Maybe it’s because my poor Yamaha YZF-R1 track bike gets left in the garage way more often that my Husqvarna SMR 511 does, but I’ve had supermotos on the brain lately. It’s easy to see why, supermoto racing is a cheap and fun way to get your doctor prescribed dosage of braaap.
So, it is a bit of a mystery why supermoto racing isn’t more popular in the USA. Thankfully we’ve got a series starting up in the Pacific Northwest this year, and it looks like with the AMA involved again that supermoto might get second coming on this side of the pond.
If you haven’t tried riding a supermoto yet, you should. It doesn’t take much, really just a dirt bike that you are willing to shod with 17″ wheels, which brings us to the story at hand, as one of the better places to get some cheap quality supermoto wheels has been Warp 9 Racing, a company based right here in the USA (Salt Lake City).
Warp 9’s spoked wheelsets might not be the lightest on the market, but they do offer great bang for the buck for racers and enthusiasts alike, and what has us really excited today is the debut of Warp 9 Racing’s new forged aluminum wheelsets for supermoto bikes.
It looks like Europe’s new Euro4 emissions standard has claimed its first victim (if you don’t count the exhaust pipe on the Ducati 959 Panigale), as neither KTM nor Husqvarna will be producing their 125cc two-stroke enduro models for 2017, and the foreseeable future afterwards.
The move is a euros and cents decision, and a slightly complicated one at that, but it boils down to the fact that making the small-displacement smokers meet the more stringent Euro4 emissions requirements was financially prohibitive.
With RevZilla joining forces with Cycle Gear and Motorcycle USA shutting down this week, it has been a busy month for the business side of the motorcycle industry. Now we have more news to report, as BRG Sports, owner of the Bell Helmets brand, has sold its action sports business to Vista Outdoor.
The move adds some of the BRG Sport brands: Bell Helmets, Giro, Blackburn, and C-Preme, into Vista Outdoor already extensive lineup of impressive outdoor and shooting brands, such as Bollé, Bushnell, CamelBak, and Federal Premium.
After 20 years of service, Motorcycle USA is going to shut its doors at the end of this week.
The news is a shock to anyone in the industry, as Motorcycle USA was one of the largest daily news outlets in the space, with extensive industry knowledge, racing coverage, and bike reviews on its pages.
The news came over Twitter, though we are sure that the MotoUSA team will have a prepared statement on their site shortly, which will explain the MAG Retail Groups decision more clearly.
The idea of a motorcycle taxi sounds like a novelty in the Western World, but in Southeast Asia they are an effective and affordable way to cut through the massive traffic jams that occur in these developing countries.
It is only logical then that we see disruptive services appearing in this already lucrative space, so enter into the scheme UberMOTO.
The concept is as simple as the name, UberMOTO is just like Uber’s citizen-based taxi cab system, which allows you to hail a cab from the comfort of your smartphone, except instead of cars, it utilizing motorcycles.
It is not with great surprise that we learn today that the Honda EV-Cub is coming to market within the next two years. The news comes from Honda President & CEO Takahiro Hachigo, who said as much during his press conference today in Japan.
The Honda EV-Cub is of course the electric version of Honda’s uber-popular Honda Super Cub motorcycle, which is the best selling motorcycle of all time (roughly 87 million units were sold in 2014 since its inception in 1958).
The Honda Super Cub looks also to be getting an overhaul, with a new concept design making the rounds last year at the major trade shows.
For the Honda EV-Cub though, the electric scooter is part of a larger problem in urban transportation, especially in Asian countries where the rapid rise in the local economies is seeing more and more people on the roadways.
If you are an American who was hoping to see motorcycle racing on basic cable, we have bad news for you all three major series – MotoGP, World Superbike, and MotoAmerica – will air exclusively on the premium TV network beIN Sports this year.
The deal with beIN Sports mimics similar deals we have seen Dorna cut elsewhere abroad, where the media rights holder of both MotoGP and World Superbike favors deals with premium television companies over basic broadcast stations.
These deals usually mean more money for Dorna, though come with the downside of fewer viewers for the sport of motorcycle racing.
Here is our first good look at the 2016 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP race bike, as the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini squad just wrapped up a three-day test in Qatar, with Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl.
The entire 2016 machine is a departure from the RS-GP that was raced last year, which also means that an all-new V4 engine powers the 2016 Aprilia RS-GP. There has been much debate about what cylinder angle the new Aprilia is using, as the old bike used the 65° angle found on the RSV4 street bike.
The 2016 Aprilia RS-GP is also said to be considerably lighter than its predecessor, likely right on the line of the FIM’s minimum weight requirement for MotoGP race bikes.
The Yamaha MT-10 was probably the big reveal of the 2015 EICMA show, with the 1,000cc streetfighter putting the two-wheeled establishment on notice with its radical design.
The kicker though to the MT-10’s debut however was the utter lack of technical specifications when Yamaha unwrapped the street bike. Thankfully, that’s now changed.
The last we checked-in with the Suzuki/Volkswagen divorce, the German automobile maker was ordered by the London Court of International Arbitration to sell its 19.9% stake in the Japanese manufacturer (worth $2.8 billion at the time).
That was back in September 2015, and now that ordered has finally been fulfilled, with Volkswagen completely divesting itself from Suzuki – a move that has been four years in the making.