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Alpinestars Talks with Stoner, Pedrosa, and Dovi

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Alpinestars has been fancying itself a bit of a movie maker lately, and has a video with the three members of the factory-backed . Talking to the three extremely talented riders, Alpinestars explores each racer’s path to motorcycle racing, and their early moments in the sport.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview is the question: “When did you realize you were special?”, which provides for some insightful replies. Check out the video (above) for the answer to that inquiry, and for bonus points there are some videos with Jorge Lorenzo after the jump that Alpinestars also made.

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News

Update on the MV Agusta F3 – Available Fall 2011

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After unveiling the MV Agusta F3, the Italian company’s new three-cylinder supersport model, at the 2010 EICMA show with virtually no concrete specifications, MV Agusta has been quiet about its new motorcycle ever since. Expected to arrive as a 2012 model, the wait from unveiling to production has been excruciatingly long for those who fell in love with the F3’s take on Massimo Tamburini’s classic design.

Since its launch, the only progress we’ve seen is Castiglioni’s quoted target price steadily rising, so MV Agusta wants to make sure would-be buyers (and the press) remain intrigued by the model the newly liberated company is counting on for its future profitability. As such, MV Agusta has sent out a press release giving a status update on the 2012 MV Agusta F3, and the news bodes well for Italian motorcycle fans, as it suggests things are ahead of schedule in Varese.

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Racing

Honda Wraps-Up Domination at Third Day of Sepang

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“Veni, Vidi, Vici” might as well be stenciled on the four factory Honda RC212V race bikes of Stoner, Pedrosa, Dovizioso, and Simoncelli, as the foursome has dominated the Malaysian track over the past three days of MotoGP testing. Casey Stoner takes the top prize though, climbing once again to the top of the time sheets, with Dani Pedrosa right behind him as the only other man to crack under the two minute barrier at Sepang. While these results aren’t too surprising to those following the off-season closely, the time sheets speak an interesting story for the rest of the field.

The Top 13 riders are clumped by manufacturer, and who leads each group is a bit surprising. Ben Spies bested teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who also found himself behind Colin Edwards from the satellite Monster Yamaha Tech3 squad. In the Ducati camp, it was Hector Barbera who had the fastest time, ahead of Hayden and Rossi who both shared a best lap of 2:01.469 in Day Three. Even Alvaro Bautista’s Suzuki made a surprisingly quick journey around the track at Sepang, as the Spanish rider was 8th fastest overall for the day.

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Racing

Max Biaggi Unveils #1 Plate for WSBK

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There’s been a bit of hemming and hawing regarding whether Max Biaggi would take the Champion’s Honor and wear the number one on his Alitalia Aprilia RSV4 Factory race bike in this season’s World Superbike Championship. But that speculation has seemingly come to an end now, as during the WSBK “class photo” today, Biaggi’s Aprilia RSV4 wheeled-out of the garage with the #1 plate blazing.

Reports from the World Superbike paddock suggest that Aprilia is keen to make a showing of its success last season with the #1 plate, while Biaggi would prefer to retain his venerable #3 logo, which is his current official listing with World Superbike.

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Racing

What Does a Bike Catching on Fire at 120 MPH and Crashing into a Wall Look Like? Just Ask Jonathan Rea

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Despite the . Having to make the difficult choice between being a human fireball and hitting the tarmac at 120 MPH, Rea opted for the latter, ditched his firing stead, fractured his wrist, and injured his hand & arm in the process.

Now with video of the frightening event, we get a glimpse into the crash that nearly sidelined the British rider, who will still ride in Sunday’s World Superbike season opener at Phillip Island. We generally don’t like our motorcycles on fire, and there’s something very creepy about watching Rea’s Castrol Honda CBR1000RR do a ghostride into a barricade. While unconfirmed reports say Colin Edwards has welcomed Rea to the club, check after the jump for Rea’s personal message to Arai Helmets.

