This year’s Malaysian round of the MotoGP series has offered a glimpse of the future, for those with an interest…
With the weather constantly the x-factor in the 2012 MotoGP Championship, the Malaysian GP unsurprisingly has seen Mother Nature play…
It took about 10 minutes for observers to notice that Maverick Viñales had not gone out on track and there was suspiciously little activity in the Avintia Blusens garage. Once they noticed, low-level pandemonium broke out: within seconds, a throng of Spanish journalists crowded out of the media center and hastened on their way into the paddock, to find anyone and everyone and learn what they could. As they drifted back in, and as TV pictures started to appear showing an empty Blusens garage, Viñales walking through the paddock accompanied by his father and the Dorna media officer, and team managers Raul Romero and Ricard Jové gathered in discussions, it was clear that there was something very wrong.
Earlier this season, Valentino Rossi dropped the bombshell that he would be doing an about face and return to Yamaha Racing, after his failed experiment with Ducati Corse. Almost as soon as The Doctor was done making his announcement regarding his return, chatter started about whether Jeremy Burgess and his crew would join Rossi at Yamaha as well. Confirming that news today, MCN‘s Matthew Birt talked to Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis, who confirmed that Yamaha wasn’t trying to maintain Ben Spies’ crew within the team, and that the venerable Burgess would join Rossi in the factory team’s garage.
Debuting a “crossplane” three-cylinder engine at the INTERMOT show, Yamaha has gotten the word out that it intends on making more inspiring motorcycles, and part of that plan includes the use of triples in its upcoming bikes. Knowing that at least one, if not several future Yamahas will use the hinted-at three-cylinder lump, the Brits over at Visordown have gotten word from their sources within Yamaha Japan that in the coming future, the Yamaha YZF-R6 & Yamaha YZF-R1 will be two of the bikes to receive such modifications.
Expected only to get a modest makeover for the new model year, we now have proof that the 2013 Triumph Daytona 675 will bring us mostly only cosmetic upgrades in its new revision. Featuring a frame and updated bodywork, perhaps the most noticeable change to the Triumph Daytona 675 is the absence of an undertail exhaust on the three-cylinder supersport, which has been replaced with a GP-style side exhaust can and routing. Anticipated to be receiving the same update as we saw with the 2013 Triumph Street Triple, the Daytona 675’s motor has likely been untouched, while the new frame and subframe assemblies benefit from a weight reduction (13 lbs on the Street Triple), and improved handling characteristics.