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Forced to go to World Superbike for the 2012 season, Hiroshi Aoyama will return to the big show for the 2013 season, with the Avintia Blusens team. Trading his Honda CBR1000RR superbike for a Kawasaki-powered CRT entry, Aoyama will perhaps miss the days when he was on a Honda RC212V prototype, but certainly won’t miss the Pirelli-shod production machine, which he only managed to race to a 18th place championship points finish.

Entirely unimpressive in WSBK, Aoyama has something that many CRT riders do not: experience on the tricky Bridgestone tires. That fact alone should make Aoyama a potent weapon for the Avintia Blusens squad, which has struggled to develop its CRT entry — due partially to the talent on the machine. With the help of Aoyama’s MotoGP experience, and 250GP Championship title behind him, the BQR team might find some more traction and direction with its work — having Hector Barbera along for the ride as a teammate won’t hurt either.

We will have to update our CRT spotter’s guide, as BQR’s Avintia Blusens team has dropped its aluminum Suter frame in favor of Inmotec’s carbon/aluminum chassis for rider Spanish Ivan Silva. Making at least Silva’s side of the garage an all-Spanish affair for the team, BQR has reportedly been working with Inmotec since the pre-season, but opted for the British-designed FTR chassis for the start of the MotoGP Championship.

Moto2 testing was underway in Catalunya this week, but rain sidelined a substantial portion of that testing event. For the Moto2 teams, this meant a rare opporunity to get familiar with thier machinery was lost, but for the roving eye of Italian site GPone.com, it was an opportunity to take a gander at some very beautiful race motorcycles.

Despite all the teams having the same Honda-sourced, 600cc, four-cylinder, four-stroke motor, there is a large variety in body styling and chassis approach. Check the RSV, Moriwaki, BQR, Kalex, Tech3 Mistal, and Suter MMX bikes out after the jump.