As the start of the MotoGP season grows closer, the news cycle is starting to ramp up.
Websites are starting to be able to report on things that are actually happening, rather than desperately thrashing around looking for filler content. So here’s a round-up of the latest developments in MotoGP.
Episode 84 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is out with another “weekly” episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.
It is a new year, but your same favorite motorcycle podcast! This show sees us announcing a few new bikes in the garage, some bigger than others.
Team presentations tend to be rather turgid affairs. Hours of talk for a few brief moments of enlightenment. Which is why we sit through all those hours of talk, of course, because if you listen carefully and read between the lines, you might learn a thing or two.
Past experience left the MotoGP media looking at the Honda motorsport Q&A with some trepidation. Would it be worth sitting through the long presentations to dig out nuggets of interest?
That calculation changed on Thursday night, when HRC announced that Marc Marquez had been riding a motorcycle again, and would be present at the launch on Friday.
Sam Sunderland can call himself a two-time Dakar Rally winner after today’s final stage of the iconic race.
The Brit finished third in Friday’s Stage 12 timed section, which was enough to clear him by almost four-minutes from his next competitor, Pablo Quintanilla.
The day marks a bit of history as well, as Sunderland’s result gives GasGas its first Dakar Rally, though the machine is largely a rebadged KTM 450 Rally motorcycle. For those who are unaware, GasGas became part of KTM’s business group in 2019.
Much has been said about Danilo Petrucci’s next move after MotoGP, and currently the Italian rider is making headlines in the 2022 Dakar Rally.
Petrucci’s Dakar debut may not being so good, considering his KTM 450 Rally broke down, and he had to be rescued by helicopter (effectively ending his bid for a good result), but there is other news about the former-MotoGP racer.
That is to say, Danilo Petrucci seems set to be MotoAmerica’s next big name, as the Italian confirmed the news while talking to Raquel Jiménez Rodríguez at the Motosan.es website.
After a hectic handful of weeks, I sincerely hope today is my last press launch for 2021 – my Delta SkyMiles status is doing just fine for the next two years.
But, don’t take that as a complaint, as this edition of “Gone Riding” sees us getting ready to ride the new Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak adventure-sport, which brings the 17″ wheelset back to this popular ADV machine.
The launch is taking place in Palm Springs, California – but this sunny SoCal getaway has a bit of rain on the forecast for our street ride today. Even so, I don’t think that will stop us from seeing if this 167hp beast can do the business.
Of course, the question on everyone’s mind will be whether the paint and goodies on the Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak is worth the $29,000 price tag, which is more than a $3,000 premium over the Multistrada V4 S model.
I hope to find that out, and also to see whether Ducati has captured the spirit of its Pikes Peak heritage, which started with a Hypermotard, and ended with a Streetfighter V4.
Per our new review format, I will be giving you a live assessment of the new Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak right here in this article (down in the comments section), and I will try to answer any questions you might have about this exciting motorcycle.
Here is your chance to learn what it’s like to ride the Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak, before even our own proper review is posted. As always, if I don’t know an answer, I will try to get a response from the Ducati personnel. So, pepper away.
You can follow our thoughts on the bike live via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and you can see what our colleagues are posting on social media by looking for the hashtag #MultistradaV4 #PikesPeak
Spec-Sheet Comparison of Relevant Models to the Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak:
| Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak | Ducati Multistrada V4 S | BMW S1000XR | KTM 1290 Super Duke GT | |
| Power | 167 hp | 167 hp | 165 hp | 175 hp |
| Torque | 92 lbs•ft | 92 lbs•ft | 84 lbs•ft | 104 lbs•ft |
| Weight | 527 lbs (wet) | 529 lbs (wet) | 498 lbs (wet) | 497 lbs (wet) |
| Engine | 1,158cc / V4 | 1,158cc / V4 | 999cc / Inline-Four | 1,301cc / V-Twin |
| Price | $28,995 | $25,795 | $21,090 | n/a |
Photos: Ducati
The Italians left the best for last on their six-part motorcycle teaser campaign for the 2022 model year, as today we finally get to see all the details about the Ducati DesertX adventure bike.
In a way, we already knew the important bits about the DesertX, having seen the concept bike at the 2019 EIMCA show.
The idea has involved since that Milan unveiling, however, with the air-cooled motor it showed with in Milan now being replaced by Ducati’s venerable water-cooled 937cc Testastretta 11° engine.
Today is a happy day, as Triumph Motorcycles will finally stop teasing the new 2022 Triumph Tiger 1200 lineup.
The British brand has been showing us teasers of its prototype for this bike for a while now, even bringing it to a bevy of trade shows, but now we have the real thing.
The Bimota workshop in Rimini is hard at work. The Italian brand debuted two new bikes at this year’s EICMA show, the KB4 and KB4 RC, both based off the Ninja 1000 four-cylinder platform.
However, it is the craziness that is the Bimota Tesi H2 that is putting the Italian marque back on the map, help by the machine’s supercharged 228hp wedged into hub-center steering chassis with avant-garde carbon fiber bodywork.
Now, Bimota is set to follow-up that hub-center steering madness with another “Tesi” model, this time one that’s focused on the adventure/touring segment.
Every year, the EICMA show awards its “most beautiful bike” of the Milan event, and every year the winner is unsurprisingly an Italian machine.
Whether you attribute that to the Italian manufacturers being superior in their motorcycle designs, or if perhaps there is a home-team bias in the EICMA crowd, we will let you decide for yourself.
More often that not though, we take umbrage with EICMA’s picks, as the selection seems to rarely stray from a couple Italian marques, while also overlooking a more worthy recipient.
That is fine and all, and this year’s pick, the MV Agusta Superveloce Ago is a very good looking motorcycle – no doubt about it.
But 2021 is one of those years where we differ once again from the EICMA voting masses, as we would have picked the Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello instead.
Good news from the folks from KTM North America, as the latest iteration of the brand’s KTM 1290 Super Adventure lineup is finally coming to the USA. Booyakasha!
A year late in arriving to our shores, the KTM 1290 Super Adventure S and KTM 1290 Super Adventure R will be 2022 models for the American market, and mark the the coming of the Austrian company’s third-generation of big ADV bikes to North America.