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In the mainstream news, there is a lot of talk right now about net neutrality for internet service providers (ISPs), not to mention the whirlwind discussions about malicious electronic intrusions, like the Russian involvement in the 2016 US Presidential election, or the recent bout of ransomware that is being linked to North Korea.

The takeaway from these current events is that as our lives become increasingly dependent upon our online presence, we need to take our online security and privacy more seriously, especially during uncertain times.

Asphalt & Rubber might be only a modest motorcycle website, where you spend a handful of minutes during your day reading about all things two-wheeled, but we take these issues very seriously…and for good reason.

As such, we have enabled and forced HTTPS browsing for all users on our site, not only so your connection to our website is secure, but also so your privacy is protected from anyone who might wish to read or track your presence across the internet.

I don’t know why I have to write this story, it seems so obvious to me, yet I have read about half a dozen publications this week spewing fake news about how MV Agusta is about to release a new scrambler model, based either off the Brutale or Dragster street bike. 

In case you missed it, MV Agusta released a terse video trailer the other day, touting something called “RVS” which stands for “Reparto Veicoli Speciali” in Italian.

In English of course, this means “Special Vehicles Department”…and thus to us it seems fairly obvious what the Italian brand is up to. Well, apparently we are somewhat alone in that regard. Le sigh.

The ending of this video does show what looks like a scrambler-type motorcycle, with a few obvious MV Agusta lines to its styling. And, this is apparently enough fuel to start a fire about a brand new model from the Varesini brand, at least if your mammalian ancestry is more closely linked to the noble lemming.

The thing is though, MV Agusta has given us all the pieces of information required in order to know that the iconic brand isn’t releasing a new motorcycle, and is instead up to much bigger things within its factory walls.

Episode 52 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and it prefaces our adventures in Austin, Texas. A week-long motorcycle excursion, Quentin and I soaked in some MotoGP racing action, and then on to ride the 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 and the new Aprilia RSV4 and Tuono V4.

Before we get to riding bikes, we had a chance to ride something a bit different, taking a Polaris Slingshot for a rip around the back roads of Austin. We then got to see how the timing systems work for MotoGP, which is a lot more complicated than you would think.

We also got to talk a bit to Kevin Schwantz, Kenny Roberts Jr., and Randy Mamola. The show then wraps up with a preview of our ride experience on the Suzuki and Aprilia superbikes. Short version: they’re awesome.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!

Dirt Quake, the grassroots flat track event, has been acquired by North One TV. The transaction sees North One TV acquiring both the Dirt Quake name, and the Dirt Quake events, with the core Dirt Quake team, including Gary Inman, staying on for the foreseeable future.

North One says that with the acquisition the media company plans to grow Dirt Quake internationally, with Dirt Quake already hosting popular events in the UK, Europe, and United States.

Presumably this means an expansion of Dirt Quake events into new markets, where flat track racing is already popular.

I am really excited about the Suzuki brand right now. Out of the four Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, the recession affected Suzuki the most, probably more than many people realize, but the Hamamatsu brand is poised to bring out some exciting machines in the coming few years.

We have already seen Suzuki return to the MotoGP Championship, and the work there has brought about the all-new 2017 Suzuki GSX-R1000 superbike, which is looking to a potent weapon in liter-bike warfare.

By 2019, we expected to see Suzuki debut all-new GSX-R600 and GSX-R750 offerings as well, which should follow the footsteps of their 1,000cc sibling, by offering modern electronics, class-leading performance figures, and cut-throat pricing.

A new Hayabusa is also rumored to be in the works, though scarce details on that machine have us feeling it is more internet rumor than real-world reality. But, Suzuki has not been bashful about teasing a turbocharged sport bike for its lineup, showing us its Recursion concept on more than one occasion.

Could we finally see a turbocharged Suzuki this year though? The rumor mill is pointing to yes…but just pointing, and the reason is because of patents.

Much of this internet rumors stems from a flood of patents that have been found, where Suzuki is patenting technology related to turbo-powered engines in motorcycles, or because of other patents that make reference or inference to being part of a turbocharged motorcycle.

I woke up this morning to a message from a colleague, with a link to a story that linked Royal Enfield to buying Ducati Motor Holding. The story was from a fairly reliable news publication, but the headline read “Royal Enfield Might Consider Buying Ducati Pretty Soon” – the grammarist in me cringed.*

“Might consider” is the most nebulous phrase in the English language. Let’s think about that phrase for a moment, as it literally means that you are considering the possibility of considering something. Don’t get me started on the timeliness of “Pretty Soon” in the news realm, as well.

