Confirming rumors that Filippo Preziosi would be leaving his role as head of Ducati Corse, the Italian company announces today that the man responsible for BMW Motorrad’s World Superbike program, Bernhard Gobmeier, will be taking over the position at Ducati Corse. Reporting directly to Ducati CEO Gabriele del Torchio, Gobmeier will ultimately be in charge of all the racing projects at Ducati, including MotoGP and World Superbike. Stepping down from his position, Preziosi will take on the role of Director of Research & Development for Ducati Motor Holding, where he will use his engineering and design talents to help develop Ducati’s next road bikes.
Slap on your skinny jeans, and get on a hog, because Harley-Davidson is pitching motorcycles to America’s favorite disgruntled demographic: the hipster. For pursuing today’s young and ironically image-oriented subculture, you can’t really fault a company like Harley-Davidson for this move, seeing as it markets its brand around this notion of conformity through non-conformity. Copying the vintage art house film style of that we see so often on Vimeo (frame borders, sepia tones, and all), I will steal a line from AutoBlog’s Jonathon Ramsey and say that Harley-Davidson has nailed the Instagram style on its head with this one…right down to its guitar-string audio track and percolating coffee pot cameo appearance.
This weekend, we reported on an interview that CMG Online did with Dave Hancock, Honda Motor Europe’s Head of Product Planning & Business Development, said that the Honda RC213 (unofficial name) street bike was going to cost £70,000-£80,000 ($110,000 to $125,000), which certainly lit up our comments section with enthusiasts who were hoping for a more affordable model from the Japanese manufacturer. Today, Japanese tuner magazine Young Machine is reporting to have the first images of the “Honda RCV1” street bike, which is already making its way around the internets as we speak, with various forms of information vetting. Is this our first glimpse at the Honda V4 street bike? Probably not.
Ducati superbikes are a legend in their own right, with a racing career the spans much father back in history than just the past two decades. Grabbing press kits for the 2012 EICMA show though, I stumbled across these photos from the Ducati Museum at Borgo Panigale factory. Starting with the Ducati 851, and going all the way forward in time to the newly released Ducati 1199 Panigale R, it is interesting to see the progression in design and technology among the models (if you are into this sort of thing, be sure to checkout our 33 years of Suzuki endurance road racing bikes post). Get your history lesson on after the jump with some high-resolution motorcycle goodness, and be sure to mention your favorite Desmo in the comments.
The yet unnamed machine, which many are calling the Honda RC213, will have a 1,000cc V4 motor that will be based off the Honda RC213V MotoGP race bike. A homologation special that will be produced in just enough quantities to meet WSBK regulations, the Honda RC123 street bike is not to be confused with the production racer variant that will be coming to MotoGP in 2014. That bike, essentially an RC213V without the pneumatic valves, seamless gearbox, and other trick bits, will cost in the neighborhood of €1,000,000 to buy. However, according to an interview by Costa Mouzouris on CMG Online, the V4 street bike will cost in the neighborhood of £70,000-£80,000 or $110,000 to $125,000.
According to multiple reports, MotoGP’s resident Frenchman has been linked to Suzuki GP effort, which is expected to field a two-rider…