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Say Hello to the 2013 Aprilia Caponord 1200…Again

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Leaked well ahead of the 2012 EICMA show, the Aprilia Caponord 1200 again finds its way to the interwebs, albeit in a clearer and more official way. Taking heavy styling cues from the Aprilia RSV4 sport bike, which has become something of the paterfamilias of design at the Italian brand, the 2013 Aprilia Caponord 1200 shares a chassis and motor with the Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200, and will be the Noale brand’s big offering against the sportier side of the adventure-touring market.

Featuring 17″ wheels, selectable fuel mapping, traction control, and ABS brakes, the new Aprilia Caponord 1200 has all the basic amenities you would expect in increasingly competitive adventure bike market — and if rumors are to be believed, Aprilia will offer a Caponord 1200 with semi-active suspension as well (Aprilia Dynamic Damping, or ADD…no seriously).

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Bikes

First Look of the Water-Cooled 2013 BMW R1200GS

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Getting spotted a day ahead of schedule, the 2013 BMW R1200GS has broken cover with most of its water-cooled glory, sort of. The good folks at Oliepeil.nl managed to get onto the show floor at INTERMOT, and grabbed a few photos of the BMW kiosk displays for the new GS.

Visually similar to the current R1200GS, the new water-cooled 1,170cc BMW R1200GS makes 123hp and 92 lbs•ft of torque at 6,500 rpm. That makes for a noticeable bump over the current model’s 110hp and 88 lbs•ft of torque. That added power comes with some added weight though, as the the 2013 BMW R1200GS tips the scales at 525 lbs at the curb, roughly 20 lbs heavier than the outgoing model.

We will have to wait until tomorrow to get the full details and official photos of the 2013 BMW R1200GS, but this should whet your adventure-touring appetite until then. Has the king retained its crown? More photos after the jump.

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Bikes

Minor Updates for the 2013 Yamaha FJR1300A

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Thanks to our good friends at the Dutch site Oliepeil, we have our first glimpse at the updated 2013 Yamaha FJ1300A. Said by Yamaha to have minor updates for the upcoming model year, it is clear from these photos that the FJR has spent some time at the spa, and gotten a visual makeover. What is underneath the fairings is anyone’s guess, though beyond some upgraded systems, the new Yamaha FJR1300A seems relative unchanged, which should surprise no one.

Exposed by Akrapovic’s 2013 exhaust catalog, the pictures here show the Yamaha FJR1300A with an aftermarket exhaust (of course), as well as a new instrument cluster, which supposedly makes way for the addition of traction control to the sport-tourer. Leaked EPA document’s peg the 2013 Yamaha FJR1300A as staying with its 1,298cc motor and 143 hp, seemingly putting to bed suggestions that the FJR will get a displacement boost for 2013.

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Racing

2013 MotoGP Provisional Calendar Leaked on Twitter

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The provisional MotoGP calendar has taken a little longer than normal to appear. An initial calendar had been expected at Brno in late August, but no calendar was forthcoming at the Czech Grand Prix.

The next rumored date for the calendar to be released was the weekend of the Misano round of MotoGP, but once the paddock assembled at Misano, it became apparent it would emerge a few days later – we where then told by an IRTA representative that the calendar would be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.

On Tuesday, the Austin Statesman newspaper reported that the calendar would be out on Friday, but the excessive enthusiasm of Loris Capirossi saw the former racer and current MotoGP safety advisor leak the 2013 calendar on his Twitter page on Thursday night.

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News

The First Photo of the 2013 KTM 1190 Adventure R

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With a brochure photo of the 2013 KTM 1190 Adventure leaking yesterday from KTM’s website, today we see more photos of the Austrian brand’s new adventure hitting the interwebs on the ADVrider forums. A studio shot of the 2013 KTM 1190 Adventure R, and two more photos of the base model give us a clearer picture of what KTM will “officially” unveiled at INTERMOT in a few weeks’ time.

The changes between the KTM 1190 Adventure and the KTM 1190 Adventure R are subtle, but the “R” is KTM’s more off-road oriented model between the two. As such, it sports a 21″ wheel up front, and an 18″ wheel in the back. Crash bars, a shorter windscreen, and single-piece saddle complete the changes, though we can expect other non-visible additions like upgraded suspension, etc.