Metaphysics and meaningless headlines aside, for our purposes this narrative devolves further in that this story offers nothing new, beyond the story that Reuters published two weeks ago, which set off alarms in the motorcycle industry around the world.

Episode 51 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and covers a variety of interesting subjects for your two-wheeled lifestyle. First up, we talk shop about going to track days, such as the benefits of using tire-warmers and how to slide a motorcycle in and out of a corner.

The conversation then gets more serious, and focuses on the recent financial news about Dorna Sports (media rights holder to MotoGP and WorldSBK), and how its investors are using the media company as a piggy bank.

We finish the show discussing some movements by GoPro in the action camera sector, as the behemoth video company tries to deal with its product increasingly becoming a commodity.

It’s worth pointing out that this show was recorded before our trip to the Circuit of the Americas, so we will be trickling out that content going forward…there’s a lot of it.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!

Episode 50 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast celebrates our favorite day of the year, April Fools Day. As such, we start off the show with a re-cap on some of the best pranks that the industry had to offer this year.

We then turn our attention to two events we attended in the past few weeks, as we visited the World of Speed in Wilsonville, Oregon and Quentin was at the Desert 100 race in Eastern Washington. Both are items you should mark on your calendar, and it is great to see them showcasing motorsport in the Pacific Northwest.

We then turn our attention in the show to MotoAmerica’s call for volunteers, to help shoulder the workload at the track during this year’s racing events. We also discuss the very interesting Mugen E.Rex electric dirt bike, which has to be seen to be believed.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!

Another year, and another April Fools Day is done and dusted. I am fairly certain that for journalists, April 1st is better than Christmas, as it marks the one day where media outlets make the news the wish they could report on daily. And as usual, the imaginations of the motorcycle media pool didn’t fail to disappoint.

My colleague David Emmett had a timely story about the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, which hosted a nearly rained-out Qatar GP a couple weeks ago. As such, his piece focused on improvements Losail could make for inclement weather, namely a radiant heating system below the asphalt. It’s so crazy, it just might work.

If you were confused by our WorldSBK coverage on Saturday, that’s because our man Kent Brockman had some fun with the race results and his debrief report, changing the names of all of the riders to “Jonathan Rea” as a nod to the Northern Irishman’s dominance so far in the Championship. Those results are now correct, by the way.

Of course you know I can’t pass up some love on April Fools, so we ran two stories. The first one was about Ducati’s new “Quattrofromagi” superbike – I owe the idea to my fellow Two Enthusiasts Podcast host Quentin Wilson, so of course it was a pretty cheesy story.

My other story included Aprilia, and how the Italian brand’s bag of well-lettered motorcycles are helping kids to learn and read good. As some noted in the comments, the idea of a motorcycle brand product-placing in a show like Sesame Street isn’t a bad idea. I make no apologies for my Michael Jackson savagery, however.

How about from the rest of the industry though? In case you missed them, the highlights of April Fools Day are after the jump.

Episode 49 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is mostly about our chance to ride the 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6 at Thunderhill Raceway, though there are certainly enough rabbit holes of side-discussion that we suppose we can make note of a few other topics that we covered as well.

Obviously, the show includes a look at the supersport segment, as we talk about the latest 600cc four-cylinder machine to hit the motorcycle industry. We also talk about the Bridgestone R10 DOT race tire, as well as the Bridgestone W01 full-rain race tire, both of which we got to try at Thunderhill in mixed conditions.

In our talk about the “new” Yamaha YZF-R6, we got side-tracked by a number of interesting topics, like wet track riding and chassis setup/dynamics, as well as the problem of choice overload, as it pertains to the motorcycle industry. Another Two Enthusiasts classic, we hop you listen and enjoy the show.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!

Get them while they’re young. It worked for the tobacco industry, it worked for Michael Jackson, and it is the new mantra for Aprilia Motorcycles, as the Italian marque is getting aggressive with its offerings for young and future motorcyclists.

Regular Asphalt & Rubber readers will know that we have talked at length about the motorcycle industry’s aging demographic, and that the younger generations are not filling in sales that are being left behind by Baby Boomer motorcyclists.

Getting Gen-X and Millennials on motorcycles has been a key part to every motorcycle brand’s marketing strategy, and now Aprilia is taking that move to its next logical level, and focusing on getting kids on bikes at as early of an age as possible.