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MotoGP in 2017 & Beyond – Towards a Brighter Future?

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The MotoGP grid is looking in surprisingly good health in 2015. The series has come a long way in the five years since 2010, when there were just 17 full-time entries on the grid, and Suzuki was teetering on the brink of withdrawal.

Dorna’s CRT gambit has paid off: the much-maligned production-based bikes may not have been competitive, but they did spur the manufacturers into action to actually supply more competitive machinery to the private teams.

The CRT bikes became Open class bikes, and Dorna’s pet project of standardized electronics has been adopted into the MotoGP rules.

From 2016, there will be one class again (well, sort of, the concessions – engine development, unlimited testing, more engines – for factories without regular podiums are to remain in place), with everyone on the same electronics, the same fuel allowance, and the same tires. A bigger change is coming for 2017.

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Bikes

First Shots of the Yamaha MT-25

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If you like your small displacement machines sans fairings, then this might be the bike for you, as the first clear photos of the Yamaha MT-25 are hitting the internet, courtesy of Indonesian blog TMCblog.

Based around the same 249cc parallel-twin engine as the Yamaha R25, the MT-25 will go up against the other quarter-liter naked bikes on the market, like the Honda CB300 and KTM 200 Duke.

As we can see from the photos, the MT-25 shares many of the same parts with the R25 — most notably the chassis, suspension, exhaust, seat, and engine. Added is a new headlight, fairing chin, and air intake tubes.

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MotoGP

Politics & Corruption: Why There Isn’t a Race in Indonesia

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If anyone needed any further proof that Indonesia is important to the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, the fact the Repsol Honda team chose Bali as the location to launch their 2015 MotoGP project should remove any doubt.

In front of a crowd consisting of Indonesian media, regional sales teams, Honda dealers, and just a single journalist from the European media (and a very smart one at that), Repsol Honda unveiled their 2015 livery, and Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa met fans and engaged in a couple of photo-ops.

A few days later, in Malaysia, Yamaha presented their 2015 racing program in front of a mass meeting of their Southeast Asian network, dealers, and business partners flown in from Indonesia and neighboring countries.

The Movistar Yamaha team had already been launched in Madrid – the Movistar TV millions ensured the location of that launch – but Yamaha took the time to introduce the three teams racing Yamahas in MotoGP, as well as present their activities in Asia.

Frankly, the presence of the Movistar Yamaha, Tech 3 and Forward Yamaha teams were more of a crowd pleaser than actually imparting any new information.

But if Indonesia is so important to the manufacturers, and to MotoGP, why is there not a race there? Over the course of the MotoGP test at Sepang, I had a few conversations with people on the subject.

On the record, the story was always the same: we need a suitable track, and as soon as one exists we will be happy to go there. Off the record, however, they were much less optimistic.

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Bikes

2015 Honda RC213V Livery Mega Gallery

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HRC unveiled its factory MotoGP team this weekend in Bali, Indonesia — giving us our first glimpse of the Repsol Honda livery for the 2015 season.

Both Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were in attendance, which is no surprise considering how important the Indonesian market is for Honda.

The Indonesian unveil also helps the two GP riders to have only a short hop now to Malaysia, to start the MotoGP season with the first official test a Sepang International Circuit.

As for the 2015-spec RC213V, things remain mostly the same to the layman’s eye. Red Bull’s sponsoring and support of both Pedrosa and Marquez, as well as the Repsol Honda team, is more prominent, and displayed on the belly pan fairing of the bike.

We’ll let you play spot the differences in the photos after the jump, they are super-sized high-resolution shots, so they might take a minute to load. Enjoy!

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Rumors

Kawasaki Working on a 250cc Four-Cylinder?

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According to the Indonesian publication TMC Blog, Kawasaki is working on a performance-oriented 250cc four-cylinder…and they have the supposed photos to prove it. The news should be well-received by those who remember the high-revving small-displacement Japanese machines of just a few decades ago.

