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So Many Photos of the New KTM 790 Duke to Drool Over

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We are rapidly coming to the conclusion that the new KTM 790 Duke is the bike of this year’s EICMA show.

Making a potent 105hp from its 799cc parallel-twin engine, packed into a 418 lbs (wet)steel trellis body, the 2018 KTM 790 Duke brings a host of features to the middleweight sport bike category.

In typical KTM fashion, the 790 Duke left no angle behind in its high school honors geometry course, and the LED headlight builds upon the common design features that KTM has been putting together on its street-going machines.

Not quite the vision that was the KTM 790 Duke prototype, the production model still evokes the same emotions, and is handsome in its own right – allaying our fears when seeing spy shots of the machine.

Adding a TFT dash, IMU-powered traction control, cornering ABS, launch control, and an up-and-down quickshifter are all strong moves from the “Ready to Race” brand, making the KTM 790 Duke have not only the best power-to-weight ratio in its class, but it is also one of the most feature-packed.

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Mega Gallery: Husqvarna Vitpilen 701

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We have had to wait two years to see it come into production, but the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 will finally be available to motorcyclists in March 2018. As an added bonus, the street-going machine stays true to its concept design, which wowed the crowd at last year’s EICMA show.

This year in Milan, the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 is all the talk of EICMA, and while “Best in Show” at EICMA almost exclusively goes to an Italian marque, the real winners are surely coming from Austria, as both the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 and KTM 790 Duke look like winners.

A duality from Mattighofen, KTM and Husqvarna approach motorcycles from two opposite spectrums. KTM lives in the extreme, with an edgy focus on its “Ready to Race” mentality. Conversely, Husqvarna is subtle and sophisticated…maybe even understated.

It is that understatement that has been the driving force behind the success of the brand’s Vitpilen and Svartpilen motorcycles, with both the “white” and “black” arrows showing unique design languages.

For the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701, the 690cc single-cylinder engine is wrapped in a modern take on an old design. As such, this neo café racer makes 75hp, 53 lbs•ft of torque, and is made tame by a traction control system.

Still, this new Husky must be an odd duck around the office, as Husqvarna is very terse on its basic specs and features, instead focusing on the design of this café racer. Such is the state of a bike that sells on emotion and lifestyle, rather than outright performance.

We imagine then that if you’re here, you can to ogle some photos. We have kept the 90+ photos attached to post in such an annoying large format that we will probably have to pay Amazon quite a bite extra this month for all the bandwidth.

If you want to help foot the bill, might we suggest an A&R Pro account?

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Mega Gallery: Honda Gold Wing

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Every time we write a story about the Honda Gold Wing, we end up using the word “iconic” as a descriptor, but why is that? Is it because there are over 250,000 Gold Wings on the road today, putting down miles?

Is it because the model was so important to the American market, that it was the only Honda motorcycle that has been built on US soil? Or is it the legion of loyal fans, that continuously replace their old Gold Wing with a new one, rather than stray to another brand?

It is probably a combination of all these things, and now for the 2018 model year another chapter of the Gold Wing story is about to be told.

Big Red has made considerable changes for the 2018 Honda Gold Wing, most notably putting the giant tourer on a diet (roughly 90 lbs). Now a more compact machine, Honda has made space savings by switching to double-wishbone front suspension.

In person, the Gold Wing (bagger) and Gold Wing Tour (tourer) retain the obvious lines of the previous Gold Wing motorcycles. We think Honda has walked a fine line too in making the 2018 edition look more edgy and modern, while still being true to its classic shape.

The fit and finish on the new Honda Gold Wing is impressive as well, with there being strong attention to the details. When you consider how many miles, and how many years, a typical Gold Wing must endure with a single owner, Honda has to build the Gold Wing to a standard beyond the typical motorcycle.

For next year, Honda hopes to sell upwards of 14,000 Gold Wing motorcycles worldwide, most of which will be here in the United States. Nearly a doubling of the current sales volume, this goal is a tall order. But, the new Gold Wing seems up to the challenge.

