Repsol Honda has officially confirmed that Alex Marquez will partner his brother Marc at the Repsol Honda team for next year. It is the first time that a pair of brothers have raced in the same team in MotoGP.
There have been other brothers riding in the same class at the same time – Aleix and Pol Espargaro the latest example of that, but never before have brothers raced in the same team in either 500cc or MotoGP.
We didn’t know how badly we wanted a scooter in the garage until we saw the Italjet Dragster at EICMA this year. The Italian brand is bringing back one of its most…unique models, with a decisive modern twist.
The funny front-end you see is Italjet’s patented Independent Steering System (ISS), which separates out the front suspension and steering forces, which the Italian company says filters out any roughness from the road, without transmitting any vibrations to the handlebars.
Honestly, we just think it looks cool, along with the exposed steel trellis frame and its aluminum plates.
One of BMW Motorrad’s big reveals for the 2019 EICMA show in Milan, the BMW F900XR brings two big announcements with it.
First, there is the obvious middleweight addition to the XR “adventure-sport” lineup, and second that the German’s 270° parallel-twin will see a 895cc displacement for the Euro5 homologation.
Riffing on the BMW 9cento concept that we saw a year-and-a-half ago, the 2020 BMW F900XR keeps many of the concept’s lines, while infusing more of its bigger sibling into the design as well.
It has taken a long time to wrangle this bike into existence, but the KTM 390 Adventure is officially a thing now and coming in 2020.
I could look back through the pages of Asphalt & Rubber, and see when we first started talking about this small-sized ADV bike, but it would be downright depressing for the Austrian brand. It has been…a while in the making, let’s just say that.
The good news though is that the KTM 390 Adventure arrives with an exclamation point, and it is certain to dominate in markets where the 373cc engine is considered quite large and peppy. It should be fun in the western markets too.
They call it The Beast, and for good reason, because the KTM 1290 Super Duke is a v-twin monster for the street, and now for the 2020 model year, it is getting even more beastly as it just debuted at EICMA.
Instead of giving the KTM 1290 Super Duke R a ridiculous top power figure (peak horsepwoer remains at 177hp (132 kW), the Austrians focused on coaxing more tire-shredding torque from the Super Duke R. As such, a whopping 103 lbs•ft (140 Nm) of torque is on tap at 8,000 rpm.
The changes for 2020 don’t stop there though, as a new chassis has been thrown into the mix, which is closely based off what was seen on the KTM RC8 superbike. The Beast even loses weight in the process, with a claimed 416 lbs (189kg) when dry.
One of the most anticipated motorcycles for the 2019 EICMA show, we have been waiting for the 2020 Aprilia RS 660 to set the middleweight twins category on its head, and now that we have the spec sheet, we know that it will.
Try this on for size: 100hp from the 660cc parallel-twin engine, in a package that weighs 372 lbs (dry). Even with the fuzzy math the comes from dry to wet weight conversions, it is clear that the Aprilia RS 660 is going to lead its class on power-to-weight ratios.
But the Italian aren’t stopping there with their twin-cylinder assault. The 2020 Aprilia RS 660 also comes with the brand’s robust APRC electronics suite, which means IMU-powered traction control, wheelie control, and cornering ABS, along with an up/down quickshifter, cruise control, and switchable power modes.
You might be wondering why the words “sport” and “scooter” appear together in the headline of this story. And, you might be asking yourself why we are covering the launch of a new scooter here on Asphalt & Rubber. Those are fair questions.
No, we haven’t lost our minds, and the Yamaha TMAX is no normal scooter. While we may be into our flashy sport bikes here at A&R, there is a whole world that revolves around the TMAX, which gives way to a rich tuning culture and cult status in markets outside of the United States.
Try this on for size, now in its seventh generation of production, Yamaha has sold over 275,000 TMAX scooters in the last 20 years, and now for the 2020 model year, the Yamaha TMAX 560 counts itself as the most powerful version ever produced.
Continuing the trend we saw with the MV Agusta Brutale 1000 RR for the 2020 model year, that Italian brand from Varese has a “regular” version of its popular Superveloce 800, for sale next year.
Now while the MV Agusta Superveloce 800 might be the “cheaper” alternative to the $35,000 Serie Oro model, don’t let the name fool you.
The talk of the town at EICMA, all the main elements are still here on the 2020 MV Agusta Superveloce 800 that made it such a drool-worthy creation last year.
The 2019 EICMA show hasn’t even started yet, and already we have our first bike debut. Say hello to the new MV Agusta Brutale 1000 RR, the Italian brand’s newest naked bike that the rest of us can afford.
Based off the well-received MV Agusta Brutale 1000 Serie Oro, which debuted last year, the RR model brings the same basic streetfighter design to market, but without the über-exclusive price tag that matched.
With this year’s EICMA show just a few days away, we probably don’t have to wait too much longer to find out all the details about the much-talked-about 2020 Honda CBR1000RR, but we just got a tip from a Bothan spy and thought we would share it with you.
The reason for our excitement, is what this reliable tipster tells us. Namely, that the 2020 Honda CBR1000RR will be a fire-breathing monster, with 215hp on tap.