Southeast Asian markets, like Indonesia’s, are driven by graduated taxes on motorcycle displacement. For the Indonesian market, machines 250cc to 500cc in displacement receive a 60% tax rate, while machine over 500cc are taxed at 75%. Unsurprisingly then, bikes under 250cc are accounting for the lion’s share of motorcycle sales.

Working against that taxation plan is the growing middle class in these regions, with consumers able to purchase more expensive motorbikes, and looking for more performance in the process. This trend is what helped bring the Yamaha R25 to market (and production) in Indonesia, along with the slew of other ~250cc machines we’ve seen from Honda, Kawasaki, and KTM.

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Bikes

Yamaha YZF-R25 Debuts in Indonesia

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The wait is finally over, as the Yamaha YZF-R25 has been revealed to the world, at a press launch in Indonesia. Based aroun a fuel-injected 249cc parallel-twin engine, which makes 35.5hp and 16.7 lbs•ft of torque, the YZF-R25 is Yamaha’s response to the newly revived 250cc sport bike category, which Honda and Kawasaki have been dominating, as of late.

Built in Indonesia, and being released into that market in July of this year, Yamaha sees 12,000 units being sold worldwide in the next 12 months for the R25 — a number we suspect will grow as more markets added.

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Bikes

Yet Another Look at the Yamaha YZF-R25

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There is only a week until Yamaha reveals its 250cc sport bike, the Yamaha YZF-R25, but glimpses of the machine continue to make their way onto the internet. We skipped the completely unidentifiable tail light photos, but have already brought you some good looks at the YZF-R25’s front-end.

Today, we bring you an unfortunately low-resolution look at the R25’s profile, in its entirety. How will this Indonesian-made parallel-twin compare to bikes like of the Honda CBR250R and Kawasaki Ninja 250R? Only time will tell.

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Bikes

Yamaha YZF-R25 Launched Confirmed for May 20th

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Yamaha Indonesia has spilled the beans on when the Yamaha YZF-R25 will be available, and that date is just a few days away: May 20th.

Yamaha is pitching the Indonesian-built, 250cc, parallel-twin sport bike as a miniature Yamaha YZR-M1, thus making a link between the R25 to Yamaha’s MotoGP racing program — a smart move considering how wildly popular MotoGP is in Indonesia currently.

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Bikes

Yet Another Solid Photo of the Yamaha YZF-R25

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Unfortunately, the Yamaha YZF-R25 isn’t slated to debut until May 2014; but as luck would have it, the month of May starts tomorrow. It shouldn’t surprise us then that the R25 is leaking like a sieve all over the internet.

We brought you some very nice photos of Yamaha’s 250cc sport bike earlier this morning, and now we have another good glimpse of the Yamaha R25 from the front.

In this shot we get a good glimpse of the YZF-R25’s headlight, which reminds us of the redesign Honda did to the CBR600RR. Clearly visible on the side fairing is the “R25” logo, so we know we are dealing with the real thing. Unfortunately though, the photo is pretty low-resolution, so it’s hard to gauge fit and finish.

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Bikes

Proper Spy Photos of the Yamaha YZF-R25 in the Wild

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Last week, alleged photos of the much-anticipated Yamaha YZF-R25 made their rounds on the internet. The shots in question were really just of a tail light and tail section, which honestly could have been of anything — so, we passed on running them.

We get it, it had been a slow news week in the motorcycle world…but the photos had no substance, and we really just don’t go for the whole linkbait thing here. We’d make you a Top 10 list as to why, but you wouldn’t believe what we’d type next (did you see what we did there?).

Anyhoo…today we have something of some real substance: our first proper shots of the Yamaha R25, courtesy of our Indonesian friends over at TMC Blog. Giving us a proper view of the R25’s profile and front fairings, we know that this is the R25 because of the teaser film released during Yamaha’s RevStation site.

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