Archive

September 2017

Browsing

Transport is changing, and one of the biggest ways in which it is changing is the shift to electric vehicles. That change is slowly starting to seep into the world of motorcycling as well.

Electric motorcycling manufacturers have sprung up in many places around the globe, though more often than not as tech startups in Silicon Valley rather than as engineering firms from more traditional motorcycling regions.

The more established manufacturers have also started to show an interest. BMW offers an electric scooter, the C Evolution, and KTM sells the Freeride E in three different versions. Slowly but surely, a solid engineering base is starting to form for electric motorcycles.

This change has not gone unnoticed by Dorna. The Spanish firm who run MotoGP is making plans for an electric bike racing series, provisionally scheduled to be starting in 2019.

That is very provisional, however: a lot of work still needs to be done before such a series can take place. Bikes need to be found, and circuits need to be modified to ensure they have the facilities needed to host, and most especially, recharge the bikes ready for racing.

To find out more about what an electric bike series might look like, and how far along the planning stage Dorna is, we spoke with MotoGP Director of Technology Corrado Cecchinelli.

The Bimota brand has a storied past, from its creation by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri, and Massimo Tamburini, to its modern rebirth (several times over).

In between those chapters, we have seen a story born out of the company’s Rimini headquarters that has created some of motorcycling’s most iconic models, but it seems that the Bimota story is set to end.

In a story published by Cycle World, Bruno dePrato reports that Bimota has closed its doors in Italy, and all but officially ceased its business operations.

The Movistar Yamaha team have today confirmed that Valentino Rossi is to miss the Misano round of MotoGP. The injury the Italian sustained in a training accident last week is sufficiently severe that he will not be fit for his home round.

Yamaha had widely been expected to withdraw Rossi from Misano, given the fact that he had broken both the tibia and fibula of his right leg, and only had surgery to pin the bones in the early hours of Friday morning.

Later this week, Ducati will debut its Desmosedici Stradale engine, the new 90° V4 engine that will power Ducati’s next superbike (amongst other models). To see Ducati’s next superbike though, we’ll have to wait until November’s EICMA show in Milan, Italy…or will we?

This photo is going around the internet, purporting to show the new “Panigale V4” superbike. The photo looks legit, and looks very similar to the spy photos that we have seen of the Ducati’s new superbike machine.

In less than a week’s time, we will get all the details about Ducati’s new V4 engine, named the Desmosedici Stradale, but details about Ducati’s V4 superbike model continue to come in as well.

Today, we have another video of the V4 superbike testing. This time, the venue appears to be Mugello, and the video quality is high enough that we can clearly see that the machine in question is the V4 superbike in its testing garb.

If you were in the market for a motorcycle that’s the size of a medium-sized car, we have bad news for you, as the recently debuted Yamaha Star Venture will be delayed in its coming to market.

Yamaha strategically made this announcement at the start of a three-day weekend, assuring the news would be buried once the American market returned from the Labor Day holiday on Tuesday.

It is not clear why Yamaha will delay the production of the Star Venture – Yamaha only offers an explanation in its press release that it “needed modification to the production process” at the factory in Japan – but the delay will mostly affect customers who purchased the bike through Yamaha’s “Priority Delivery Program”.

As such, Yamaha is offering those early purchasers a $1,000 credit towards Yamaha-brand parts and accessories. We’ll update you when we have more information surrounding the production delays for the Star Venture.

For the past couple days, we have been strangely attracted to this electric scooter, made by Krautmotors. The best we can tell, the “E-LisaBad” is based off the BMW C Evolution scooter, and what surely must have been the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.

The stealth-looking angular matte black fairing catches the eye for sure, but so does the raw rear-end of the scooter, which shows the burly chassis that BMW is building for its electric platform.

The whole machine has been lowered from its original ride height, with the rear shocks removed completely, and a drag strip racing slick fitted to the single-sided swingarm. Other than that, the core of the BMW C Evolution remains the same, with its 53 lbs•ft of torque.

We think you will find that builder Rolf Reick’s creation is an interesting mix of form and function, and if you are wondering about the moniker, its namesake is Reick’s grandmother.

The Movistar Yamaha team has updated us on Valentino Rossi’s condition, as the MotoGP underwent surgery on his right leg earlier today.

Rossi was first examined at the Ospedale Civile di Urbino, where he was initially diagnosed, then he was transferred to the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Ospedali Riuniti in Ancona, where the surgery was performed.

The team reports that the operation was a success, and that the doctors implanted metal pins (locking intramedullary nails, to be precise) into Rossi’s leg to hold the bones together.

This past week was the first time I have ever driven a motorcycle. I have ridden quite a few motorcycles in my time, just never one with three wheels, a seatbelt, and steering wheel. It felt very weird…like riding a scooter.

The Polaris Slingshot is not a motorcycle though. Three years after its initial debut, the Slingshot is now considered an autocycle in 40 states and counting.

As an autocycle, the Polaris Slingshot is held to the same standards as a motorbike, but these 40 states do away with the requirement for the rider, I mean driver, to have a motorcycle endorsement on their license.

Armed with a normal driver’s license and a helmet (where applicable), there are no boundaries to driving a Slingshot. This opens interesting doors for Polaris, which is good, because the Slingshot is an interesting machine. Let me explain.