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Recall

KTM Issues Worldwide Recall on Several Adventure Models

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KTM has issued a worldwide recall for several of its Adventure models because of a faulty ABS modulator and wiring harness, which affects certain units of the 2016 KTM 1190 Adventure, 2016 KTM 1190 Adventure R, and 2016 KTM 1290 Super Adventure lineup.

KTM says that through its investigations, it has determined that deviations in the assembly process can cause the wiring harness and ABS modulators to touch and rub together, which can cause the brake line to conduct electricity.

This only occurs if the wiring harness is frayed, and is in contact with the ABS modulator, but as a result, the electric charge can cause the brake line to overheat and melt, which can lead to a failure in the brake system.

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Racing

Snow Bike Racing Is Officially A Thing Now

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Depending on your geography, the start of snow bike season might finally be here. These modified dirt bikes have snowmobile-like treads at the rear, a ski at the front, and look like an absolute blast in the frozen white stuff.

We’re sure that any time two snow bikes find themselves together, that some form of racing ensues. But now, to make things a bit more legit, the American Motorcyclist Association has officially sanctioned snow bike racing, starting the AMA Championship Snow Bike series in the process.

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News

PJ Jacobsen Signs with MV Agusta for World Supersport

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American Patrick “PJ” Jacobsen will get an equipment change for his 2017 bid in the World Supersport Championship, jumping ship from Honda to the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team.

Jacobsen tested with MV Agusta at the recent WSBK test in Jerez, where his results on the MV Agusta F3 675 must have impressed the Italian factory, as the audition landed him the job.

The move to MV Agusta will hopefully be a benefitical one for Jacobsen, as he starts his fourth full season in the World Supersport Championship. PJ was the 2015 runner-up in the Championship, and finished the 2016 season fourth overall.

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Bikes

Spirit Motorcycles Debuts Potent Three-Cylinder Sport Bikes

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If you are having a hard time figuring out what to get that special motorcyclist in your life, let us suggest something from the recently formed Spirit Motorcycles brand.

The British marque’s first offering is a trio of motorcycles: the GP Street is a naked street bike, the GP Sport is its fully faired sibling, and the GP Corse R is the full-fledge track supersport machine.

The base model machines make 160hp from their three-cylinder engine, and tip the scales around the 320 lbs mark. But, if you want to spring for the R-spec models, you are looking at a 180hp and 309 lbs machine, sans fuel. Do we have your attention now?

To power their machines, Spirit is using a repurposed Triumph Daytona 675 engine, which has been boosted to 750cc by stroking out the triple. Engine compression has been modified to help boost power, as well.

Like many things on the Spirit lineup, the chassis is of note, as the chrom-moly steel tubes have been brazed-welded together, for added flex. Spirit says that the chassis steering angle, rake, and trail is fully adjustable. The swingarm is made from cast aluminum, and the fairings are carbon fiber.

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Bikes

2017 Honda CRF450 Supermoto, for France Only

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America might have invented supermoto racing, but the sport’s largest support base easily comes now from that other side of the Atlantic – more specifically, from France.

So, it shouldn’t surprise us to learn that Honda’s French importer Superboost makes a special supermoto version of the Honda CRF450 for the French market.

For the 2017 model year, the Honda CRF450 Supermoto follows that changes made to Big Red’s 450cc dirt bike, which notably includes the return of fork springs (goodbye air forks), an electric starter, and down-draft fuel injection.

Basically a kit that is added at the importer level, the 2017 Honda CRF450 Supermoto lineup has three models, building off the CRF450R (€11,299), CRF450RX (€10,999), and CRF450X dirt bike (€10,999), with each getting their own taste of the supermoto treatment.

For American readers, don’t expect to see these supermoto models at your local dealership, as this is strictly a project undertaken by the Frenchies.

Though, it would be nice to see American Honda supporting the local supermoto scene, and offering some sort of motard kit for its venerable CRF450. The Swedes and the Austrians shouldn’t have all the fun.

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Podcast

Two Enthusiasts Podcast #39 – Live in PDX

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Episode 39 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is a celebration of one year of motorcycle podcasting, and to celebrate our birthday, we figured we should do a live show in our hometown of Portland, Oregon.

The good folks at MotoCorsa were kind enough to host the 40 brave souls that braved the PNW weather to listen to Quentin and myself blather about motorcycles.

It was good fun, and we covered topics like the recent MotoGP test in Valencia, the business issues that comes with running a race track, and how “race” ABS works and how it’s evolving.

