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Ducati North America’s Sales up 10% in Q1 2012

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Posting its seventh consecutive quarter of sales growth, Ducati North America has started 2012 on the right foot, posting a 10.2% sales increase in its first quarter over last year’s figures. Seeing growth in all three of its national markets (Canada, Mexico, & USA), Ducati North America managed to buck the trend all through the recent recession, and now with the economy heating up again, the Italian brand continues to see strong sales growth. Ducati’s apparel and accessories sales were also up in Q1, posting a 98% increase over last year’s figures.

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Racing

2012 Bol d’Or Final Qualifying Results

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Concluding its second day of qualifying, the grid for the 2012 Bol d’Or remains essentially in the same order, as the times on Friday at Magny-Cours were slower than yesterday’s qualifying session. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team’s legacy of FIM World Endurance Championship domination remains intact, which lead SERT Team Principal to say, “I don’t understand what the competition is doing!” during the press debrief. SERT’s Vincent Philippe was the only rider to break into the 1’39 time bracket. The 76th running of the Bol d’Or 24 Heures starts tomorrow at noon, local time.

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Bikes

zecOO: An Electric Maxi-Scooter from Japan

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The maxi-scooter scene in Japan borders on the lunatic fringe, as the two-wheeled segment is over-saturated with trendy young riders, as full-size motorcycles are too prohibitively expensive for 20-somethings in the island nation. This has created a vibrant tuner and modder community for scooters in Japan, which has spurred some of the most audacious builds we have ever seen. It doesn’t surprise us then to see the zecOO from Kota Nezu of Znug Design.

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Racing

Honda TT Legends Previews the Bol d’Or 24 Heures

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Tomorrow, the Honda TT Legends World Endurance Championship team will take to Magny-Cours, and compete in the 24 hours Bol d’Or endurance race. The first stop on the FIM World Endurance Championship, John McGuinness, Cameron Donald, Gary Johnson, and Simon Andrews qualified 11th for the Bol d’Or, but hope their 2012 Honda CBR1000RR will be able to make up the distance to the front-runners over the course of the race.

Putting together a quick video about the team, and endurance racing in general, the Honda TT Legends squad knows that it has a challenge ahead of them. Acknowledging that last season was a “development year,” for 2012 the team hopes to be on the podium at every race. A race bike with lights, the Honda TT Legends mechanics have had to take the race-spec Honda CBR1000RR, and “tune it down to 200 [hp]” in order to meet the reliability requirements for such a long race.

We can’t imagine what it is like riding a bike that only makes 200 hp around a tiny French track for 24 hours must be like, but McGuinness et al seem quite pleased with the machine thus far. Featuring ABS brakes on the CBR, we especially like McGuinness’s thoughts about the technology, and attitude towards “the lads in the pub” and what they have to say about ABS on sport bikes. Better living through technology, the Honda TT Legends squad is going to be a menace in the rain with the ABS-equipped CBR1000RR.

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Racing

2012 Bol d’Or First Qualifying Results

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The Bol d’Or 24 hours endurance race is this weekend, and is the first stop on the FIM World Endurance Championship (EWC) calendar. With the FIM averaging the qualifying laps for each teams’ riders, which is usually three riders to a team, it should come as no surprise that the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT) is once again on top of the time sheets for the first day of qualifying.

With 33 years of experience and 11 Championship wins, SERT has been the dominate factory team in (EWC), and the all French crew considers the Bol d’Or its home race. Campaigning a 2012 Suzuki GSX-R100 with a Yoshimura-built motor, SERT will have to contend with some stout-looking Yamahas, as well as the ever-learning Honda TT Legends squad. Checkout the full results after the jump.

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Bikes

2012 Yoshimura Suzuki Limited Edition GSX-R’s

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Yoshimura and Suzuki hold a special relationship, with the aftermarket tuning firm working closely with the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer’s engineers and racing team to develop racing solutions for Suzuki motorcycles. Occasionally that relationship gets extended further, and brings us limited edition production runs of Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R’s.

