Want to see what the Ducati Streetfighter V4 is going to look like when it debuts in October? Well, this video from a lucky passerby will surely give you a good idea of what to expect.
Caught at a gas station while filling up, two of Ducati’s upcoming models can be seen: the revamped Ducati 959 Panigale and the often teased Ducati Streetfighter V4.
The Austrian round of MotoGP has been a weekend of bombshells. After the news that Ducati and Jorge Lorenzo had been in talks to replace Jack Miller in the Pramac squad before the weekend, on Sunday night it emerged that Johann Zarco asked to be released from his contract with KTM for 2020.
The Frenchman has long been unhappy with the Austrian factory, sometimes very publicly so. Since the moment he jumped on the KTM RC16, he has struggled to adapt to the bike.
For the 2020 FIM Endurance World Championship, a new factory effort will join the paddock, as BMW Motorrad has announced its intentions to bring a Munich-backed BMW S1000RR to the competition.
BMW Motorrad has already been in the FIM EWC, of course, but the German brand was participating by supplying technical support to any endurance team that could afford the bill.
Now with a full-fledged factory team, BMW Motorrad joins the ranks of Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha at the big kids’ table in the series. More importantly though, the chance to compete in the FIM EWC gives the Bavarians a relatively low-cost racing opportunity to showcase their new superbike.
The Triumph Rocket III was already an absurd motorcycle, with its 2,294cc three-cylinder engine – the largest of any production motorcycle.
Well, the Brits are aiming for next-level insanity now with the Rocket name, debuting today the Triumph Rocket 3 R and Triumph Rocket 3 GT, which feature a 2,500cc triple that makes 165hp and 163 lbs•ft of torque.
That’s an 11% power increase over the previous generation, though just shy of the performance figures boasted on the Triumph Rocket 3 TFC that we saw earlier this year.
Just last week, Yamaha unveiled the latest iteration of its YZF-R1 superbike, which sees a number of updates coming to the original liter-bike for the 2020 model year.
The machine is more evolution than revolution, and if we are really honest, the 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1 is really a refresh to keep the folks at Iwata relevant in the big-displacement sport bike category.
As such, we see changes coming to the bike’s cylinder head, airbox, and bodywork, along with updates to the software and suspension.
All of this is to ensure that the Yamaha YZF-R1 is inline with what is being offered by other brands in the superbike space.
We have heard rumors that Ducati would jam its new V4 engine into a Multistrada-type for quite some time now.
But, most of those rumors seemed to confuse the high-powered adventure-sport for the upcoming Ducati Streetfighter V4, so we dismissed them. And yet, talk of a Ducati Multistrada V4 continues.
Now, the rumors are getting more palatable, and even more credible. One reasons for this is a report from Germany’s Motorrad Magazine, which says that they even saw the Multistrada V4 out testing in Bologna.
Did you feel that? Updates have landed for the 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1 and 2020 Yamaha YZF-R1M motorcycles, with Yamaha debuting the bikes this weekend at the Laguna Seca round for the WorldSBK Championship.
As our bothan spies already reported, the updates are subtle ones, mostly geared towards refining the R1 to keep in touch with its competitors, and to provide the race team with the necessary changes they need under the homologation rules.
This makes the 2020 update very much an evolution, not revolution, for the Yamaha YZF-R1. As such, we see changes coming to the bike’s cylinder head, airbox, and bodywork, along with updates to the software and suspension.
I am not sure about this one, but the word out of Italy is that Marco Melandri is set this week to announce his retirement from motorcycle racing. Naturally, we are intrigued.
The rumor comes from La Gazzetta dello Sport (the same publication that’s also currently saying – quite dubiously, we might add – that this will be Jorge Lorenzo’s last season racing in MotoGP), and now the sports magazine suggests that Melandri is ready to hang up his leathers after a tough year back in WorldSBK.
The possible permutations in MotoGP rider line up for 2020 are limited, with almost everyone already under contract for next season. At the Sachsenring though, Danilo Petrucci was added to the ranks of confirmed riders, with Ducati extending his contract in the factory team for 2020.
A contract extension for Petrucci had been on the cards for some while, the Italian’s victory at Mugello making it an inevitability. Ducati is very pleased with Petrucci’s performance, and the way that he and Andrea Dovizioso have worked together.
If you are a loyal reader of Asphalt & Rubber, then you know that we love us some supermoto motorcycles. As such, we bring you today the only factory-built race-ready supermoto for the next model year. Say hello to the 2020 Husqvarna FS 450.
Before you put your 2019 model up for sale, we should note that the changes for the 2020 model year aren’t terribly large.
The Husqvarna FS 450 got a pretty good update last year, with more torque and less weight (thanks to the changes made to Husqvarna’s 450cc motocross bike), so the 2020 machine remains at a claimed 63hp and 220 lbs without fuel.
If the KTM 790 Adventure R wasn’t off-roady enough for you, the Austrians have just announced another trim level to the ground-breaking ADV machine, which will make it even more suited to long-distance traveling where the asphalt ends.
As such, say hello to the KTM 790 Adventure R Rally for the 2020 model year. Though restricted to just 500 units worldwide, KTM owners can still replicate much of what the “Ready to Race” brand is doing by raiding the KTM power parts bin.
This is because the KTM 790 Adventure R Rally is basically the adventure bike built with all of KTM’s best farkles. But, don’t let that notion distract you into thinking that this is just a simple parts bin pony.
KTM is building a potent machine, with the hopes of getting the imaginations stirring for those with dirt in their blood.