Don’t call it a comeback, because even though the US motorcycle industry beat the Motorcycle Industry Council’s projections last year, sales so far for 2013 are looking less than stellar in the first-half of the year. Down 5.2% from January to June, motorcycle sales were hit mostly by abysmal losses in the scooter segment (23.3%), and helped along by modest losses in the on-road segment (5.3%). Adding more to the misery, dual-sports suffered a 3.4% drop in the first half of the year, though surprisingly off-road bikes showed a gain, increasing 5.4% over Q1 & Q2. All accounted for, the MIC says that 362,500 motorcycles, scooters, and ATVs were sold the first-half of this year, compared to the 380,500 units sold in the first-half of 2012.
It’s Thursday afternoon, and you are probably sitting in a cube filing TPS reports when you should be out riding.…
After months of intrigue as to where the British rider would land for the 2014 MotoGP Championship, Cal Crutchlow has reportedly signed a two-year deal with Ducati Corse. Taking the seat of the departing Nicky Hayden, Cal Crutchlow has finally bagged the factory position that he has been adamant about for the past season and a half. In making his switch to Ducati Corse, Crutchlow has turned down a lucrative offer from Yamaha Racing, which would have seen the Brit on Yamaha’s payroll, with a significant pay increase over his current contract. That catch to that deal though is that Crutchlow would have had to remain in the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 garage, as the factory Yamaha team is full-booked with Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi through the 2014 season.
A wave of recalls are reaching the shores of motorcycle manufacturers, as brake maker Nissin has had to recall a number of its ABS units for a misaligned inlet valve, which could allow foregin particles into the fluid of the braking system, which could cause the ABS functionality to fail. Triumph first discovered the defect, and reported it to Nissin, which in-turn notified its other affected OEMs. So far 5,766 motorcycles have been affected by the recall, comprising a total of four manufacturers (a list of the models is after the jump, with a link to the appropriate NHTSA posting). We will update this list if/when more model recalls are announced.
Motorcycle gymkhana is perhaps the ultimate test of any road racer’s bike control. Navigating machines through courses of curves and cones, it boggles even this veteran rider’s mind at the level of precision that goes into every maneuver, and every video of these special events is a free tutorial on the benefits of smooth throttle, brake, and clutch actuation. It’s not like we need a real good reason to post up today’s installment, but someone finally figured out that a counterbalanced rotary video rig would be an awesome point-of-view perspective for this form of two-wheeled racing. After the jump, we ride with the winner of this year’s Dunlop Autoby Cup, Round 3 — though, this might be one of those few videos where you’ll want to mute the sound, and play your own soundtrack.
In case you missed watching this year’s Suzuka 8 Hours (the second stop on the FIM Endurance World Championship calendar), and…