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Asphalt & Rubber
KTM’s Stefan Pierer Gobbles Up 25% of MV Agusta
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KTM’s Stefan Pierer Gobbles Up 25% of MV Agusta

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The BMW M1000RR Superbike Takes Another Step Forward for 2023
Bikes

The BMW M1000RR Superbike Takes Another Step Forward for 2023

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The BMW S1000RR Gets Wings and Updates for the 2023 Model Year
Bikes

The BMW S1000RR Gets Wings and Updates for the 2023 Model Year

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Racing

Photo: Two-Wheel Drive for Ducati Corse?

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Naw…we’re just having some fun today, but not as much fun as Nicky Hayden’s pit crew during the Brno test. Staging this photo of the team supposedly starting up the Desmosedici’s new two-wheel drive system, the photo plays right into the rumors that Ducati is literally trying anything under the sun to make the GP11 work for Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. With Filippo Preziosi essentially saying there are no sacred cows at the Italian racing effort, we honestly wouldn’t put it past Ducati Corse to give the two-wheel drive system a go…too bad its banned by MotoGP rules.

Source: GPone (whose post is far funnier than ours)

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Bikes

LEAKED: 2012 Honda CBR1000RR

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Leaked by Honda Hong Kong, these images are the first shots of the 2012 Honda CBR1000RR, and judging from our initial analysis, it looks like Honda is putting out only a cosmetically different version of the Fireblade for next year (*sigh*). Showing off the HRC tri-color paint scheme (that surely won’t be coming to the United States), the majority of the new Blade looks quite familiar. Obviously the wheels, headlights, and air intake ducts have clearly been worked over, and we see some big-piston forks on the front suspension, but otherwise the mechanical bits and and the rear of the motorcycle look like the current model.

Racing

Bonneville: Lightning Raises the Electric Motorcycle LSR Up Another Peg with a 215.907 mph Record

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Lightning Motorcycles is still on the salt flats at Bonneville, looking for the ultimate in speed on an electric motorcycle. After already on Sunday setting the fastest speed recorded for any electric motorcycle, the Lightning crew set back to work on crushing its own 206.079 mph land speed record. Posting a 214.209 mph speed yesterday, Paul Thede had to once again back up the team’s accomplishment with another wicked fast run today, in order to get into the record books. Battling gusty cross-breezes, Thede put in an astonishing palindromic 217.712 mph time to set another LSR for Lightning, which officially comes in at 215.907 mph in the APS-Ω class.

News

Claudio Castiglioni Passes Away at the Age of 64

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Claudio Castiglioni, President of MV Agusta, passed away this morning in Varese, Italy at the age of 64. In a statement from MV Agusta, the company says that Castiglioni succumed from an unnamed illness while attending a clinic in Varese. Over the course of his career, Castiglioni touched such esteemed brands as Ducati, Cagiva, Husqvarna, and of course MV Agusta. His most recent accomplishment was bringing MV back into Italian ownership, in an act of business acumen that saw Harley-Davidson actually pay Castiglioni €20 million to take back the recent refurbished company.

Racing

Filippo Preziosi: “The Two-Cylinder is the Best Engine, If You’re Not Constrained by Rules”

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Head of Ducati Corse, Filippo Preziosi is a busy man under regular circumstances, and with the shenanigans going on in Ducati Corse’s MotoGP team right now, the former motorcycle racer is a hard man to get a word with, let alone on a race weekend in Brno. Somehow catching up with Preziosi during MotoGP’s Brno test, our friend David Emmett at MotoMatters, along with several other journalists, sat down with Ducati’s Maestro of MotoGP to ask him about where the Italian team was headed, and the challenges it is currently facing. Preziosi makes some other interesting comments that read well between the lines, check them out in transcribed interview after the jump.

News

Rumor: Ducati Considering Selling Its Stock?

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According to the Dow Jones Newswire, Investindustrial, the private equity firm behind Ducati Motor Holding SpA, is considering putting the Italian motorcycle company’s stock up for sale in a private offering next year. Investindustrial bought the Texas Pacific Group’s 45% share in Ducati back in 2006, becoming the company’s largest single investor. Later in June 2008, the private equity firm lead by Carlo and Andrea Bonomi increased its stake in Ducati, controlling 84.6% of the company’s stock. If today’s rumors are true, Investindustrial would be dumping some, if not all, of its shares in Ducati, likely into other investment groups.