Harley-Davidson has debuted its 2014 touring and trike motorcycles, which would normally be an event that we’d forgo even mentioning here at Asphalt & Rubber, after all “brand new” to Harley typically means new paint and chrome pieces to bikes that already exist in the line-up — that’s not entirely the case this year though. Debuting two liquid-cooling engine configurations, the Twin-Cooled High Output Twin Cam 103 motor will be used on the 2014 Harley-Davidson Ultra Limited and the Tri-Glide Ultra trike, while the Screamin’ Eagle Twin-Cooled Twin Cam 110 will be featured on the 2014 Harley-Davidson CVO Limited.
Dorna has announced that MotoGP could make a return to Brazil as early as late 2014. The addition of both Brazil and Argentina to the calendar creates a major headache for the schedule. While a 19 race calendar is just about acceptable to the riders and factories, having 20 races on the calendar would start to create severe logistical and technical challenges. It had long been assumed that Indianapolis would be the race to be dropped, but a deal announced on Saturday secured the event for 2014, with talks ongoing about a long-term extension to that deal. The long-term contract with Austin leaves only Laguna Seca as the race which could be dropped.
With all of the prototype seats occupied for 2014 – barring a contractual bust up between Ducati and Ben Spies,…
With the 2013 EICMA show just a couple months away, it is unsurprising to see next year’s bikes cropping up on the internet — case in point, this photo of the Ducati 899 Panigale. Rumored since the Ducati 1199 Panigale broke cover two years ago, the Bologna Brand’s supersport-class sport bike appears to be mostly as expected, though it is surprising to see Ducati fitting a standard-style swingarm to the machine instead of continuing its iconic single-sided design. Expected to be a 2014 model year machine, the Ducati 899 Panigale should be good for north of 150hp at the crank — though it’s not clear if the 899 designation (which is mostly a work of the associated press) will reflect any material increase in the engine’s displacement.
Talking to MotoGP.com this weekend at the Indianapolis GP, Kenny Roberts Sr. admitted to the website that he is working on putting together a new GP program for the 2014 or 2015 season — though was quick to caution against the project’s full-fruition. “We’re working on it. And we’re working on something quite big – it’s going to happen or it’s not going to happen. It’s not going to be almost there. When we come back we’ll come back in a big way! And if you don’t see me, you’ll know we didn’t get it done,” said King Kenny. What the GP legend means from his words, we can only infer, though the prospect of the Godfather of American road racing returning to the premier series of motorcycle racing bodes well for the wealth of racing talent that we have domestically.