Basically stock motorcycles with off-the-shelf Yoshimura parts slapped onto them, these limited edition 2012 Suzuki GSX-R600, GSX-R750, & GSX-R1000 motorcycles leave a bit to be desired considering the tuning history of Yoshimura. If you already yawned, it’s best not to click onward past the jump.

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Bikes

KTM Super Duke 1200 R Concept by Mirco Sapio

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According to its leaked product road map, KTM is due to upgrade the SuperDuke for the next model year (meaning we should start seeing “spy photo” teasers any day now). Designated at the KTM Super Duke R 1290, we can only assume that the new model from Austria will feature a v-twin motor fits in the 1,200cc displacement category, though KTM has been notorious about having its number designations not quite lining up with the bike’s actual displacement.

For 2014, the Super Duke R 1290 will be the basis of another model, the KTM Adventure 1290, which will update the current KTM Adventure 990, and bring KTM more in-line with the offerings from BMW, Ducati, Yamaha, etc.

While we wait for those exciting new models from Team Orange, Italian industrial designer Micro Sapio has penned this concept of a KTM SuperDuke 1200 R. Unfortunately, all we have is the front and back shots, which make fully-appreciating the renders a bit of a challenge.

Of course the orange-painted steel trellis frame pops, though we are not a huge fan of the headlight being used here. However, the low-slung exhaust and single-sided swingarm are nice touches.  Your thoughts?

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Banter

Julien Welsch + Knobby Tires + Triumph Street Triple??!

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If you want to end your Wednesday on a high-note, look no further than this video of Julien Welsch (Facebook & Twitter). Riding his Triumph Street Triple through woods enduro-style (yes, with knobbies and all), the famed stunt rider makes this fish-of-water look like its has lungs for gils.

Throw in some great photography, a dubstep soundtrack that doesn’t make you want to bang your head against the wall, & some epic riding, and well…for three minutes and twenty-nine seconds you won’t have anything bad to say about the French (je plaisantais mes amis!). In other news, somewhere in Leicestershire, a Triumph engineer is quietly sobbing.

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News

CAD Drawings of the Ducati Streetfighter 848

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Overall, our impressions of the 2012 Ducati Streetfighter 848 was that the new baby Fighter from Ducati, is a well-improved upon successor to the original Ducati Streetfighter 1098. Helping differentiate the SF848 from the higher-spec, though otherwise identical, Streetfighter 1098 S, the Streetfighter 848 takes the geometry from the Ducati Superbike 848, which means it gets a much-better handling 24.5° rakes. Ducati has also brought over the Testastretta 11° engine, which made its first debut on the Ducati Multistrada 1200, and then found its way onto the Ducati Diavel.

Smoother and easier to operate, the new Streetfighter’s 849cc motor may be down on power compared to its Superbike counterpart (132 hp at its peak, compared to the Superbike 848 EVO’s 140hp), but the SF848 has a much flatter torque curve and a power band that extends into a more useable range for urban and aggressive street riding. When compared to its predecessor, just about the only thing we don’t like about the Ducati Streetfighter 848 is the foot clearance issue with the shotgun exhaust, which limits the movement of a rider’s right foot on the Streetfighter’s peg.

Releasing these CAD drawings at the 2012 Ducati Streetfighter 848 US press launch, maybe some eagle-eyed industrial designers can come up with a solution for this reporter’s kneecap. CAD renders after the jump.

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News

Don’t Call It Vaporware – Brammo Empulse Coming May 8th

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Taking nearly two years to go from vaporware to reality, Brammo has announced that its true second model in its lineup is finally ready for primetime. Set to be unveiled May 8th, with technical details to be released April 18th, the Brammo Empulse will finally become a consumer reality, as well as Brammo’s a six-speed gearbox.

Touting a 100 mph top speed and 100 mile range, the Brammo Empulse on paper should be a market-leading machine (the Zero S tops out at 88mph and 114 mile range). Though it will remain to be seen under what conditions those figures are achieved (Zero’s range figure is at in-town speeds only), as over-promising has been the calling-card of the electric motorcycle manufacturers thus far.

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