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Bikes

2013 KTM 1190 Adventure Breaks Cover

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The folks at KTM briefly let leak a brochure photo of the 2013 KTM 1190 Adventure today, giving us our first good look at the completed machine. A prototype of the bike was recently reviewed by Motorrad, this new photo confirms many of the details that the Germans dropped in that article.

Based on the KTM RC8 R’s 1195cc LC8 v-twin motor, the KTM 1190 Adventure sees the superbike lump re-tuned for its adventure-touring duties, and in that capacity it makes 147hp. Meanwhile at 518 lbs with a full tank of gas, the 2013 KTM 1190 Adventure is a touch heavier than its 990cc predecessor, though we don’t think you will mind.

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News

First (Strange) Video of the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & 2013 Kawasaki Z800

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Multiple Kawasaki models are expected to be unveiled in New York tomorrow, and chiefly for the American market we are expecting the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 to officially break cover in Times Square.

This of course hasn’t stopped the bikes from “unofficially” breaking cover well before that date, as an EPA document (now edited to omit the models) first outed their existence, as well as numerous other leaks breaking loose as the event unveiling event looms closer — almost as if the leaks were designed to help create buzz around the new machines, hmm…

Our latest viewing of the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R & Kawasaki Z800 motorcycles comes to us from a video, which employs one of the most frustrating audio tracks ever to grace a motorcycle industry YouTube clip.

Presumably employed to stop us from hearing the new ZX-6R and Z800 rev to life, the music sounds like one of those canned audio tracks for slideshows about kittens playing in cardboard boxes. Nevertheless, it does give us a pretty good glimpse at the bikes in question. Beggers can’t be choosers, right?

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Bikes

Are You The 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R?

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UPDATE: The folks at TMCBlog seem to have some screen grabs from a walk-around video with the new ZX-6R. More photos attached after the jump.

Kawasaki only has a few more days until its big launch in New York City’s Times Square, so depending on how you look at it, Team Green has only a few more days to keep its new bikes under wraps, or Team Green has only a few more days to leak out hype-building photos of its new bikes. We’ll let you make the call on that issue, but today’s big Kawasaki news is a leaked photo of what appears to be the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R.

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Rumors

Does the Ducati 1199 Panigale SP Cometh?

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You may have been hearing a bit about this EPA compliance spreadsheet that has been outing more than its fair share of new motorcycles for the 2013 model-year. Tipping us off to a number of Kawasaki’s soon-to-be-announced models, like the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300, the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja 400R, the return of the 636cc Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, our continued torture with the carb-based Kawasaki Ninja 250R, EPA document also makes mention of a BMW F800GT, as well as a Ducati 1199 Panigale SP.

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News

EPA Document Lists a 636cc 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R

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The 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R is set to return to a 636cc displacement, according to a spreadsheet released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With alleged spy shots of the new ZX-6R already hitting the press, the supersport-class bike noticeably takes a design cue from its liter-bike counterpart — a move that should surprise no one.

Listed by the EPA as making 129 hp (96.4 kW) at the crank, the move to have the 2013 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R be a 636cc displacement machine is interesting, as the EPA’s document does not list a 599cc Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6RR analog, something the Japanese brand did last time it bumped its middleweight’s displacement figure beyond the norm.

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Bikes

2013 Kawasaki Ninja 250R Breaks Cover in Indonesia

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The quarter-liter sport bike market is about to get more interesting, as photos of the 2013 Kawasaki Nina 250R have sprung from Kawasaki Japan’s corporate site, ahead of the bike’s presumed late-fall international launch. Revising the long-time tested aesthetic of the previous generation Kawasaki 250R, the 2013 model takes more than a few cues from the current generation Kawasaki ZX-10R.

One of the best selling motorcycles in the United States, the Kawasaki Ninja 250R is surely feeling the pressure from Big Red, as the Honda CBR250R came to market last year, and has been a strong seller locally and internationally. With KTM to bring a 350cc sport bike to the USA in 2014, and other manufacturers eyeing the learner-bike model segment, Kawasaki has surely been feeling its dominant position in this space coming under fire, and has acted in response.

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