Ahead of the World Superbike round at Laguna Seca, MV Agusta is releasing a special limited edition machine for the American market. Called the MV Agusta Brutale 800 America, only 50 examples of this red/white/blue street bike will be made, one for each state of the union.
As the name implies, this special edition machine is built off the MV Agusta Brutale 800 street bike, with a unique livery and color scheme being the key defining features of the MV Agusta Brutale 800 America.
Yamaha has a long-standing relationship with Fiat’s tuning arm, Abarth, with the two brands having collaborated several times in the past.
For 2017, Yamaha and Abarth are teaming up again, creating the limited edition Yamaha XSR900 Abarth – a tricked out three-cylinder café racer – that is debuting at the 2016 EIMCA show.
As the name suggest, the Yamaha XSR900 serves as the basis for this custom model, with Abarth adding a sportier tone to the retro-styled “Sport Heritage” motorcycle.
Abarth’s changes include carbon fiber bodywork pieces, such as the headlight shroud, rear seat cowl, and front fender. There is also a special full titanium Akrapovi? exhaust, which looks absolutely exquisite, as to be expected.
Ducati has updated its microsite for its Project 1408 motorcycle, and unsurprisingly those with access to the photos have posted them to Facebook and other social networks, for the whole world to see.
The photos reveal the Ducati 1299 Superleggera, which drips carbon fiber (including its frame, swingarm, and wheels), and features a WSBK-spec Akrapovic exhaust in its race kit, which brings the total power figure of the v-twin Superquadro engine to 220hp (215hp stock).
Limited to 500 units, for those who can afford its $80,000 price tag (USD), the new Superleggera weighs a paltry 150kg dry (330 lbs), making it the lightest and most powerful superbike ever from the Italian brand.
Not officially debuting until Monday evening in Italy, we expect the Ducati 1299 Superleggera to be the main topic of discussion at next week’s EICMA show.
Thus, we will have to wait to get proper high-resolution photos and official tech specs from Ducati, but until then we have a bevy of leaked image grabs from Ducati’s Project 1408 microsite.
Remember the Ariel Ace? The VFR1200F-powered street bike from the revived British brand? The attractive street bike is about to get an even sportier sibling (sketched above), as the Ariel Ace R is set to debut at the NEC Motorcycle Live show, this November.
Unless you are well-coined, the NEC show might be your only chance to see an Ariel Ace R in the flesh, as the Brits plan on making only 10 examples of this R-spec machine.
Details are light at the moment, but Ariel does day that the Ace R will have a unique color scheme, and of course there will be better performance pieces and more power from the limited edition motorcycle.
The current state of the World Superbike Championship rules entirely encourage the adoption once again of “homologation specials” – production bikes whose sole purpose is to be used on the race track.
While none of the manufacturers have adopted a radical approach with their homologation special designs, this year’s INTERMOT show has already seen several such machines introduced, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR, the Suzuki GSX-R1000R, and the Honda CBR1000RR SP2.
For Honda, the differences between the SP and SP2 aren’t terribly radical, but they are more purposeful.
The 2017 Honda CBR1000RR SP2 does come with several visual cues that are different from the CBR1000RR SP model: carbon insert panels, gold striping on the tri-color paint scheme, and the more obvious Marchesini wheels.
The real differences though are under the hood, and in the two race kits that will be available from Honda.
Ducati is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, with the culmination of that celebration happening right now in Misano, at World Ducati Week. As we previewed already, Ducati would give a sneak peak of a new model at the event, and debut a limited edition machine as well.
Well, we have had more than a sneak peak of the upcoming Ducati Supersport model, and now we get the full monty of the Ducati 1299 Panigale S Anniversario – a special superbike that commemorates 90 years of Ducati motorcycles.
The Ducati 1299 Panigale S Anniversario is more than just a cosmetic exercise, with only 500 motorcycles getting its limited edition paint job, gold-colored metal pieces, and bevy of technical upgrades
One interesting new feature though is the debut of the EVO version of the Ducati Traction Control (DTC) and Ducati Wheelie Control (DWC) systems.
If you’re attending this year’s World Ducati Week, then you’re in for a treat, as Ducati is set to debut two new bikes at the gathering in Misano.
Details are thin at the moment, but we do know that one of the machines will be a limited-edition motorcycle that celebrates Ducati’s 90th anniversary.
Meanwhile the other bike is a new model to the Ducati range, which will be shown in a “closed room” setting as a sort of sneak peak before its official launch.
Every year Arai Helmet comes out with a highly coveted limited edition lid for the Isle of Man TT; and each year has a different design, with the latest crop coming from the studio of Aldo Drudi.
This year’s design comes on the Arai Corsair-X, a helmet we were very impressed with when we tested it at Thunder Hill last year.
As you can see from the photos, Drudi has emblazoned the Corsair-X helmet with the “TT” logo, as well as the island nation’s Triskelion symbol, which is of three running legs. “Ellan Vannin” is of course the native Manx name for the Isle of Man.
In addition to the 2016 MV Agusta Brutale 800, the other big new model release from the Varese brand is the MV Agusta Dragster RR Lewis Hamilton, a bike that pays homage to the reigning Formula 1 World Champion.
The concept is pretty simple, take MV Agusta’s already attractive Dragster RR model, and let Mr. LH44 go wild on it. The idea is to create another collectable MV Agusta model, so things stay pretty much the same for the Dragster RR’s 140hp motor and steel trellis frame.
The rest of the bike though, gets a solid going-over, by Lewis Hamilton himself, if you can believe the MV Agusta press release.
You remember the MV Agusta Dragster RR right? The Brutale 800 without a tail section? Of course you do…it was pretty bold design from MV Agusta, which is probably saying something, considering that the Varese brand tends to lead with design, rather than follow.
It turns out that Lewis Hamilton is a bit of a fan of the machines from MV Agusta – it also helps that AMG has a 20% interest in the Italian brand, and Hamiliton is the team’s star F1 driver, at least when teammate Nico Rosberg isn’t around – so, in true MV Agusta fashion, a special limited edition machine must be produced, right?
Behold, the Lewis Hamilton Dragster RR: a collaboration between the F1 World Champion and the Italian motorcycle marque. MV Agusta hasn’t quite revealed the machine yet, but this teaser video does a pretty good job of getting the point across. We took some stills, just in case the edits were too much for you.
Ducati describes the Diavel Titanium as making “a bold statement” and “wanted to take the bold and unique Diavel to a whole new level of prestige and desirability.”
We’re pretty sure that many uses of the word “bold” really just means bold new graphics for the Diavel, as the Titanium paint job and titanium panels (fuel tank and headlight covers) on the Ducati Diavel Titanium are really what set Bologna’s newest power cruiser apart from its predecessors.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the Diavel Titanium is certainly an attractive looking version of the Diavel, though the machine lacks the Desmodromic Variable Timing that is debuting on the 2015 Ducati Multistrada — something we would have liked to see on the stout power cruiser.