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Rumor: Dainese up for Sale?

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Motorcycle industry gossip is at a fever pitch this week with speculation that Italian motorcycle apparel manufacturer Dainese is up for sale. Adding credence to that rumors, Asphalt & Rubber has received a number of tips about the possible sale of the company, with a private investment group cited as a possible buyer.

When we approached with this information, Dainese simply said that rumors were simply that, rumors. However it is worth noting that at the helm of the company for the past few months has been interim-CEO Federico Minoli, the same man that lead Ducati Motor Holding to being acquired by Texas Pacific Group, and later took the Italian motorcycle manufacturer public on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Photos: Valentino Rossi’s Pink Floyd Helmet at Misano

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True to tradition, Valentino Rossi debuted another unique helmet design for his home crowd at the San Marino GP in Misano, Italy. Themed to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, Rossi has added the last stanza of the song to his livery as well.

“How I wish, how I wish you were here. We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, running over the same ground What have we found? The same old fears, wish you were here.”

While we’ll let you decipher the meaning to Rossi’s Pink Floyd reference and how it applies to his time in MotoGP, we have to say that this is one of our favorite designs from Aldo Drudi that Rossi has sported at an Italian round.

So, it should come as no surprise that a bevy of photos are after the jump, for your viewing pleasure — since we know that there are some diehard fans of The Doctor that read the pages of Asphalt & Rubber.

Be forewarned though collectors, we think AGV is going to have a tough time getting the rights to make replicas of this design.

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MotoGP: Valentino Rossi’s 2013 Mugello Helmet

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Another Italian GP at Mugello, and another special AGV helmet for Valentino Rossi. A wink to his new non-alien status, Rossi’s AGV Pista GP lid is obviously painted up like a turtleshell, implying the Italian’s pace to his rivals (note  the colored figures running along the chin bar of the helmet).

Whether you are a fan of The Doctor or not, you have to admit the G.O.A.T. is taking his new place in MotoGP in stride (at least publicly)…though don’t count him out just yet. Second-fastest in FP1 & FP2 on his 2013 Yamaha YZR-M1, Rossi was also fourth-quickest in this morning’s FP3 session — counting him out of a podium, and even a race win, at Mugello would be unwise.

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Photos: The Five AGV Pista GP Helmets in MotoGP

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Since October is just simply too long of a wait for the Italian company’s new uber carbon fiber racer lid to come to the United States, our bromance with the AGV Pista GP helmet continues to manifest itself online here at Asphalt & Rubber — and yes, we also don’t have the patience for the still-very-racey but-less-uber fiberglass-bodied AGV Corse, which comes a little earlier to the US, in September.

With the MotoGP season starting in earnest this weekend, one of the more minor highlights was the debut of all the riders’ new helmets, and for 2013 we now have five Pistas to drool over on the MotoGP grid, which certainly doesn’t help our “patience is a virtue” mantra.

While we work on centering our chi, there are a bevy of  photos for you after the jump. However, on any given Sunday you can find Stefan Bradl, Andrea Iannone, Danilo Petrucci, Lukas Pesek, and of course Valentino rep’n their Pistas on the grid. Which one is your favorite?

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AGV Pista GP Helmet Coming to the USA in October 2013

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We can’t remember the last time we were excited about a helmet, but we are counting down the days until the AGV Pista GP comes to the United States. Already available in Europe, the Pista GP is expected to cross the pond officially in October of this year and be a part of AGV’s 2014 collection.

However, some eager Americans have already been buying Pista’s online from British helmet houses, and having them shipped over to the US. Considering how banged up our international packages get, it is not something we would recommend. Patience is a virtue.

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Marco Simoncelli AGV Replica Helmet

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UPDATE: The Simoncelli Tribute helmet will be available in the US in the GP-Tech only. They should be in stores any day now, with an MSRP of $749.95.

It has been over a year since we lost Marco Simoncelli, though it is clear from MotoGP’s revisiting of the Malaysian GP this year that his memory is alive and well. Helping commemorate Marco’s spirit, AGV Helmets is releasing more accurate re-styled Marco Simoncelli replica helmets that have been authorized by the Simoncelli family.

Incorporating the San Carlo logo on the chin guard, the Dainese logo on the top of the shell, a heart with the colors of the Japanese flag on the back, and Marco’s 58 racing number on the temple, the helmet is basically identical to the one that SuperSic wore during the 2011 MotoGP Championship season.

