Former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz has certainly been in the news a bit these past few months, mostly for his involvement and falling out with the Circuit of the Americas and the Americas GP, but also more recently for his comments regarding Dani Pedrosa — we also sat down with Mr. Schwantz in Austin, and the Texan gave us some sobering insight into the future of American road racing.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Schwantz is making a return to two-wheeled racing, and has entered the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race with Team Kagayama. One of three riders on the team’s Suzuki GSX-R1000, Schwantz will race with Noriyuki Haga and team owner Yukio Kagayama during the eight-hour event.

Products

An interesting development on the aftermarket side of things has graced our desks, as Öhlins has released a “suspension control unit” (SCU) that upgrades the electronically adjustable suspension on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S so that it becomes a semi-active suspension system. Whhhaaaat??! So, if you’re the proud owner of a pre-2013 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S, and you think that your electronically controlled Öhlins suspension is no longer boss, now that Ducati has released its Sachs-powered “Skyhook” semi-active suspension pieces on its new batch of Multistrada sport-tourers, there is a remedy for your motolust.

Bikes

In case you missed our exhaustive coverage of the Grand Prix of the Americas, those fools at Dorna gave me pit lane access this MotoGP season. So while the whole paddock waits for the Spaniards to come to their senses, I don’t plan on wasting the opportunity to share with our readers our extreme access to motorcycling’s premier racing class. Accordingly, here comes another installment into our ever-continuing “Up-Close” series, featuring the very finest Iwata has to offer: the Yamaha YZR-M1. Thirty 2000px-wide photos are waiting for you after the jump.

News

Only a couple of months after Husqvarnaʼs sale by BMW to Austriaʼs Pierer Industries, the storied motocross brand is once again making headlines, unfortunately of the wrong sort. Reports from the La Provincia di Varese website, Varese News, as well as motorcycling’s GPOne are saying that the acquisition of Husqvarna has revealed significant problems with massive unsold inventory, labor, and the existing business plan. As of Monday the 22nd of April, Pierer Industries announced that the factory will be closed until further notice, and let go all of the 211 factory workers employed by Husqvarna. The only staff remaining are in the sales and marketing departments, about 30 people.

Racing
Superpole Results from World Superbike at Assen, The Netherlands: Pos. Rider Team Bike Time Diff. 1 Tom Sykes Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki ZX-10R 1'35.043 - 2 Jonathan Rea Pata Honda World Superbike Honda CBR1000RR 1'35.639 0.596 3 Eugene Laverty Aprilia Racing Team Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'35.814 0.771 4 Sylvain Guintoli