It looks like Triumph has a new three-cylinder machine for the 2021 model year, as the teaser campaign for the Triumph Trident has begun.
A quick look at the prototype being shown, and it is clear what Triumph’s intent is with reviving the Trident name: this is a budget-focused roadster.
A Chinese-owned Italian brand, Benelli makes some of the most beautiful motorcycles we have ever seen (Benelli Tornado anyone?), but the company has been rather absentee since getting acquired by the Qianjiang Group. Sure, Benelli seems to walk out a new variation of the Benelli TnT or TRE-K just about every year or so, and the Benelli Due has been a work in progress since before the first Obama administration, but for the most part, Benelli has been phoning it in when it comes to its proper motorbikes.
That seems to be changing though, as at EICMA the Italian brand will debut the Benelli BN600 — an 80hp, 600cc, inline-four street-naked. Building off the same established Benelli road-bike aesthetic, the BN600 (we cant tell if that that is Mandarin for either ‘horrible motorcycle name’ or ‘Benelli Naked 600cc’) is an interesting new model from Italy’s other motorcycle manufacturer, as it adds yet another street-naked to the Benelli line, and is close in displacement to the 118hp Benelli TnT 899.
A tremendous commotion was started today, as a panel in the Texas Senate decided to cut the $25 million subsidy set aside to help bring Formula 1 to the city of Austin, Texas. Immediately this sent concerns through the motorcycling press as to what it could mean for MotoGP and the Texan GP scheduled to be held in 2013, as it seemed the State of Texas was pulling its support from the still un-built Circuit of the Americas.
The short answer to that question is nothing, as the $25 million was ear-marked to go directly into Formula 1’s pocket, not to MotoGP’s coffers. However, the long answer to the question is a bit more convoluted, as MotoGP’s running in Austin is intrinsically linked to Formula 1 coming to the Texan track, which this budgetary decision seemingly directly affects.
MotoGP is a special animal. Like how Formula 1 is for automobiles, MotoGP is supposed to embody what the cutting edge of technology can bring to the sport of motorcycling. The talent is the pinnacle of its field, and the bikes are rolling R&D platforms.
This also means of course that the costs are exuberant, and instead of an instant applicable payoffs, the value of racing instead comes down the road many years later as the technology trickles down to the production-level bikes.
This makes MotoGP unlike the racing other series, whereas in World Superbike for instance, teams are working with a bike that is actually sold en masse to the consumer, costs for product line development can be absorbed, and the fabled “Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday” marketing buzz phrase has some bearing on reality.
Because of the intangible returns on investments, and escalating environment of prototype racing, it is not surprising to see the semi-departure of Kawasaki for 2009. So how much money are teams really losing by racing at the top of the sport?