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Video: Valentino Rossi’s Mugello Helmets, Part 2

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Monster’s series on Valentino Rossi’s Mugello helmets continues (Part 1 here), with this second installment just teasing out the nine-time World Champion’s signature special Mugello helmet. The video is certainly less wordy than the first, and from what we can gather, Rossi will have a ring of flowers on his head for the Italian GP.

With MotoGP to take to the historic Italian track for FP3 and Qualifying in just a few hours, we shouldn’t have too long to wait to see the final product from Aldo Drudi. Until then, this video will have to suffice. Check it out after the jump.

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Who Wore It Best? Del Rosario Calls Out the AGV PistaGP

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While we are excited and anxiously awaiting the AGV PistaGP helmet, one American helmet manufacturer is less-than-thrilled with the Italian company’s latest offering: Del Rosario. A small boutique firm based out of New York, Del Rosario’s aim was to bring to market helmet designs that were “caught up to the rest of the industry.” Showing off a number of CAD renders since its inception, Del Rosario has clearly missed its late-2011 shipping date, and as far as we can tell, has not actually produced any physical prototypes or finished models.

Getting a fair bit of press and then falling off the radar, Del Rosario is back in the limelight as the company sent a worded warning to AGV through its corporate Facebook page. According to a message posted by Del Rosario on its social media portal, one of the company’s former advisors showed AGV Del Rosario’s stylebook, and now three years later the PistaGP has emerged with a shell design that has some obviously similar characteristics to Del Rosario’s renders.

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AGV PistaGP Helmet – The Next Generation Helmet

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Today at the MotoGP test in Jerez, AGV debuted its next-generation helmet: the AGV PistaGP. The fruits of the Italian company’s Project 46, the PistaGP is the first helmet to come from AGV’s new AGV Standards program, which seeks create products with an inside-out approach. You have likely already seen Valentino Rossi testing the AGV PistaGP in the recent Sepang tests, and I have already waxed poetic about how excited I am about this product.

Generally I am not a big fan of AGV sport bike helmets (though I do have a torrid love affair with the AGV AX-8 Dual Sport helmet), as I find the field-of-view (FOV) on AGV lids to be far too limited for my riding tastes, but the PistaGP promises a host of improvements to AGV’s helmet design, especially an improved FOV, which should allay my complaints. For AGV, the company hopes the PistaGP, and its progeny from the AGV Standards program, will reposition the helmet manufacturer once again as again the pinnacle maker of motorcycle helmets.

Releasing details on the PistaGP to the assembled GP paddock press at Jerez, we can finally publicly talk about this new lid and AGV’s new approach to designing motorcycle helmets. Details after the jump, along with more photos than you can shake a stick at.

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Project 46, AGV Standards, & Rossi’s New Helmet

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You may have already noticed that Valentino Rossi has been sporting a new lid in his off-season tests with the factory Ducati Desmosedici GP12. Said to have a greater field of vision, the prototype helmet has being going by the code name “Project 46” as the helmet has literally been built around Rossi himself. I say literally because AGV’s new helmet is based off what the Italian company is calling AGV Standards, a new philosophy on how the Italian company makes its forthcoming helmets.

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AGV, Please Make This Helmet!

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In addition to testing the factory Ducati Desmosedici GP12 “Phoenix” this week at Sepang, Valentino Rossi is also trying out a new lid from AGV. Aside from the carbon fiber goodness, and of course the Rossi stickers (which add 5hp & $200), AGV’s prototype helmet sports a noticably pronounced rear spoiler. Tucked in behind the windscreen, it is obvious why the Italian helmet manufacturer designed such a large protrusion off the back of the prototype helmet, as it looks to be clearly helping the flow off the back of the helmet, across the rider’s hump, and down his backside.

Yes, that’s all well and good, but what has this writer really salivating is that reports from Malaysia say the windscreen’s field of view is HUGE. I think the exact words described to me were, “it’s like watching a flat screen TV with your nose against the monitor.” While I love my AGV AX-8 Dual Sport (I rocked it hard at the BRD RedShift SM prototype test), I just can’t get that same enthusiasm behind AGV’s road race line. Having ridden with both the AGV T2 and AGV GP-Tech, my biggest complaint is that the field of view on both these helmets feels restricted (a common complaint apparently from riders used to Arai’s helmet design).

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