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Jensen Beeler

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Melandri to Yamaha WSBK – Tardozzi to Blame?

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Surprise! After being 99% certain to go to the factory BMW World Superbike team, Marco Melandri has head-faked the entire motorcycle industry, and landed himself a ride at the factory Yamaha camp instead. Announced at Nurburgring this weekend, Melandri will ride for Sterilgarda Yamaha in the 2011 season. Originally linked to BMW for a WSBK ride, Melandri’s shift in direction could be related to rumors that Davide Tardozzi, current team manager to BMW’s WSBK squad, is taking over the role of Yamaha’s Mario Meregalli, who is in-turn rumored to be going to the Factory Yamaha team in MotoGP.

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Racing

Shoya Tomizawa Dies after Moto2 Crash at Misano

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More sad news from MotoGP this weekend, as we have recieved word that Shoya Tomizawa died today during a tragic accident in the Moto2 race at the San Marino GP. Entangling with riders Scott Redding and Alex de Angelis, Tomizawa sustained massive injuries to his chest and back, and later succumbed to those injuries at the hospital in Riccione. Tomizawa was in fourth, battling with the lead group, when he crashed during the 12th lap of the race.

Struck by de Angelis’ bike, Tomizawa was rushed to the hospital via ambulance, where he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. The incident was felt by the entire MotoGP paddock, where riders are still recovering from the loss of Peter Lenz, the 13 year-old USGPRU rider who died at Indianpolis last weekend during the Indianapolis GP, who was memorialized before the start of the 125 GP race.

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Racing

Misano Rossi Helmet: Time to Wake Up

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At Misano this morning, Valentino Rossi debuted another of his famous helmet designs for his home crowd. Adorned with a painted clock on the top of helmet, Rossi will use a different helmet for each session during the San Marino GP. The time on the clock is set to five minutes before the session’s start, and labeled with “wake up and get going,” which for Rossi is both a literal and figurative reminder.

Critical of his results lately, Rossi is acknowledging that he needs to start turning around his season at Misano, and once again ride at the front of the pack. Hopefully these helmets (last year Rossi was the donkey) will be a reminder to the Italian rider, who has struggled since returning from a compound fracture to his leg.

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Racing

Lightning Motors Sets Electric LSR at Bonneville

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At the 2010 BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials week Lightning Motors took the FIM and AMA land speed record for special construction partial streamlining electric motorcycles (300-APS-W) with an official two-way average speed of 173.388 mph. Blasting down the course at 170.732 mph with a 10 mph headwind, Lightning Motors’ return run was clocked at 176.044 with no wind.

This was a marked improvement over the team’s unofficial 166mph pass last year, but still short of the company’s goal of hitting 200 mph on the salt flats. Coming straight from the track at VIR, the only modifications to the Lightning electric motorcycle was a larger sprocket, as you can see above, it’s still in its track fairings (note: other sites have been running photos of the the Lightning bike in an open streamliner fairing, which was used last year, not this year).

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Rumors

How the Ducati Diavel Will Look Tipped Over

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The latest leak from Bologna shows how the upcoming Ducati power cruiser will look tipped over on its side, after an owner gets hit by car, or fails to get the kick stand down in time. Snarkiness aside, reports from the Italian news site Romagna NOI say the Diavel test rider was struck by a car while testing the bike.

The rider seems to be ok, and the bike looks to have held up quite well all things considered. One thing we can glean from the photo is the two-tone paint on the headlight cowling, which might help break up what were expecting to be a very ugly line.

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News

Students Explore News Ducati Designs

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Students at the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) of Turin had the opportunity to finish their studies by undertaking a thesis in transportation design that was done in collaboration with Ducati Motor Holdings. 10 students submitted 10 designs to Ducati, for a motorcycle that would enter new market segments and reach a younger demographic.

Five concept were then chosen, and made into 1:4 concepts, with the top concept then being picked and made into a full-size concept. Anchored in production reality, students had to keep an eye on the Ducati parts bin, and stay within the realms of practicability for the company (done with varying degrees of success).

With some very strong concepts coming from the collaboration, it seems almost a shame that Ducati could only pick one winner, but TWINS by Simone Buonpensiere and Daniele Mazzon (shown as the title graphic) was ultimately chosen. Mouthwatering delicious, we sincerely hope Ducati puts this dream into reality.

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Bikes

Ducati Please Make This: Ducati Streetfighter Corse

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When Ducati released its Corse themed Superbikes at Milan last year, we knew the Italian company was onto something special. With ample carbon fiber, aluminum tanks, and a tasteful amount white and red paint, the Corse livery sets itself apart from the rest of the Ducati line as being the pinnacle of the Italian company’s offering.

So when we saw the “Corse” Multistrada 1200S that took place in Pikes Peak, we were equally excited, and begged Ducati North America to make a race replica model (we’re still begging them by the way). While Ducati might take a little more convincing, some owners have taken things into their own hands. Enter into the picture Finishing Touch 4U‘s Ducati Streetfighter Corse.

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Bikes

2011 Yamaha FZ8 Coming to the USA

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Yamaha has heeded to your words, you glorious American bastards, and announced today that it will bring the 2011 Yamaha FZ8 to the United States of America. Replacing the Yamaha FZ6, the FZ8 features a shorter-stroked FZ1 motor that should provide more “umpf” than its 600cc predecessor.

According to Yamaha, the FZ8 will fill-in the gap between the FZ1 and FZ6R in the 2011 model line-up, and while making only 7hp over the FZ6R (107 hp total), the 779cc motor with its longer stroke makes a healthy 60 lbs•ft of torque, compared to the FZ6R’s 46 lbs•ft.

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Bikes

2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R SBK Now in Green

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Kawasaki will be officially be “unveiling” its 2011 World Superbike-spec ZX-10R at Nurburgring this weekend, but has released photos of the bike, finally showing the ZX-10R in its green livery. Team Green has slowly been leaking photos and videos of the new 10R through a massive online social marketing campaign, which centered around the company’s Next_Ninga twitter account.

Kawasaki is putting a lot of weight on the superbike’s shoulders after being un-competitive in World Superbike racing, and withdrawing completely from MotoGP. Hoping the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-1oR will turn around Kawasaki’s racing fortunes, Kawasaki is also hopeful that the bike will help spur its fading sport bike sales.

For 2011, Kawasaki says it has down a top-down approach to the ZX-10R, starting for the first in the company’s history with making the race bike before the street model. This hopefully means that the 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R will be a no-compromises race/track weapon with turn signals, but we’ll leave that hyperbole until A&R gets a leg over one.

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Racing

BUB Speed Trials – Lightning and MotoCzysz Battle for Land Speed Records at Bonneville

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UPDATE 2: Richard Hatfield, owner of Lightning Motors, sent this in a text message from Bonneville: “We ran 176.044 as our best speed. The average down and return FIM and AMA speed record was 173.388 mph.”

UPDATE: Just got this in an email from Michael Czysz: “we ran 163 — however they just did 174/175.”

On the salt flats of Bonneville, two electric motorcycle teams are battling for the bragging right to be called “Fastest Production Electric Motorcycle in the World”. TTXGP North America winner Lightning Motors and FIM e-Power and TT Zero Winner MotoCzysz are at the BUB Speed Trials, and from the reports we’ve gotten, the two teams have been trading land speed records all weekend. The latest news we have is that Lightning Motors has clocked the latest LSR with 173mph on the salt flats, breaking the 150 mph record set by Mission Motors at BUB last year, but there’s still time today for that record to again drop.

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