It would appear that nobody is immune from the wrath of the recession. Senior management at previously-healthy Ducati have just swallowed a ‘voluntary’10% pay decrease, and have agreed to give up their future bonuses.
One of our first posts on A&R featured the , being built down-under, int he land of Oz. The Aussie’s have an update for us, and the project looks like a runner. The Aprilia chassis has been installed as intended and fired up. It looks like it fits perfectly, and the sound of the bike is simply awesome. Continue reading for video of it running.
Bikes like the Ducati Hypermotard, KTM SuperDuke, and Aprilia Dorsoduro have been gaining in popularity not only in the United States, but also abroad. It is only a logical progression then that there would be some desire to start a formal racing series for these big-bore “hypermotards”, and Europe’s UEM European Supermoto Championship has that answer with a new “Hypermoto” racing class. The Hypermoto class will be open to motorcycles of 600cc and larger, with 1 or 2 cylinders, and can be either 2-strokes or 4-strokes. Races will take place on the same tracks as the Supermoto Championship (S1), minus the dirt sections. All riders will use Dunlop tires (eight tires per weekend), and have to be over the age of 16.
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Many may remember that Valentino Rossi’s dog Guido died recently, so the Italian rider placed a .
According to both Tuttosport and Sportmediaset (both members of the overly-excitable and sometime unreliable Italian press), Marco Melandri will be riding a privately run Kawasaki for 2009. In a deal brockered by Carmelo Ezpeleta, the team will be led by Michael Bartholemy. Details are somewhere between sketchy and nonexistent, but it seems that Kawasaki will make all of the 2009-spec bikes available to Bartholemy, who will field a single rider, Marco Melandri.
Shortly after the news broke that Kawasaki would be withdrawing from MotoGP, the factory said that it had enough bikes and parts to last approximately a quarter of a season, and so presumably, this would be enough to run a single rider for at least half the season, or perhaps a little longer if the practice restrictions are pushed through as expected.
Finance for the project will most likely come from Dorna who want to avoid breaching their own contract with the FIM to field at least 18 riders for a world championship, with Kawasaki possibly kicking in some seed money since they don’t want to breach their contract with Dorna. Melandri would presumably be riding the 2009-spec bikes tested by Olivier Jacque in Australia during January, despite reports of poor reliability.
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By now you are well aware of the cost cutting measures that are on the table for MotoGP next season. It looks increasingly likely that practice and testing days will be reduced this year, along with more drastic measures, which include engines that must last for at least two races, and allow riders to have only one race bike instead of two.
Around the time that Kawasaki pulled out of MotoGP, rumors persisted that Suzuki could also be on the verge of pulling out of the racing series as well. Indeed at the time, , and the company seemed to be either circling the wagons or preparing to depart from the sport all-together. A number of sources inside Japan spoke of Suzuki withdrawing, but the Suzuki MotoGP team consistently denied the rumors. Those rumors now seem to be more than idle chatter around the water-cooler, and were in fact grounded in substantial truth. In an interview with Spanish site GPOne, Shinichi Sahara, head of Suzuki’s MotoGP team, makes it clear how close the team was to throwing in the towel.
The Suzuki Gladius is not a glamourous motorcycle. Destined to fill the market below the SV650 (we didn’t know there was a market below the SV650), the Gladius is a no thrills starter bike that you’ve probably already forgot existed. Luckily L-R-G, the makers of the see-through wheeled Hayabusa (seen in the background), have given the Gladius the supermoto treatment with stunning affect.
It’s the Mission One. It’s the electric motorcycle the blogsphere is buzzing about. It’s green (in energy, not color…although there are a lot of earth tones going on in its design).
It’s electric. It will hit 150mph, go 150 miles, make 100 ft lbs of torque, and take 8hrs to charge on a standard home outlet. Oh, and it’s also going to cost $68,995. That’s the bike in a nutshell, but digging deeper finds there is much more to it.
Harley-Davidson has announced that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway group will invest $300 million in the motorcycle maker through a purchasee of senior unsecured notes that will mature in 2014. These funds match a similar investment by Davis Selected Advisers, L.P., which is already the largest shareholder of the company’s stock. Harley-Davidson will use the money to bolster its lending services, hopefully making it easier for the troubled motorcycle maker to lend cash to consumers. In exchange, Berkshire Hathaway will reportedly receive a lucrative 15% annual interest rate on the cash infusion.
The markets have responded to the news rather favorably, with Harley shares hitting $13.56 in trading yesterday afternoon – a 14% increase from where they started yesterday. Just about a week ago, Harley-Davidson announced a plan to shed 10% of its workforce. This move marks the first time that Buffett has ever invested in the company.
The Spanish based BQR-Honda is the first team to unveil their Moto2 series bike. The CBR-esque bikewill make its debut this season in the Spanish Roadracing Championship (CEV), before going on to race in the Moto2 series in 2011 when it premieres. The 599cc, 140hp, Honda motor is framed into a prototype aluminum chassis, and tips the scales at 302lbs (137kg).
Controversy surrounds the sourcing of the motor from Honda. The BQR team has used a modified Honda CBR 600 engine, which is entirely within the rules of the new category, but also goes against the spirit of the new series. Having a road bike take key parts and development from production road bikes is the exact opposite of what prototype racing is about. The purpose of the Moto2 series is to setup an exotic testing ground for the 600cc class of streetbikes. With these bikes based so closely on the production models, one can only think that World Superbike and Supersport are feeling a little infringed on.
SBK has a contract with the FIM that grants them the exclusive rights to organize a world championship for production motorcycles, and Paolo Flammini (owner of IMS, which operates the SBK) has made several public statements saying that they intend to defend those rights aggressively. While the BQR bike will race first in the Spanish national championship, IMS will have no grounds for recourse, but that could all change in 2011 when Moto2 goes live.
