Episode 87 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and in it we see David Emmett and Steve English on the mics, as they cover the recent Valencia GP as well as the post-season Valencia test.
The start of the conversation covers obviously the weather, which played another large role in a MotoGP weekend. With the MotoGP race seeing another red flag stop because of rain, the show covers the challenges that Race Direction faces in making such calls, and whether they were correct in this instance.
The conversation then turns to the bikes on the grid, specifically comparing the Honda to the Ducati. There is also talk about the rise of the Suzuki, which might be the third best machine in the MotoGP paddock – something that worry those in Yamaha garages. With the KTM making progress, the competition is certainly getting more fierce.
Wrapping up talk about the race, our attention goes to the post-season test, which saw a number of riders making their maiden voyages on new motorcycles. The focus of the conversation though is about how important the two-day test is, in terms of getting things right for the 2019 season.
Today is the Friday after Thanksgiving, which means many of you awoke from your food coma, and headed to the stores for Black Friday start to your Christmas shopping.
That is right, the holiday season is upon us, and that means that we should be publishing some sort of Holiday Gift Guide for you, where we pretend to be journalists while taking a small commission from the links we funnel you towards.
It is a sad practice, and one that fills our inbox around this time of year. I wonder how many hundreds of dollars are traded for whatever last scrap of journalism that remains in this industry…it’s probably best not to think about it.
Don’t worry, we have a remedy. A real item you would want to have in your garage, and it is not some garbage tire pressure gauge from a company that bought a bunch of advertising from us this year.
This is a superbike. A real superbike. A WorldSBK-spec Honda CBR1000RR SP2 superbike. It is one of the Triple M Honda CBR1000RR SP2 superbikes that PJ Jacobsen raced in the 2018 World Superbike Championship.
Last week, we showed you two new motorcycles from Norton, the Atlas Ranger and the Atlas Nomad. Today, we bring you a third bike from this 650cc parallel-twin platform from the British brand, the Norton Superlight.
Based off the same road-going platform as the Atlas, the Superlight is really a race bike in disguise.
This is because the Norton Superlight takes the mild-mannered engine from the Atlas bikes, which makes 84hp and 47 lbs•ft of torque, and cranks them up to “11” for an engine that produces 105hp (78 kW) of peak power and 55 lbs•ft (75 Nm) of torque.
We teased the news a little bit in our A&R Pro coverage of the EICMA show, but the one missing element in Ducati’s Milan presentation was its sales figures from the 2018 model year.
There is good reason for their absence though, as Ducati’s successive record years of sales are about to be no longer.
With Audi releasing its quarterly report, we can now see why, as the Italian motorcycle brand sees its deliveries to customers down 3% for the third quarter of this year – down 6.3% so far for 2018.
Additive manufacturing (better known as 3D printing) is going to change the motorcycle industry – and industry in general – in a big way. Rapid prototyping materials are already changing how we develop new products, and as cost, sophistication, and quality increases, we can see this technology turning manufacturing completely on its head. It is exciting to watch.
For the motorcycle industry, this means that there will come a day when all you need to do to get a new part for your motorcycle is to download the design from the OEM, and “print” it out at home or at a local 3D printing facility.
This will fundamentally change the role of dealerships and how we design and build motorcycles. I cannot emphasize this point enough. The day of this industrial revolution just got a little closer today too, as we see what is being dubbed as the world’s first completely 3D printed motorcycle.
The post-season test at Valencia is underway for the MotoGP Championship right now, giving us a hint at what to expect for the 2019 season.
The event is like a first date, with riders often getting their first laps on new machines, many of who are doing so with their new team as well.
This is also our chance to get to see some of the developments that teams have been working on for the next season, with the black fairings of test bikes hiding unknown technical secrets.
It has been a very long time since we last recorded a Two Enthusiasts Podcast show for you, but Episode 86 is out in the wild now, and in it we discuss all the new bikes that debuted at the EICMA show in Milan.
As you will quickly notice, friend of the show Shahin Alvandi fills in for Quentin on this episode, as we figure out what the future holds for the podcast.
It has been a very difficult 80 days since we last recorded an episode for you, and we didn’t want to have EICMA go by without some sort of commentary from the show, so here is something to tide you over while we get our sh*t together.
We should have more news available for you on what is happening with the podcast shortly, until then, enjoy this show where we talk some of the bikes for the 2019 model year and beyond that caught our attention.
There is a joke in here somewhere about sport bike mirrors being useless, but here we are, reporting that the Ducati Supersport is being recalled because vibrations from the motorcycle might distort the rider’s viewing of objects in the rear-view mirrors.
It is certainly not on the same level as the last recall for the Supersport, but Ducati North America says that the vibrations occur at certain speeds and rpms, and Ducati Motor Holding has changed its mirror design because of customer feedback on the mirrors.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Ducati Monster, one of the most important motorcycles in the Italian company’s lineup. To mark the occasion, Borgo Panigale produced the Ducati Monster 1200 25° Anniversario – a machine that is finally set to be in Ducati dealerships this month.
But, what if you wanted another historic paint job to celebrate this silver jubilee for the Monster? That is where this Ducati Monster 1200 Tricolore from Motovation finds its niche. We have posted photos of Motovation’s Tricolore work before, when the aftermarket house tarted up the Multistrada 1200 in an Italian flag livery, and the effect on the Monster is no less.
