The untimely passing of Nicky Hayden affected motorcycle fans around the world, the team at Asphalt & Rubber included. To work through the grief, we are going to take this week to celebrate the life of The Kentucky Kid, sharing with you our thoughts and images from the years we worked with Nicky. So, we hope you will enjoy these photos by photographer Brian Nitto, as we all continue to hold Nicky in our thoughts and remember him. – JB
Feeling the effects of international trade, and a future without the TPP, Harley-Davidson is reported by the New York Times to be opening a new factory in Thailand – country that places a 60% tariff on motorcycles in Harley-Davidson’s relevant market.
The news comes at the dismay from Harley-Davidson’s workforce, which has just seen its ranks diminished by 118 jobs at its York plant, in Pennsylvania. Despite this, Harley-Davidson says that the move is about growing sales abroad, not losing jobs in the United States.
“This is absolutely not about taking jobs out of the United States,” said Marc McAllister, the Managing Director of Harley-Davidson’s international sales, while talking to the NY Times. “This is about growing our business in Asia.”
Of course, if Harley-Davidson wasn’t having to side-step a 60% tariff to sell motorcycles in Thailand, one has to wonder if the Bar & Shield brand would be building a factory in Thailand in the first place…
What had originally been planned as a two-day private test for Ducati grew into something rather larger, with Honda and Aprilia also joining the fray.
At the end of two days, it was Marc Marquez who ended the test as fastest, a couple of tenths quicker than Jorge Lorenzo on the Ducati, while Alvaro Bautista was third fastest on the Aspar bike.
The test at Barcelona gave the riders a chance to test two of the most important changes for the series. First, the new, much shorter chicane being used instead of the F1 chicane, replacing Turn 12 where Luis Salom tragically lost his life during practice last year.
And second, the riders got a chance to test the stiffer front tire (the ’70’) which will be used from Mugello onwards, and will therefore be used in Barcelona during the race.
I have always been a fan of racing, and from my earliest memories all I can remember is watching racing and loving it. From when I started watching motorcycle racing, I was drawn towards flat track racers from the United States.
Perhaps, it was because the risks they take are so similar to road racing in Ireland, or just their style on a bike. There was always an attraction for me towards flat trackers, and as a child the riders I admired were Americans who grew up on the dirt.
Whether it was hearing stories of Kenny Roberts and Freddie Spencer, or watching Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz, the Americans held a certain mystique for me.
Nicky Hayden was the next of that lineage and coming into MotoGP as a 21-year-old rookie — as well as being paired with Valentino Rossi, no less — I couldn’t help but root for the underdog.
Having been to Laguna Seca, to see Nicky pick up a MotoGP win, I was firmly a fan of his by the time he claimed his MotoGP title in 2006. Like so many others around the world, it was impossible not to like the rider and the man.
At the 2015 EICMA show, the Husqvarna 701 Vitpilen (shown above) debuted to much fanfare, as the neo-retro model showed a new direction for the Swedish brand’s street lineup, with the machine heavily expected to come as a production model.
And now today, we see that a “Svartpilen” 701 model will debut as well, with spy photos of the bike being captured in its near-production form.
The black-colored and more scrambler-styled Husqvarna 701 Svartpilen is an addition to the white-colored and more roadster-styled Husqvarna 701 Vitpilen that we have already seen.
As such, it seems clear that Husqvarna is expanding its on-road offering in a big way, and to be beyond its current crop of simple supermoto designs.
In the mainstream news, there is a lot of talk right now about net neutrality for internet service providers (ISPs), not to mention the whirlwind discussions about malicious electronic intrusions, like the Russian involvement in the 2016 US Presidential election, or the recent bout of ransomware that is being linked to North Korea.
The takeaway from these current events is that as our lives become increasingly dependent upon our online presence, we need to take our online security and privacy more seriously, especially during uncertain times.
Asphalt & Rubber might be only a modest motorcycle website, where you spend a handful of minutes during your day reading about all things two-wheeled, but we take these issues very seriously…and for good reason.
As such, we have enabled and forced HTTPS browsing for all users on our site, not only so your connection to our website is secure, but also so your privacy is protected from anyone who might wish to read or track your presence across the internet.
When you think about it, tires haven’t changed a great deal in the past 100 years.
Sure, there have been advancements in the construction of the tire’s carcass, and the grip properties of rubber continue to advance, but the overall package has remained virtually unchanged throughout all this development.
Thinking of how vehicles, especially motorcycles, will travel in the future, we have seen several attempts to redesign the tire. Goodyear has an intriguing concept with its spherical tire design that mimic brain coral for its tread.
Bridgestone is innovating in this space as well, working on its “airless” tire design, which uses a self-supporting tire architecture.
Kind of an odd recall issue to come across our desk, but Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) is recalling a handful (92, to be specific) of 2017 Can-Am Spyder RT trikes because the low-beam setting on the trike’s headlight shoots too high down the road – the issue stemming from a manufacturing error in the headlight assembly.
Besides annoying on-coming traffic, the headlight fails to meet requirements set by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS), under item number 108: “Lamps, Reflective Devices, and associated Equipment.”
The untimely passing of Nicky Hayden affected motorcycle fans around the world, the team at Asphalt & Rubber included. To work through the grief, we are going to take this week to celebrate the life of The Kentucky Kid, sharing with you our thoughts and images from the years we worked with Nicky. So, we hope you will enjoy these photos by photographer Daniel Lo, as we all continue to hold Nicky in our thoughts and remember him. – JB
It is with a heavy heart that we report the passing of Nicky Hayden today, the American motorcycle racer finally succumbing to the injuries he sustained on Wednesday, at 7:09 PM CEST.
The former-MotoGP Champion was struck by a car, while he was training on his bicycle near the Rimini coast. After the incident, Hayden was ultimately treated at the trauma center at the Bufalini Hospital in Cesena, where he later passed away.
While motorcycle fans around the world have been hoping for good news throughout this past weekend, and looking for signs that Nicky’s condition would improve, today Nicky’s race ended, with his family and friends at his side.