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Bikes

BMW S1000RR Superstock Limited Edition

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To help celebrate Ayrton Badovini’s complete domination of the 2010 FIM Superstock 1000 Championship (the Italian won nine out of the ten races, finishing second only in the tenth race), BMW Italia is releasing a limited edition BMW S1000RR street version of the winning superstock bike.

With only 50 units being made, and available only in Italy, lucky owners will get the already potent S1000RR, along with a bevy of aftermarket goodies like a Akrapovic “Racing Exhaust” (pictures show a slip-on though), Gilles Tooling rearsets and levers, carbon fiber panels, LED turn signals, and of course BMW Italia’s racing colors.

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Banter

Watch the Ducati Diavel Get Built in 1 Minute

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Here’s a cool time-lapse video put together by MCN that follows the 2011 Ducati Diavel power cruiser getting built at Ducati’s Bologna factory. Ducati is currently building 40 Diavel’s per day on its rolling assembly line, but that number is set to increase by 50% in the coming weeks as the Italian company predicts strong sales in the summer months. As was seen last year with the Multistrada 1200, Ducati expects the Diavel to lead the company’s sales in 2011.

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Racing

Honda Goes 1, 2, 3, at Second Day of Testing at Sepang

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The Honda boys were out in full-force today, as MotoGP testing continued at Sepang. With only Toni Elias outside of the Top 7, Honda’s race package for the 2011 season is looking very stout, despite the fact that chassis selections still haven’t been finalized. While landing at the top of the results list is about as useful as yelling “first” in the comments section, Casey Stoner just barely snatched the honor away from Dani Pedrosa in his final lap around the Malaysian circuit, leaving only .058 seconds between the teammates.

Like yesterday, the Yamaha Racing factory squad looked in good form as well, with Spies showing marked improvements despite crashing in one of the sessions. Jorge Lorenzo spent some time on two different bikes, confirming the direction his crew was going with developing the 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1 for the new season.

Things weren’t progressing as well in the Ducati camp though, as all the teams struggled with front-end issues. Notably absent from the day was Valentino Rossi, who has come down with cold/flu like symptoms. He retired to the hotel, in the hopes of being well enough to ride in tomorrow’s last day of testing. Carrying the Corse flag alone, Nicky Hayden had a tough day that ended with gearbox problems. Still, the ever-positive American was hopeful for better fortunes on Thursday as the team seems to have worked out some chatter issues.

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Bikes

Kickboxer Concept Gets Diesel and AWD Variants

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Back in 2009 we fell in love with the Kickboxer concept by Ian McElroy, who taught himself some SolidWorks and dreamt of a motorcycle powered by a turbocharged Subaru WRX engine. Well McElroy is back with two variations on his original Kickboxer design: one with a diesel motor (also sourced from Subaru), along with an all-wheel drive model.

To make the AWD configuration work, McElroy employed a dual-chain drive design that uses a jack shaft, idler sprocket, and a drive axle with a U-joint. While the original Kickboxer was designed in the 3D modeling software to be precise enough to produce, we’re not sure about all of the engineering behind McElroy’s AWD design (that’s a polite way of saying this author was a social science major in college), but the idea is certainly intriguing.

The diesel Kickboxer though, it’s so crazy it just might work…we’ll just have to wait for someone to build one. Renders galore after the jump.

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Racing

Casey Stoner Leads MotoGP Testing at Sepang

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Casey Stoner set the pace today at MotoGP’s second off-season test at Sepang. The Australian, and the rest of the four factory Honda riders, proved to be very impressive on the Malaysian track, as the 2011 Honda RC212V seems to be hitting its stride just before the season opener in Qatar in a few weeks.

The Honda riders don’t have things all sewn up though, as the Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo was looking very fast, as were Americans Ben Spies and Colin Edwards. Earlier in the day, nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi even cracked into the Top 5 on the standings, and despite finishing the day just over a second behind Stoner, the Italian was upbeat about the team’s progress and his physical condition.

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