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Jensen Beeler

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BMW Motorrad USA is recalling a few of its maxi-scooters, with a safety campaign touching the BMW C600 Sport and C650 Sport (2013-2018), as well as the BMW C650 GT (2013-2019 scooters).

In total, the recall affects 2,707 scooters, and it centers around the fact that repeated turnings of the handlebar to the left can cause the front brake hose to crack and leak over time. 

This of course can lead to the brake’s hydraulic system losing pressure, which can lead to the brakes no longer working. This safety issue has lead to the recall announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Another year, and another April Fools Day is done and dusted. I am fairly certain that for journalists, April 1st is better than Christmas, as it marks the one day where media outlets make the news they wish they could report on daily. And as usual, the imaginations of the motorcycle media pool didn’t fail to disappoint.

My colleague David Emmett had a timely story on how MotoGP will be a house divided, because of the current drama around the use of aerodynamic rider aids.

For my own part, I looked to the increasingly important space of airbag-equipped motorcycle gear and wondered what the next evolution in that space, with thanks to the fine folks at REV’IT for being good sports about our vision of perforated airbag systems.

How about from the rest of the industry though? In case you missed them, the highlights of April Fools Day are after the jump.

The future of motorcycle safety apparel just took another step forward, as a new brand has entered the airbag game for motorcycle track and race suits.

It shouldn’t surprise us to see that the brand in question is REV’IT, as the Dutch company is already at the forefront of motorcycle apparel design, and is an avid safety partner for racers at the top level of the sport.

REV’IT joins Alpinestars and Dainese in offering an in-house airbag safety technology system for track use, but the brand is taking things to the next level with its novel approach to keeping riders safe.

For REV’It, the issue isn’t just in deploying the soft protection that an airbag offers a rider. Instead, their new airbag design promises to be lighter in weight and cooler in temperature than the units from the competition.

Greetings from Lisbon, Portugal as we come to our final destination on this three-week European press launch adventure. For this installment, we switch countries of origin, and get ready to hop on the Husqvarna Svartpilen 701 street bike.

A sort of street-tracker meets roadster type of bike, the Svartpilen 701 is a unique build from Husqvarna, and it pairs well with the company’s “white arrow” – the Vitpilen 701.

The plan is for us to get to know the Husqvarna Svartpilen 701 on the roads outside of Lisbon, riding along the coast for some twisties, touring along the highway, and doing some city miles in the urban jungle of Lisboa.

The route should give us a good idea of what to expect from the Swedish brand’s newest street bike, and to see if it is as fun as Husqvarna would like us to believe.

I wasn’t going to double-dip on stories for the Aprilia RS 660 concept this week, but well…these photos were too good not to share ASAP. If you haven’t read our report that the Aprilia RS 660 will be showing up for the 2020 model year, well then…started getting excited party-people.

Ahead of our ride time on the new Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory, the folks from Noale invited us to their “Aprilia All Stars” event at the Mugello circuit last week, which is where we spotted the RS 660 on display.

The bike hasn’t changed from its debut in Milan late last year, which is fine by us, as it looks like it could roll right onto the showroom floor already…and apparently from yesterday’s news, that is the point.

Still, spending some time up-close with the Aprilia RS 660 concept provides us with some interesting insights to this machine.

Episode 96 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is a special show on the MotoGP’s handling of Ducati’s aerodynamic swingarm appendage, aka “The Spoon” device. 

As such, this means that we see Steve English and David Emmett on the mics, first discussing the issues around the MotoGP rulebook, the appeals process for protesting Ducati’s swingarm, and how the MotoGP Court of Appeal came to its decision.

The show is a fascinating and exhaustive look into the matter, which we think you will find very interesting. Of course, the decision will have big implications for the MotoGP paddock, as we go further into the dark world of aerodynamic development.

