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Hey Hipsters, Harley-Davidson is Calling You

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Slap on your skinny jeans, and get on a hog, because Harley-Davidson is pitching motorcycles to America’s favorite disgruntled demographic: the hipster. For pursuing today’s young and ironically image-oriented subculture, you can’t really fault a company like Harley-Davidson for this move, seeing as it markets its brand around this notion of conformity through non-conformity.

Copying the vintage art house film style of that we see so often on Vimeo (frame borders, sepia tones, and all), I will steal a line from AutoBlog‘s Jonathon Ramsey and say that Harley-Davidson has nailed the Instagram style on its head with this one…right down to its guitar-string audio track and percolating coffee pot cameo appearance.

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Bikes

Are You The Honda V4 Street Bike? Probably Not

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This weekend, we reported on an interview that CMG Online did with Dave Hancock, Honda Motor Europe’s Head of Product Planning & Business Development, said that the Honda RC213 (unofficial name) street bike was going to cost £70,000-£80,000 ($110,000 to $125,000), which certainly lit up our comments section with enthusiasts who were hoping for a more affordable model from the Japanese manufacturer.

Today, Japanese tuner magazine Young Machine is reporting to have the first images of the “Honda RCV1” street bike, which is already making its way around the internets as we speak, with various forms of information vetting. Is this our first glimpse at the Honda V4 street bike? Probably not.

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Banter

A Quarter Century of Ducati Superbikes in Photos

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Ducati superbikes are a legend in their own right, with a racing career the spans much father back in history than just the past two decades. Grabbing press kits for the 2012 EICMA show though, I stumbled across these photos from the Ducati Museum at Borgo Panigale factory.

Starting with the Ducati 851, and going all the way forward in time to the newly released Ducati 1199 Panigale R, it is interesting to see the progression in design and technology among the models (if you are into this sort of thing, be sure to checkout our 33 years of Suzuki endurance road racing bikes post).

Get your history lesson on after the jump with some high-resolution motorcycle goodness, and be sure to mention your favorite Desmo in the comments.

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Racing

Honda RC213 V4 Street Bike to Cost $100,000+

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After years of failed rumors about a V5-powered Honda street bike, this year we finally got confirmation that a true MotoGP-inspired machine would become available to the general public. The yet unnamed machine, which many are calling the Honda RC213, will have a 1,000cc V4 motor that will be based off the Honda RC213V MotoGP race bike.

A homologation special that will be produced in just enough quantities to meet WSBK regulations, the Honda RC123 street bike is not to be confused with the production racer variant that will be coming to MotoGP in 2014. That bike, essentially an RC213V without the pneumatic valves, seamless gearbox, and other trick bits, will cost in the neighborhood of €1,000,000 to buy.

However, according to an interview by Costa Mouzouris on CMG Online (a good read, check it out), the V4 street bike will cost significantly less. Talking to Dave Hancock, Honda Motor Europe’s Head of Product Planning & Business Development, the MotoGP “inspired” street bike will run in the neighborhood of £70,000-£80,000 or $110,000 to $125,000.

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Racing

MotoGP: Randy de Puniet to Suzuki for 2014?

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According to multiple reports, MotoGP’s resident Frenchman has been linked to Suzuki GP effort, which is expected to field a two-rider team in the premier class for 2014 season. Confirming with MCN that talks have been underway regarding Suzuki and the 2014 revival, De Puniet cautioned that nothing has been confirmed or signed just yet.

Missing out on the top CRT title this last season, De Puniet is contracted for another year with the Team Aspar effort in MotoGP, which will again use the Aprilia ART platform. Team Aspar has been the spearhead for Aprilia’s CRT package, which continues to show strong promise, and even challenged the full-prototype machines at a number of the less horsepower intense tracks, like Phillip Island.

Aspar Team Principal Jorge Martinez has reported given De Puniet his blessing to do double-duties with Suzuki.

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Racing

Michael Rutter Claims Eighth Macau GP Win

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John McGuinness might be the King of the Mountain at the Isle of Man, but Michael Rutter is the King of the Streets at Macau. After leading throughout the qualifying and practice sessions, Rutter rode a dominant 10 lap race to claim his eighth win at the Macau GP.

Virtually uncontested during the road race, Rutter finished to comfortably, despite a late-stage charge by Martin Jessop, who put on a show with his charge to second, after a poor start off the line.

“The team gave me a brilliant bike,” said Rutter. “The crowds have been fantastic. I enjoy coming here and hope it will keep continuing.” Riding for the SMT Racing team on a Honda CBR1000RR, Rutter was teammates with Isle of Man TT star and rival John McGuinness, whose seventh place finish put SMT at the top of Macau’s first-ever Team Award.

Rounding out the podium was Simon Andrews, making the post-race celebrations a strictly British affair. Meanwhile, America’s main man Mark Miller rode to a respectable fifteenth place finish for the Splitlath Redmond team. Full race results are after the jump.

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Bikes

More High-Res Photos of the KTM 390 Duke

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Are you ready for KTM’s little thumper to come to US soil? Likely our runner-up  for Best in Show at EICMA 2012, the Austrians have been teasing the idea of the KTM 390 Duke for far too long. Expected to be here in Spring 2013, the bigger baby Duke sports ABS and 43hp for its 300 lbs hulk (sans gas).

