Ok universe, you win… For the 2020 season, MotoAmerica will be adding a seventh class to its playlist for the Laguna Seca round, and that class will be comprised of highly modified baggers. Yup, baggers.
While many racing fans will be scratching their heads wondering why MotoAmerica is trying to pull an April Fools joke on us in February (Julian calendar, perhaps?), the American professional racing series seems quite excited about the money entertainment that the event will generate.
Ok that headlines is a slight exaggeration on the truth, as Yamaha Motor is actually offering a range of prototype motors that produce 35kW to 200kW of power, which works out to be a range of 47hp to 268hp. Still, that is a lot of juice.
The prototypes are a range of interior permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSM), which are scalable in design and suitable for a variety of uses.
It is here. It is finally here. The Ducati Superleggera V4 is finally official and well-worth the hype.
It turns out too that the leaked information we had on this “Super light” motorcycle was true, with the Ducati Superleggera V4 tipping the scales at 159kg when dry…and 152kg when the Akrapovic exhaust is installed.
Ducati isn’t disclosing what that means for curb weights, but if the Panigale V4 R is any comparison, it should be close to 380 lbs when topped off with gas and ready to rip on the race track.
Considering that the accompanying exhaust bumps power to over 230hp (172 kW), this gives the Superleggera V4 the best power-to-weight ratio from any production street bike ever created.
From the company that coined the term “bold new graphics” for the motorcycle industry, today we get perhaps the most honest use of that phrase, with the ECSTAR Suzuki MotoGP team debuting a stunning livery for the 2020 Suzuki GSX-RR race bike.
The official launch of this year’s team sees the Japanese manufacturer unveiling last year’s bike – which is now the norm in MotoGP team launches, as cards are kept close to the vest until the season opener at Qatar – with a fetching blue and white paint scheme.
Episode 129 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one gives us a preview of the official MotoGP test at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia.
For this , we have Neil Morrison, and David Emmett on the mics, as the pair walks us through the various headlines and highlights that we expect to see at the preseason test.
It only took a few hours since our last post on the Ducati Superleggera V4 for more photos and a video of the machine to leak online, which is just fine by us since we’re eager to see this incredible machine from Borgo Panigale.
The new photos and video (and the screen grabs from other videos) surely are products of Ducati’s microsite for the “Project 1708” machine, and they give us a larger glimpse on what to expect Thursday morning.
UPDATE: The Ducati Superleggera V4 has officially debuted.
While there are still roughly 18hrs left (at the time of this writing) until the Ducati Superleggera V4 officially debuts, photos of this $100,000 superbike are already leaking onto social media.
The treasure trove of images are likely coming from would-be buyers who have already seen the bike in person and have had access to its special website, where videos and information have been trickling out.
The fact that this is occurring should surprise no one, but of course these early images already have our mouths watering for the real thing.
To balance performance and make the championship more interesting, the rule makers at the WorldSBK series set maximum rev limits for all the entered bikes at the beginning of the season.
This usually isn’t much of a newsworthy event, but with the recent crop of superbikes hitting stratospheric numbers in their homologated street form, it is causing some interesting issues in the WorldSBK Championship.
Episode 128 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one is BONUS SHOW for this week, as Steve English and Gordon Ritchie join us on the mics from the WorldSBK pre-season test a Portimão.
For a treat as well, Alex Lowes and Chaz Davies join the show, with special interviews done trackside with Steve.
A new Triumph Street Triple R is coming, say the folks at MCN. The British paper has always had an unusually close relationship with Triumph Motorcycles, so we have every reason to believe that the British marque will be showing this new bike on the quoted February 11th date.
As one would expect, the 2020 Triumph Street Triple R will be based off the recently debuted and revised Triumph Street Triple RS, though with lower-spec components.
You have to give credit to the factory Honda MotoGP team, they are true pillars of consistency, and have shown a strong commitment to using the same livery over, over, and over again each year.
Now, there is nothing wrong with this…per se. Good branding scholars will tell you the value of an iconic and unchanged marque, and having the same design on their race bikes certainly makes it easy on fans.
However, when it comes to launching your team for the next season, it creates the problem of people asking, “why should we care?”