When the Aprilia RS 660 concept was debuted at last year’s EICMA show, what we saw was actually three thing. One was a new engine platform, based around a parallel-twin engine that is basically an RSV4 motor cut in half. Another was a middleweight supersport model based on that new twin-cylinder engine, and the third was an active aerodynamics concept.

Our Bothan spies tell us that the active aerodynamics package is destined for the next generation of the Aprilia RSV4 superbike, which we expect to see in 2021 when the Euro5 regulations first come into affect. They also told us that the Aprilia RS 660 was the first model of a new platform, which we would see debut for the 2020 model year.

Now with Aprilia talking to our colleagues at Moto-Station in France, we get confirmation that the Aprilia RS 660 will debut as a production model later this year, at the EICMA show in Milan, which is held in November.

Imagine you have been given the opportunity to ride the iconic grand prix track at Mugello, and that you are going to do it on a superbike with well over 200hp at the crank. It has the latest technology, both in terms of electronic rider aids and physical aerodynamics. And oh, the Tuscan sun will be shining on you the whole day.

This is a sport rider’s dream. This is fat check mark on any two-wheeled enthusiast’s motorcycling bucket list. When the folks at Noale invited us to come ride the new Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory at the famed Italian race track in the Tuscany region, our affirmative reply didn’t take long to send.

I won’t lie and and try and pretend that the prospect of riding at Mugello hasn’t been high on my list of things to do before I die, but bucket-lists aside, I wanted to see where Aprilia was standing, now 10 years after the original debut of its RSV4 superbike.

What was really “new” about the decade-old machine? How did it compare to the new offerings in the industry? And, is all the hype about winglets really grounded in reality?

Well..I came back from Mugello overwhelmed, impressed, and befuddled. Let me explain.

Mark this as a win for those in favor of seeing lane-splitting becoming legal in the United States as the State of Utah has just passed a law that makes it legal to filter lanes in the Beehive State.

Signed into law on March 21st, the law (HB 149) doesn’t provide for full-out lane-splitting in Utah, but it does make it legal for a motorcyclist to filter through traffic when the automobile traffic is stopped and where the speed limit is 45 mph or slower.

This effectively means that lane-splitting won’t be legal for Utah riders on the freeway, and the pragmatic result of the bill is that it will allow motorcyclists to move through stopped urban traffic during rush hour commutes.

It is hard to believe that the Aprilia RSV4 superbike is ten-years-old this year. Even in the superbike space, which has seen more than its fair share of models languishing through the years, 10 trips around the sun is a long time. And yet, Aprilia has managed to be at the top of the game the whole duration.

Riders will always differ on their preferences, but the Aprilia RSV4 is a regular on the experts’ short-lists. The RSV4 is just an amazing machine, and Aprilia has done a good job of bringing meaningful updates to the model every few years.

With the Euro5 homologation coming in 2021, we are sure to see a successor to the Aprilia RSV4, but before that happens, the Noale brand wants to celebrate its opus with a special model, the Aprilia RSV4 X.

Are you ready? For the revolution? That is what is happening in Japan right now, at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show. We say this because Honda just debuted an electric dirt bike prototype that looks the business.

The Honda CR Electric prototype was co-developed with Mugen, a company with close ties to Honda. In fact, beyond the fairings, you would have a hard time distinguishing the Honda CR Electric prototype from the Mugen E.Rex that re-debuted this week as well.

Both bikes use an aluminum twin-spar frame, and look very “Honda” in their approach to building a dirt bike. It also doesn’t surprise us to see that Nissin supplies the brakes for both efforts, and the same goes for Showa on the suspension side. What would you expect though, considering the close ties these brands have to Honda?

This is a project that is very much still in the family, and in the case of Mugen, that phrase is meant literally, as Mugen was founded by Soichiro Honda’s son.

With Mugen spending the last eight years competing in the Isle of Man TT electric race, and racking up five race wins in the process, the tuning brand has built a cache of EV experience. Surely, this is where the Mugen-Honda connection is at its strongest. Together, these two companies are forging a new era of motorcycle design.