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Jensen Beeler

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Two months ago when Harley-Davidson stuck an ultimatum to its union workers, the company asked for work force concessions while it threatend to move production out of its Tomahawk and Menomonee Falls. Hoping to help sway the vote and keep Harley put, the State of Wisconsin extended Harley-Davidson a $25 million tax incentive to help lure the company into keeping production at its Wisconsin facilities. While the unions eventually caved to Harley-Davidson’s will, the Bar & Shield company announced today that it will not be taking Wisconsin up on its offer for tax breaks.

After breaking his collarbone in Japan, Dani Pedrosa went through tremendous effort to return to MotoGP racing as soon as possible, and underwent surgery that installed a metal plate into his shoulder, allowing the Spaniard to swing a leg over his Honda RC212V at Phillip Island. While the daunting task of riding only two weeks after surgery proved too much for Pedrosa, the top Honda rider still took part in the Valencian and Portuguese GP’s, despite suffering from pain, a loss of strength, and numbness in his left arm.

Worried that the condition could be due to nerve damage, Pedrosa was faced with a potentially career-ending situation as he flew back to Spain last week to undergo tests. Fortunately for the Spanish rider, his condition appears to stem from inflammation around the nerves and in his collarbone, which are causing his symptoms. Doctors have advised Pedrosa to rest for four weeks, while he undergoes inflammation treatment, and then start his rehabilitation in December.

If you’ve heard any loud thuds while visiting A&R the past two weeks, it’s been us falling over ourselves over the 2011 KTM 1198 RC8 R. For 2011, the new RC8 R gets a number of refinements to its already stout package, and for the spec sheets racers the most drool-worthy stat perhaps is the bike’s modest power boost to 175hp, up from its base of 167hp. There’s a kicker to that power figure though, it comes from switching the base engine map, which is designed for 91 octane (AKI rating, which is what we use here in the USA), to a 93 octane map.

It could seem like we’re splitting hairs here, but unless you live next to a race track where gas stations will often carry the 93 octane rated fuel, you’ll be risking pinging KTM’s beautiful 1195cc motor with the lower-rated fuel, and be relegated to using the 170hp engine map while on the street. We don’t know how RC8 R owners will only handle 170hp on the street, hopefully the photos after the jump will help.

We don’t know if the whole dirt bike into street bike club racing thing is more than just a fad, but the BeOn SXV 450 sure looks like it would be a blast during our local track day excursions. Based around an Aprilia SXV 4.5 supermotard, BeOn has constructed a body kit that includes roadracing fairings, fuel tank, and seat with rear tail. While the motor and frame remain stock, other amenities include road oriented suspension, wheels, gearing, and single-disc brakes.

This isn’t the first time BeOn has made ready-to-race “450GP” bikes out of cheap dirt bikes, but the use of the Aprilia 450cc v-twin SXV/RXV motor, instead of your typical Japanese single-cylinder, certainly has us intrigued. With the Aprilia lump making 60hp in its stock form (70hp if you use the SXV 5.5 motor), and the whole package by BeOn weighing 130kg (265 lbs), the BeOn SXV 450 would be a barrel a fun for any track day enthusiast, and make up for the Aprilia RSV550 that never materialized (sad trombone).

Today we honor the roughly 25 million military veterans that have served in the United States military. For many this might mean the mail won’t come in today, or perhaps you have a break from school or work, but by-in-large the holiday goes unnoticed by those outside of civic service. You don’t have to agree with the politics behind the use of our military, but the support of the individuals who comprise our armed forces should be an issue without partisanship.

Take for example US Army Private First Class Jacob Peterson, who was able to return from the war in Afghanistan for only one week this entire year. Waiting for him when he arrived was the 2011 Fischer MRX that he had ordered, which Fischer Motorcycles tell us the PFC has already clocked 1,200 miles on in his short duration back with his family and friends.

After being booted from the BMW factory World Superbike team at the end of the season, Spaniard Ruben Xaus has landed himself a new job with the Ten Kate Honda WSBK squad. The Captain of Crash in the 2010, Xaus and the BMW S1000RR seemingly couldn’t come to an accord on the fastest way around the race track, which often resulted in Xaus ending up on wrong side of the gravel traps.