We finish the show with a Q&A session from the audience, with questions about racing, race tracks, new bikes, and how to pronounce Spanish words being the topics of choice.

We are extremely grateful for the turnout at our first live show, and hope to bring the format to other cities in the coming months. We are also thankful for all our listeners who couldn’t make it to Portland, but continue to listen to the show each week. Hopefully, we can meet you all soon.

Until then, you can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!

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News

No Mandatory Noises for Electric Motorcycles, Yet…

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In a world with increasingly stringent emission and noise standards, vehicle OEMs are continuously tasked with making their automobiles and motorcycles quieter.

Such regulations have brought us some ridiculous creations in the motorcycle realm, especially for the Japanese and European market, but changes are afoot here in the United States as well.

Today, we bring you such news, but it’s probably not the news that you think. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has just set a standard that will see electric automobiles getting louder, instead of quieter, in the name of vehicle safety.

But oddly enough, the new rule does not apply to electric motorcycles…for now.

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Bikes

Divergent 3D Dagger – The Ninja H2 Meets 3D Printing

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It is hard to think how Kawasaki could make the Ninja H2 more modern, considering the bike’s supercharged engine, radical aerodynamics, and plethora of electronics. But, that didn’t stop the minds at Divergent 3D, a company that is specializing on making vehicles with 3D printing technology.

We have talked about 3D printing here at Asphalt & Rubber before, a technology that when the economies of scale finally take hold of it, should turn several industries on their heads.

For the Divergent 3D Dagger, you can see that the frame, swingarm, and fuel tank are built using Divergent’s 3D printing technology, which uses additive manufacturing to create metal-alloy nodes, and carbon fiber tubes to connect them, when applicable.

In the case of the Divergent 3D Dagger, our best information is that the machine’s chassis comprises solely of metals that have been 3D printed, sans the carbon fiber tubes that can be found on the company’s Blade supercar, though it wouldn’t be hard to change the design of the frame to employ carbon fiber.

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A&R Pro

Why the Honda Rebel Is The Hot New Bike for 2017

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The following is our second taste of the exclusive content that A&R Pro members can expect to read on a weekly basis at Asphalt & Rubber. This article focuses on a current and critical event that happened in the industry, which is something A&R Pro content will focus on. If you want to have access to this kind of long-form content after this week’s free trial period, we recommend you sign-up here. 

New bike season is just about over, now that INTERMOT, EICMA, AIMExpo, and IMS Long Beach trade shows are behind us.

We could still see some new models and concepts debut later this year in Japan, and there is always the possibility of something interesting showing up at the IMS New York show, but those are less popular venues for new bike releases.

In that case then, we can start making some conjecture about the bikes that debuted this year, many of them for the 2017 model year. Let’s start with the best of the best — I am of course talking about the new Honda Rebel models. No? Not the bike you were expecting?

Sure, these unassuming 300cc and 500cc street bikes don’t have the same sex appeal as some of the more wild machines we saw in Germany and Italy, but make no mistake, the revamped Honda Rebel is the most important new bike we have seen debut this year. Let me explain.

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News

Motorcyclist Magazine Moving to Six-Issue per Year Format, As Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook Leaves the Publication

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Changes are afoot at Motorcyclist magazine, as the monthly publication is set to move to a six-issue per year format starting in Spring 2017. That transition will come from the direction of a new leader too, as Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook will be leaving Motorcyclist as well.

Cook outlined his departure, and announced the new format for Motorcyclist, in a short post to his “Cook’s Corner” column online, citing the many contributions his team of writers have made over the course of his tenure at the magazine.

As the opening paragraph to Cook’s goodbye letter coyly suggests, the media landscape in the motorcycle industry is shifting, pushing Motorcyclist magazine in a new direction, which also seems to be pushing hardcore journalists out of the medium.

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Bikes

BMW G310R Street Tracker by Wedge Motorcycles

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A few months ago, this pocket-sized street tracker caught my attention on Facebook. It was based off the BMW G310R street bike platform, that much I could tell, but I couldn’t find anymore information on the machine.

A few more weeks of this lonesome photo sitting in my ‘to do” box, and it finally moved on to the place where all good stories go to die.

So, imagine my surprise when our friends at BMW Motorrad Japan sent me the following photos, which depict a new custom bike they commissioned from Takashi Nihira, at Tokyo’s Wedge Motorcycles.

It is the same bike I saw months earlier, but now we know who to thank for its creation, as well as a little bit more about its build. Its is quite impressive, for an unassuming “little” street tracker, don’t you think?

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