A strong contender in the brewing small-displacement wars, American buyers will have the pleasure of choosing between the Honda CBR250R, KTM 390 Duke, Kawasaki Ninja 300, and Suzuki GW250 next year, with Yamaha expected to enter the quarter-liter market in 2014. Does the 2013 KTM 390 Duke tickle your fancy? We’ve got 13 high-res photos for you after the jump.

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News

American Chopper Cancelled: Thank You Jesus?

By 48 Comments

After 10 years and 233 episodes on the air, American Chopper is finally getting dragged out behind the shed, and put out of its misery on December 11th, 2012. It has been a long road with the Teutul family, as for the past decade we have watched the Oedipal struggle between Paul Jr. and Paul Sr., with man-child Mikey trapped in the middle, serving as the only adult in the group.

Things started out well enough, with the folks at Orange County Choppers making some interesting customs, and exposing a mainstream TV audience to the world of motorcycles…albeit in the same lowest-common denominator way that is typically found on WWF’s Monday Night RAW.

Like all good Hollywood dreams, the money started to trickle in for “theme” bikes on the show. Turning what should have been an exposé of mechanical craftsmanship into a marketing/PR circle-jerk with the Teutul family’s severe anger-management issues as the sideshow distraction.

Somewhere within the plot lines of Paul Sr.’s bicep size, and his battle with son on who can more perfectly fit the description of narcissism in the DSM-IV, bikes were made…but really we just showed up to see how many chairs could be thrown across the room in a single episode, or how often Paul Jr. could act like a spoiled brat.

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Bikes

A&R’s EICMA 2012 Best in Show: Vespa 946

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It is no easy feat in picking the very “best” from a wide array of motorcycles, like we have to do here with the 2012 EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, Italy. How do you compare an adventure-touring bike to a sport bike, and then declare one better than the other? As you can imagine, the comparison is very much an exercise in measuring apples to oranges.

If our metric of choice was simply based on how much buzz was generated here on Asphalt & Rubber, and on the various social media networks as a whole, then the clear winner would be the KTM 1290 Super Duke R Prototype. With a bored-out RC8 R motor that makes 180hp, the KTM surely performs as good as it look, and it looks quite delectable indeed.

Maybe the best bike of the show should go to the now water-cooled Ducati Hypermotard, or its touring variant the Ducati Hyperstrada. Doing away with the air-cooled DesmoDue design of Pierre Terblanche, the 2013 Hypers are a new chapter for Ducati, and just further proof that there are no sacred cows in the Borgo Panigale factory. Speaking of Panigales, we also have to consider the Ducati 1199 Panigale R, of course if that conversation is to occur, then we have to also include the Aprilia RSV4 Factory ABS.

You see it is no easy feat to pick the “Best in Show” at EICMA, and in even our short thought-process above, there are names that are glaringly omitted. What makes the process possible however is when a new model comes along, and clearly outshines everything else — such is the case with the Vespa 946.

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News

The Horex VR6 Roadster Is Finally Headed to Dealers

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All things considered, it hasn’t taken Horex that long to come to market with its first machine, the Horex VR6 Roadster. Not the supercharged street-standard that we first saw (there’s been no update when that variant will be available), but still a plucky 161hp motorcycle that should attract the discerning buyer.

Featuring a 1,218cc, 15°, VR6 motor, the Horex VR6 Roadster has had a number of delays in its production (here & here), not to mention the set-back with the supercharged model, but bringing a new model to market in less than three years is still quite a feat in this industry, so our hats are off to zie Germans.

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Bikes

More Photos of the MV Agusta Rivale

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Debuting the MV Agusta Rivale at the EICMA motorcycle show, the company from Varese didn’t give us too much in terms of press photos of its new 800cc hypermotard. Based off the MV Agusta Brutale 800, the Rivale has been highly anticipated ahead of the Milan show, and with our first glimpses of the machine, it is clear that the Rivale is has a look that is unique in the MV Agusta line (though you may find some hints from other Italian manufacturers within its lines).

We go back and forth on whether we like the new MV Agusta Rivale, and our feelings on the machine might depend on which angle we are looking at it from. Beautiful in profile, the Rivale has an intriguing tail section as well, which seems to be a design element that the Italian company triumphs with consistently.

That headlight though…it is like the Ducati Streetfighter, only worse. That being said, this author criticized the SF1098 when it first debuted at EICMA, and then promptly bought one when he got back to the USA, so…we’ll let you make your own minds up on that one.

Like the Ducati, we might have to reserve judgment until we see a Rivale in the flesh, as so often is the case with motorcycles and the internet. Priced €500 cheaper than the now water-cooled 2013 Ducati Hypermotard, and €1,500 cheaper than the Ducati Streetfighter 848, one thing is clear: MV Agusta means to take a piece of Ducati’s business with what we figure will be an $11,000 bike — interesting stuff for sure. There are a few photos of the MV Agusta Rivale live from EICMA after the jump — courtesy of our good friends at OmniMoto.

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