Getting some updates along the way as well, the 2017 Suzuki SV650 should continue to be a popular model for Suzuki.

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Bimota Tesi 3D RaceCafe Is “Pinnacle Weird”

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If you’re not listening to the Two Enthusiasts Podcast, you should…there is some good two-wheeled gold in the show. So, with a hat-tip to my co-host Quentin Wilson – whose new favorite phrase is “pinnacle weird” – we present you with perhaps the strangest motorcycle to debut at the 2015 EICMA show.

The Bimota Tesi 3D champions the hub-center steering chassis design, and is one of the more unique motorcycles in the industry right now. Its design is positively futuristic, so it is a little strange that Bimota is trying to make the Tesi 3D into a café racer with the launch of the Bimota Tesi 3D RaceCafe.

Powered by the same 803cc air-cooled v-twin engine that’s found in the Scrambler series, you can tell that Bimota is trying to latch onto the post-heritage trend that is dying a slow death in the motorcycle industry, but hasn’t quite figured out how to do it yet.

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Bimota Impeto, Supercharger Optional

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The Bimota range has a long history of Ducati-powered machines, as the Italian brand has been used the most out of all the motorcycle manufacturers to power Bimota’s street and race bikes.

The Bimota Impeto adds another Ducati-powered model to the slew of others, but it differentiates itself as the only 162hp streetfighter in the lineup. If the Impeto looks familiar to the Bimota DB8, there’s good reason, as the two bikes share the Ducati Diavel’s Testastretta 11° DS engine.

As such, the chromoly steel chassis share a number of components, leaving most of the differences down to styling choices between the two liquid-cooled models. Our personal favorites are the exhaust and seat, which mirror each other with a rising flair.

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The Aprilia RSV4 R-FW Misano Is Basically a MotoGP Bike

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The Aprilia Factory Works program is easily the most ridiculously awesome thing to come out of the 2015 EICMA show because it offers regular consumers (with a healthy pocketbook) the chance to own a 230hp+ Aprilia RSV4 superbike, just like what they race in the World Superbike Championship…and very close to what they race in MotoGP

Aprilia was a little vague though on what the Factory Works program entailed, but thankfully today at the EICMA show they clarified what exactly would be available from Aprilia Racing.

Coming up with five trim-levels for the RSV4 superbike, Aprilia has basically answered every track day enthusiast’s / amateur racer’s wet dream, and distracted us from the fact that the Noale company has a woefully aging product lineup.

However, this news is certainly less about a motorcycles with ridiculous horsepower figures, and more about a proven racing division opening up its service to a broader range of clientele.

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Honda CBSix50 Is a Scrambler for the Rest of Us

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The Honda Six50 concept continues where the Honda CB4 concept left-off in exploring what other machines could be created from the Honda CBR650F platform. Instead of a café racer though, the Honda CBSix50 is more of a modern-take on the popular scrambler genre.

To that vein, it works well with the Honda CB4 concept, as both machines attempt to tackle popular hipster tropes currently in the two-wheeled space, but with decisively modern and unique approaches.

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Things We Like, Part 1: Honda CB4 Concept

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Honda isn’t saying too much about its CB4 concept, and we are not sure they need to – the motorcycle speaks for itself. Just in case you can’t hear it, the retro-style standard is an appealing machine, which draws a distinct line to the Hondas of a couple generations ago.

The Honda CB4 concept seems to be built off the Honda CBR650F platform, though the concept is certainly as far as you can get from the CBR650F in terms of feeling and inspiration.

To that end, a single-sided swingarm has been added, the exhaust routed stylishly and polished, and we are a big fan of the solid iron front brake discs with radially mounted Tokico calipers, in red…naturally.

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Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 Concept Helps Define the Future

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Ever since Stefan Pierer bought the Husqvarna brand, we have been curious to see how “Husky” would fit within the KTM family.

As of late, Husqvarna models have been little more than recycled KTM motorcycles, with a few minor changes and some cosmetic tweaks seemingly being the only thing that separates the Swedish brand from its Austrian owner.

Part of this is a necessary evil, as it takes time to design and build new models, with the current overlap at least serving to update the Husqvarna line until actual new models can be released.

In 2017, we will see the first truly new Husqvarna models come to market, the Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen & Husqvarna 401 Svartpilen. Now we can see a third model, which further defines how we will understand Husqvarna in the future, its called the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 concept.

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Kawasaki SC-02 “Soul Charger” Concept Debuts at EICMA

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Part of Kawasaki’s future is surely in supercharged motorcycles, as the Japanese manufacturer has debuted its second supercharged concept, in just a month’s time.

You may remember from the Tokyo Motor Show the Kawasaki SC-01 “Spirt Charger” concept, which depicted what many believed would be the next supercharged model from Kawasaki. Now we have the Kawasaki SC-02 “Soul Charger” concept, a model Kawasaki is being very coy about.

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The KTM 1290 Super Duke R Special Edition Is So Orange

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The KTM 1290 Super Duke R Special Edition is an easy motorcycle to explain. You take the KTM 1290 Super Duke R, raid the KTM power parts catalog, slap some gold paint on the sucker, and call it done.

The extra goodies include an Akrapovi? titanium exhaust, wave brake discs, stiffer triple clamps, adjustable hand levers, carbon fiber engine cover, and of course the orange anodized paint scheme.

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2016 KTM 690 Duke Learns Some Table Manners

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The KTM 690 Duke has always been a fun street bike, with a fair amount of power wedged into a relatively light package. For 2016, the KTM 690 Duke learns some refinement though, most notably with an engine overhaul that drops the buzz from the motor, and adds power to the dyno chart.

This comes about as the 690cc LC4 engine gains a secondary balancing shaft, a new crankshaft, and lighter pistons and connecting rods. All these changes come with a new cylinder head that has the exhaust valves on roller rockers, and the intake valves on the camshaft.

The result is that the 2016 KTM 690 Duke gets a modest power gain – a 73hp peak horsepower figure – and a powerband that is 1,000 rpm wider than before.

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KTM 1290 Super Duke GT – The Be(a)st Sport-Tourer?

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I recently was pleased to get the chance to ride the KTM 1290 Super Duke R – machine that truly lives up to the name “The Beast”, yet shows enough comfort to be a potent touring machine, if you could mount bags and a windscreen to it.

That thought is exactly what drove KTM with its latest model, the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT, which takes the 173hp streetfighter, and gives its bags, more fairing, and a windshield — all for 502 lbs, ready to ride.

Unless the Austrian massively botched this relatively easy task, this could mean that the KTM 1290 Super Duke GT is the best sport-tourer on the market.

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