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.
Movistar Yamaha has issued another press release about the condition of MotoGP racer Valentino Rossi, confirming that the nine-time World Champion has broken the tibia and fibula bones on his right leg.
As such, Valentino Rossi will undergo immediate surgery to correct the fractures. The condition of the 38-year-old racer will be updated Friday morning, but it seems likely that this news dashes Rossi’s MotoGP Championship hunt for this season.
This is because a displaced fracture is a serious injury, as it means that Rossi has broken his bones in several places, and the pieces of the those fractured bones are not set correctly to heal on their own.
After reports from Italy told of Valentino Rossi breaking his leg in an enduro training accident, we have been waiting for confirmation of that news from an official source.
Now getting on top of this evolving story, the Movistar Yamaha team has confirmed that the nine-time World Champion has been involved in a training accident, and that he was taken to the Ospedale Civile di Urbino for a medical check-up.
Reports from Europe are saying that Valentino Rossi has broken his leg while training on an enduro bike.
Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport, says that the nine-time World Champion has sustained a “suspected fracture of the tibia and fibula” and that Rossi is expected to go into surgery tonight to repair the injury.
We should caution that these reports have not yet been confirmed, with Yamaha yet to comment on the injury, but if true they could have dire consequences for Rossi’s bid to be the 2017 MotoGP World Champion.
In one week’s time, Ducati will unveil its new V4 engine, which will power the next-generation of the Italian company’s superbikes and other high-powered motorcycles.
Set to debut the Thursday before the San Marino GP round for MotoGP, Ducati has begun teasing us some information, the first of which is the new motor’s name, the Desmosedici Stradale.
True to Ducati naming conventions, the name of the engine literally means what it is, a road-going version of the Desmosedici engine that powers Bologna’s MotoGP project.
Documents filed with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) show that no changes will be coming for the 2018 BMW S1000RR, with the emission levels for the popular superbike shown to be the same as those for the 2017 model.
This means that it is unlikely that we will see a new S1000RR model debut at EICMA later this year, despite seeing spy photos of a restyled S1000RR a month ago.