For some, the aggressive lines of the Vyrus 987 C3 4V are bit too avant-garde for their delicate tastes, despite the bike’s impressive power package found nestled in its hub-center steering chassis design. Helping water down the Vyrus’ potent palette, Italian designer Oberdan Bezzi has put pen to paper to dream up a Vyrus Superbike, and what he calls the “Yellow Fever” street variant. We’re not too sure about the nomenclature, but the bikes look good. Check them both out after the jump.
Moto2 testing was underway in Catalunya this week, but rain sidelined a substantial portion of that testing event. For the Moto2 teams, this meant a rare opporunity to get familiar with thier machinery was lost, but for the roving eye of Italian site GPone.com, it was an opportunity to take a gander at some very beautiful race motorcycles.
Despite all the teams having the same Honda-sourced, 600cc, four-cylinder, four-stroke motor, there is a large variety in body styling and chassis approach. Check the RSV, Moriwaki, BQR, Kalex, Tech3 Mistal, and Suter MMX bikes out after the jump.
The FIM has cut Doha and Assen from it’s e-Power electric motorcycle racing program’s list of 6 race venues. Keeping with e-Power tradition, FIM gave no reason for the decision. FIM claims interest from teams is high but it appears it’s not high enough to support six races in 2010.
In only about 6 months, the electric motorcycle racing world went from one high profile race in 2009 at the Isle Of Man, to three competing organizations and an abundance of high profile of venues. Three crowns are up for the taking and it appears there is not enough incentive or teams to fight for all of them. In racing, the value of the crown is usually measured by the caliber of teams fighting for it.
MotoCzysz has confirmed today that they will be racing at the Isle of Man’s TT Zero event. The Portland based team has been hard at work on a new bike design that they feel not only has a chance of breaking the 100mph barrier, but possibly winning the event as well. MotoCzysz was a favorite in last year’s event, but failed to finish after suffering a failure to its Agni electric motor drive system. Learning from that hard taught lesson, Czysz & Co. are expected to return to the Isle of Man with their new 2010 E1pc, and tackle the Mountain Course once again.
The American Motorcyclist Association has announced its plan to reduce the number of corporate-elected seats on its board of directors. If you’re like this author, and don’t follow the politics of the AMA, you’re probably saying to yourself, “there’s corporate-elected seats on the AMA?” Yes, now doesn’t that explain some things? Previously there were six corporate-elected seats on the AMA Board of Directors, which meant that motorcycle companies controlled 50% of the Board’s voting power. This new measure, which was ratified on February 13th, will reduce that number to four seats, or 33% of the voting power.
In the flurry of press releases sent out by TTXGP regarding what teams were signing up for its racing events, TTXGP mentioned that several teams had agreed to exclusive deals to compete only in the TTXGP series of races. At the time, this meant that the teams would be racing in their local TTXGP series events, the Isle of Man, and possibly at the Championship event in Spain. However with the announcement that TT Zero would replace TTXGP at the Isle of Man, teams that were hoping to race at the Isle of Man, may find themselves precluded from the event because of these prior obligations. Talking to a number of American electric motorcycle teams this past week, it is clear the first priority for all these teams is to race at the venues where the best competition will be…wherever that may be.
For many teams the Isle of Man represents the pinnacle of electric motorcycle racing. Having already run the Mountain Course before, there is a tangible baseline in electric racing that is defined by the historic course. On top of this, the Isle of Man offers an opportunity for teams around the world to compete against each other in a race that has gained a great deal of exposure over the past year, and is a known entity to everyday motorcyclists.
The GP Commission (FIM, Dorna, IRTA & MSMA) met this week to discuss and further refine the rules that will be implemented in the 2012 MotoGP season, namely the return to the 1,000cc format. The new rules lock in the amount of gas a bike can carry, as well as other details pertinent to GP racing, but the rule everyone is talking about is the 1,000cc switch. Interestingly enough, the 2010 rules allow for motors “up to 1000cc”, but provide different bike weight for bikes under and over 800cc. Check out the details after the jump.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing for a massive statewide speed camera initiative which could help super-set the Golden State’s budget to the tune of $19.9 billion in revenue, and make the state $397.5 million in bulging net income. California is currently sweating a massive budget deficiet, and despite Arnie’s chopper riding roots, he seems to see stretching government control as a method to dead-lift California out of debt.
Ducati has announced that the first 2010 Ducati Multistrada 1200 has rolled off the assembly line in Bologna, Italy. The white MTS 1200S with Öhlins suspension got the usual Ducati welcome, with champagne toasts and even a “baptizing” ceremony. The first Multistrada 1200S’s are set to be available by April of this year, while the MTS 1200 base model and ABS version should be out later in in May.
The Multistrada 1200 is an important motorcycle for Ducati as it shows the brand extending its mark beyond the performance bike realm, and into the sport-touring class, which is no easy feat considering the adventure bike/sport-touring king, the BMW GS, is the best selling motorcycle in the world. To help battle the GS, Ducati has made the Multistrada 1200 to have an engine with the longest service intervals in Ducati history: 15,000 miles. Photos of the first production Multistrada 1200 after the jump.
UPDATE 3: Because of our article Motorcyclist Online has further refined their “Buzz” section. Of course they’ve also removed Asphalt & Rubber from their feed. We’re not expecting an apology from them at this point.
UPDATE 2: A small victory, Motorcyclist Online has changed their format to only copy the first 50 words of our text…still no link love though, and still actually copying the wrong text from us.
UPDATE: It looks like Motorcyclist Online is actually copying this story as well. Sweet irony!
I got a strange email today…which isn’t that strange in of itself, because I get strange emails on a regular basis, but the email contained a link to Motorcyclist Online, the internet version of Motorcyclist Magazine, which is owned by Source Interlink Media.
Clicking onto the link I see an article that was written this morning, published in its full text. “That’s funny” I think to myself, because we certainly never gave Motorcyclist permission to use our articles…clicking further I see we’re not the only online motorcycle site whose content is being copied onto the online pages of Motorcyclist Online…we’re just the latest addition to this blatant act of plagiarism and IP theft.