General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner mentioned last week that, in addition to selling the HUMMER brand, other assets were being evaluated for sale, as well. GM has announced that it is selling all of its remaining stock in Suzuki. GM owns about 3% of the Japanese automaker’s traded stock making the cash infusion come in around $230 million. More after the jump.
The 2008 season is barely out of our memories, and the news for 2009 begins. You’ve gotta love this sport!
List updated: 11/20/2008
The Aprilia RSV4 seems to be all the news today, first we leaked you the price, and now we can show you what Max Biaggi’s World Superbike trim will look like. The bike has Max’s classic “3” logo, we imagine the final version will have a couple other stickers as well, unless The Emperor is sponsoring his racing efforts these days.
Source: motoblog.it via MCN
Max, with your new shiny bike, you’ll be the prettiest boy at the track this weekend.
Asphalt & Rubber has just gotten wind from Aprilia on the new RSV4’s MSRP.
Standard version: £12,000
Factory: £14,000 – £15,000 – options depending.
Final power and weight has not been confirmed, but expect the RSV4 to be 50lbs lighter than the CBR1000RR, and produce around 180hp.
Schwing!
Not to be out done by , Ducati has released its own teaser video for the new 1198 and 1198S Superbikes. It’s nicely done, although we could do without the bullet-cam style fading in the corners. Trust me guys, I don’t need a tunnel vision effect when these bikes are on the screen.
Source: motoblog.it
Grazie Maestro
Marchesini has released spec on its 2009 product catalog. Already known for having some of the most stiff and rigid rims in the industry, and for developing wheels made from molten magnesium and carbon fiber, Marchesini raises the bar now with their offering of forged magnesium wheels.
Their new production process uses Finite Element Method (FEM), which is a multidirectional way of forging magnesium, developed in the aeronautical industry.
Refined by use in MotoGP, Marchesini is offering two lines for 2009:
Komp:
A forged aluminum wheels designed for road use and available in various colors.
Komp R:
A dedicated to racing wheel that offers a weight saving of 25% – 35%. The Komp R wheel sell in both the standard 17″ wheel size, as well as that slightly more race friendly 16.5″ variety.
Espada:
A forged aluminum wheel that is built specifically for 125cc bikes.
Komp Motard:
Also a forged aluminum, this one as you probably guessed already, is designed to replace the standard spoked motard wheel. The goal of this wheel was to reduce the moment of intertia, and so far has had excellent results in the AMA Supermoto Championship.
Source: Motoblog.it
Racing pink is still not a color option.
KTM has filed with the German Patent Office a number of patents that cover the used of a two-wheel drive system of off-road vehicles. The patents hold claims for a two-wheel drive system that can be fitted to either an enduro or motocross type of motorcycle. KTM’s patent centers around having a conventional motor to drive the read wheel, and an electric motor for the front wheel.
This would be a different method than the hydraulic method for powering the front wheel that Yamaha has been prototyping for over a year now.
Source: visordown
I’m still waiting for the 2WD Akira bike.
Devoid of tacky voiceovers, over-used quick cuts, and general sensationalism, it is good to see every now and then an ad agency that let’s the product do the talking. Thus, in the interest of parody, I will do the same, except for the quick note that this is clearly a European/Japanese advert since such “wreak-less endangerment” of dragging knee pucks on public roads would land Honda in court quicker than a hot cup of coffee.
Source: Meep! Meep!
The world markets may be down, and stores may dropping out of business like it’s third period French class, but Ducati is finding the economic downturn to have an upside on its balance sheet.
Ducati’s sales revenue for the first three quarters of 2008 grew by 25% compared to last year’s figures. This means to close to $417MM in revenue for the Bologna Bandits, with their bottom line looking 87% better than before, totaling in at $41MM.
Why now brown cow? Well shipments from Desmo-central to dealer floor rooms has been up by 19% for the year so far, with sales up 8% worldwide. In the meantime, worldwide industry sales are down 6%. Evidently, those cars that people aren’t buying, is not equating into motorcycle purchases (you know…for the mileage advantage)
The Bologna Boys say they are still on track to achieve a forecast 20% growth in worldwide sales for full fiscal year, up from a predicted 15% sales growth.
How are the other European manufacturers doing?
KTM has had a 50% drop in operating profit for the full 12 months of its fiscal year, closing the books at $21MM. The House of Orange (not Oranj) is blaming this decline on a bad Dollar to Euro exchange rate, and plans to cut motorcycle production for the 2009 season by 10%.
Piaggio (owner of Aprilia, and most of Europe’s scooters) is also cutting back on production across all its motorcycle and scooter brands after depressing results for the first 3 quarters of 2008. Overall sales were down by almost 6%, falling 10% in Europe, which accounts for about 80% of its bike and scooter sales.
BMW, while slightly more insulated, is feeling the pain too, with global motorcycle sales down by 2.5% in the same period, and profit from bikes falling by nearly 16%.
Source: visordown
In other financial news, the trade-deficit for sportbike hotness in the United States has increased another 300%. Sorry Buell.
I know this is a motorcycle blog, but who wouldn’t want to take a KTM X-Bow out for a spin on a wet track (Vienna Drift?)?? In a pinch we’d take the Supermoto 990 instead. It’s too bad the weather wasn’t better so we could see a proper shoot-out between the two. Leave in the comments who you think would win.
Source: I can’t believe I made a Tokyo Drift reference in this post. *sigh*
Michael Schumacher, Formula 1 Demi-God Michael Schumacher, is rumored to have been offered an open invitation to race a factory backed Honda CBR1000RR in the World Superbike Championship. Schumie has been testing bikes a lot lately. Taking corners for both Honda and Ducati, and while he has adimantly denied any interest of taking on motorcycle racing (all evidence to the contrary), he does seem to be skilled on the -2 wheels machines.
Despite the shooting down of racing speculation, Schumacher is still set on racing in the German Championship. HRC’s Carlo Fiorani was quoted as saying, “For the moment he has not asked us to race in the 2009 world championship…but if he wants to, there is a way for him (to do it). All he has to do is ask us.”
Source: AutoSport via AutoBlog
Time will tell on this one folks.