With murmurs starting early in the season that the WSBK veteran would be given the boot, there was little fanfare or surprise when Xaus was replaced by Leon Haslam in the BMW World Superbike team for the 2011 season. Finding a place in the Ten Kate Honda team, Xaus in many ways is moving up in the WSBK paddock, as Ten Kate’s Honda CBR1000RR has been consistently competitive in World Superbike racing. Xaus will join Johnny Rea for the 2011 season, where the duo will fight again for the World Championship. The season’s opening round will be Xaus’s 200th start in World Superbike.

Drawing inspiration from Daniel Simon’s Cosmic Motors series (Simon designed the Tron lightcycle in the up-coming Tron Legacy movie by the way), designer Bruno Delussu has dreamt up the Snake Road motorcycle concept. Set in a nondescript time in the future, the Snake Road uses a fiberglass body to house its internal combustion engine (apparently EV’s still haven’t taken off in Delussu’s future).

Made for fun, Delussu admits there are some deficiencies in the design (the front wheel can’t turn for example), and explains the choice of an internal combustion engine as follows: “Being a motorcyclist myself, I love the sound of a motorcycle engine (reminiscent of a raging lion), so the engine is a traditional internal combustion engine rather then electric, as the new trend would have it (a matter of ecology).”

Valentino Rossi’s personal photographer Gigi Soldano was on hand for Rossi’s debut on the Ducati Desmosedici this week during the MotoGP test at Valencia. Granted unfettered access to what goes on behind-the-scenes in the Ducati garage, Soldano combined his magic behind the lens with the events that unfolded in front of him, and lucky for us, he shared them with the world on his blog today.

The folks at MotoCzysz just got back from a trip to China (the EVS25 show in Shenzhen, China) where they debuted the MotoCzysz D1g1tal Dr1ve D1 — the world’s first fully integrated electric drive system. Complete with motor, inverter, oil pump, gear reduction, and differential housed in an aluminum chassis, MotoCzysz says the D1g1tal Dr1ve D1 is a complete plug-and-play system that can be used in the development of electric vehicles.

Based off the Portland company’s experience racing the MotoCzysz E1pc at the Isle of Man and FIM e-Power Championship, the MotoCzysz D1g1tal Dr1ve D1 uses Remy motors to produce 60kW (80hp) of continuous power, with a 75 kW (100hp) peak power delivery figure. The D1 comes with plenty of torque, 1000 Nm of torque to be precise (no, that’s not an extra zero, the motor makes 737 lbs•ft of torque). The feather-light D1g1tal Dr1ve D1 weighs under 150 lbs, making it ideal for a variety of applications. Available in May 2011, pricing will start under $8,999 as the MotoCzysz D1g1tal Dr1ve D1 will compete head-to-head with Mission Motors’ MissionEVT program.

Australian Casey Stoner topped the time sheets today at Valencia, in MotoGP’s second and last test at the Spanish track for week. Although clearly adapting to the Honda RC212V quickly, Stoner was still unable to touch Jorge Lorenzo’s top testing time from yesterday, with the World Champion being five hundredths of a second faster than the Aussie. While Stoner and Lorenzo were busy dazzling the at the front of the time sheet, the majority everyone’s attention was trained on Valentino Rossi, who tested over a second and half behind Stoner, putting him nearly at the bottom of the scrap heap for the day.

While many Rossi fans were expecting the Italian to light up the Spanish track on his new Ducati, Rossi battled a front-end issue (different from the one Stoner experienced) that prevented him pushing the GP11 hard in the testing sessions. Testing only the Big Bang motor, and not the Screamer, it looks like Ducati will stick in that direction for the 2011 season, as Nicky Hayden tested both motors and preferred the Big Bang configuration. Valentino Rossi and Crew Chief Jeremy Burgess will likely be talking to Ducati the rest of the week about where the team should focus its resources in developing the GP11 further. Testing results after the jump.

When we talk about Buell motorcycles that fail to see the light of day, people are almost universally referring to the Buell Barracuda, the 1190cc successor to the 1125R series. Dubbed “The Buell We Wouldn’t Have to Make Excuses For”, the Barracuda lives on in many ways in the EBR 1190RR superbike, which we’ll see next year take its street-going form as the EBR 1190RS.

While the limited-production EBR 1190RS certainly is exciting to think about, and the Buellisti are already counting down the days until Erik Buell re-enters the street bike market, what has us chomping at the bit is the fact that in 2009 Spanish design firm Edda Design was commissioned by Buell to revamp the 1125CR street bike; and with the result they came up with, we wouldn’t mind seeing life breathed back into that project, just like the Barracuda.