Zero Motorcycle continues to raise money despite the wallowing economy, dropping another $2 million into its war chest during a $2.4 million round. The news of this funding comes shortly after we’ve gotten word that the Santa Cruz company plans on building a production facility for its electric motorcycles, and as of yesterday secured distribution in Mexico. While Zero hasn’t said what it plans to do with these newly acquired funds, we imagine the purpose will go something along the lines of the famous Daft Punk song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”.
The world’s oldest motorcycle brand is about to get some new blood, as Dr. Venki Padmanabhan has been named Royal Enfield Motors new CEO. Serving Royal Enfield for the past two years as COO under then CEO R.L. Ravichandran, Padmanabhan has a bevy of management experience, which has seen him serve as the Managing Director of Chrysler’s South East Asia Global Sourcing Office, along with other positions at General Motors and Mercedes-Benz. While Padmanabhan has been at Royal Enfield, the company has posted 21% growth in sales volume, 54% growth in sales turnover, and double-digit profitability (that’s the business equivalent to a triple-double).
Reporting to Siddhartha Lal, the Managing Director of Eicher Motors Limited (Royal Enfield’s parent company), we imagine Padmanabhan’s marching orders will be to continue the strong growth the company saw under Ravichandran, and to continue to expand into emerging markets, while solidifying Royal Enfield’s position in India against outside producers.
Harley-Davidson has registered a recall with the NHTSA for 6,964 Softail models that have the factory security system option installed. Affecting only 2011 model year Softails that were built between June 7, 2010 and October 8, 2010, the recall is the result of an improper seal on a component in the security system, which could leak and let water in, thus causing an electrical short that could stall the bike.
Your favorite electric motorcycle company from the sunny beach town of Santa Cruz is about to get some more international appeal, as Zero Motorcycles has announced today that it will expand its dealer network south of the border and into Mexico. Signing local distributor Dofesa Aventura (the Mexican distributor for Polaris and its Victory motorcycle brand), Zero’s S and DS models are immediately available for demo rides, and the rest of Zero’s line-up is expected to be available in the coming weeks.
This move continues Zero’s agressive international presence, as the brand already entered the European market back in 2008, and completes Zero’s presence in North America as Zero Motorcycles are already available in the United States and Canada as well.
UPDATE: Obiboi has done up a Kenny Roberts paint scheme version as well. Find it after the jump.
Do you dream of Yamaha producing a V4 sport bike? How about naked-variant that supplants the popular FZ1? Does a carbon/aluminum trellis frame work for you, with a titanium exhaust of course? If you answered yes to these questions, and envision such a bike late a night when you’re forming your dream garage in, then Oberdan Bezzi has just the concept sketch for you.
Drawing on the same 1,000cc fairing-less street bike theme as the FZ1, Bezzi imagines a Yamaha with a forward-tilted V4 motor that has an almost perpendicular cylinder arrangement, and is capable of being a platform with worldly appeal.
Testing has already gotten underway and concluded at Sepang today, meaning the teams of MotoGP have released their livery for the next season with varying degrees of fanfare and showmanship. It’s no surprise then that we found a couple photos of the LCR Honda RC212V adorned with a seductive Playboy bunny affixed to it, in what surely has to be the best GP team launch in 2011.
If you read Asphalt & Rubber on a religious basis (we are your motorcycling zen temple, right?), you’ve likely divined by now that I’ll chastise just about any company that uses the premise that “sex sells” (nothing boils my blood more than this cleverly short, yet misguided maxim), and that I love a good scrappy startup that’s got more hustle than funding (case in point: A&R is a penniless motorcycle startup trying to make it in this crazy online world).
So how does a the multi-million dollar motorcycle racing team with half-naked women draped all over their machinery get such accolades from our humble motorcycle blog? Because LCR Honda is the epitome of innovation on the business side of MotoGP racing.
Repsol Honda made its 2011 MotoGP season debut today, showing off its three-man team of Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, and Andrea Dovizioso, along with the 2011 Honda RC212V, which will compete against the Yamaha YZR-M1 and Ducati Desmosedici GP11. An oddity in the GP paddock, HRC will field the three riders under one roof, having wooed Stoner away from Ducati after the Australian rider and Italian team had spilled bad blood in the 2009 season.
While Stoner was originally supposed to have his own team, presumably under the Red Bull banner, Repsol finally stepped up to the plate with its pocketbook when the Red Bull deal failed to materialize. Having three top riders in one team left some doubts as to how Honda was going to manage its talented rider pool, and a cursory look at the different machines that each rider will field sheds some light on the subject.
UPDATE: Add a 1943 BSA M20 to the list of bike’s available from Paul Teutul Sr.’s personal collection.
Paul Teutul Sr. cannot seem to stay out of the news lately. First the senior Teutul sued his son for ownership of Orange County Choppers, invoking a minority buyout clause that would pay Paul Jr. the market value of the business, which was allegedly valued at nothing, thus robbing Paul Jr. of his shares.
Then just recently at the end of the last week we learned that GE Capital and OCC were in disagreement over the terms of OCC’s loan from the credit company. Displeased by having to pay full-price on a devalued building, Paul Sr. has stopped paying back his loans to GE Capital, which have resulted in the financing firm filing for foreclosure on the custom chopper crew.
Allegedly Paul Sr. has the money, but wanted to sway GE into renegotiating the loan. While we were skeptical of this claim, it’s interesting to note that Paul Sr. has since quietly put two motorcycles from his personal collection up on eBay (a Ariel T-5 & BSA B33).
Using the account of OCC Head Assembly and Technician Supervisor Nicholas Hansford to list the bikes, it looks like at least two more motorcycles (maybe an A&R reader can help us identify them) are set to go up for sale. While Hansford has a video of the BSA B33 sitting in his YouTube channel, two other unlisted bikes (another BSA and a Norton) are included in the channel with video titles labeled “bikes for sale.”
Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and it all sorta makes you wonder what’s really going on in Orange County, New York. More info on the auctions after the jump.
More eye candy for Ducatisti and Valentino Rossi fans, as Ducati has released a video of Rossi’s test at Misano on board the 1198 SP. Testing his shoulder’s fitness level, Rossi admitted to being in considerable pain during the test, which doesn’t bode well for the Italian as the 2011 season rapidly approaches. Before Rossi will take to the Ducati Desmosedici GP11 under the lights of Qatar, MotoGP is slated to run at Sepang this week. With such little time passing since this test on the Ducati Superbike 1198 SP, we imagine the outing at Malaysia will still be painful for the Italian, as he tries to further hone in the GP11 for racing duty.
Photo: Yamaha-Racing