Don’t worry, we’ll swing a leg over one in January and see for ourselves. Until then, we have got about 120 high-resolution photos for you to peruse of this iconic motorcycle. Enjoy!

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Mega Gallery: Yamaha Star Eluder

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With massive motorcycles comes massive photo galleries. As such, we thought we would share with you over 100 high-resolution photos of the new Yamaha Star Eluder, the bagger variant and cousin to the Yamaha Star Venture tourer, in this A&R “mega gallery”.

Fat jokes aside, the Eluder and Venture are interesting bikes, as they straddle features and attributes somewhere between Harley-Davidson’s touring lineup (the Yamaha’s feature a 113ci air-cooled v-twin engine) and the well-selling Honda Gold Wing line (both bikes are rolling living rooms on two wheels).

This positions Yamaha’s to siphon-off riders from two of the best selling lines of motorcycle in the United States, which is surely no accident.

The Yamaha Star Eluder is not exactly our cup of tea, that much is for sure. But, while you can hate the player, you’ve gotta respect that game. Yamaha just upped the ante in the touring space with the Star Venture and Star Eluder.

Take a closer look at the 2018 Yamaha Star Eluder in the photos after the jump.

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Here Is KTM’s Fuel Injected Two-Stroke Motorcycle

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Fuel injection has finally come to the two-stroke market for production motorcycles, with KTM (and thus also Husqvarna) debuting two enduro machines with transfer port injection (TPI) on their single-cylinder smokers.

This has been a long time coming in the two-wheeled space, even though we have seen TPI and direct injection on other two-stroke vehicles, like snowmobiles and personal watercraft for quite some time now.

KTM is really the last manufacturer to support two-stroke motorcycles though, so any progress in this space is a welcomed breath of life for off-road riders. New technology truly could be the savior to two-stroke motorcycles, as emission standards continue to become more restricted with each passing year.

While the Japanese brands have focused their efforts on four-stroke motorcycles, KTM and Husqvarna are showing that there is still a market for these lightweight and efficient enduro models.

There is an Austrian boat-ton of high-resolution photos waiting for you after the jump. Like…a lot. Using the Erzberg mine as a back drop, these stunning shots will probably make you run out to your local KTM dealer. They certainly have us thinking. Enjoy!

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Mega Gallery: BMW HP4 Race

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The BMW HP4 Race has finally dropped, the Bavarian brand’s extreme superbike offering that drips in carbon fiber pieces. A track-only liter-bike for true enthusiasts, the BMW HP4 Race sees a potent 212hp engine packed into featherweight 377 lbs wet body.

Of course to hit those weight goals, BMW Motorrad employed extensive use of composite materials to shed weight from the already robust BMW S1000RR superbike. As such, the frame, bodywork, and wheels are made from carbon fiber, including the self-supporting tail section.

BMW doesn’t reveal too much on how it has boosted the power from the 199hp found on the S1000RR’s inline-four power plant, though the result is an increased redline to 14,500 rpm (up from 14,200 rpm).

Keeping inline with its ~$85,000 price tag though (BMW Motorrad hasn’t released pricing figures yet, unfortunately), the BMW HP4 Race comes with top-of-the-line brakes and suspension pieces. It also has a robust electronics package that features the usual suspects of three-letter acronyms.

There is plenty to drool over on the BMW HP4 Race, so we have 64 high-resolution photos of the machine, waiting for you after the jump. Enjoy!

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Too Many Photos of the 2017 KTM 450 Rally

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The 2017 Dakar Rally starts today, and over the next 13 days we will be bringing you all the news of this grueling race for cars, trucks, quads, and of course motorcycles.

Toby Price is favored to win in 2017, the Australian once again on a KTM 450 Rally. He won’t have an easy time of it though, with riders from Honda, Husqvarna, Yamaha, and even within his own KTM Racing team all having a shot at this year’s addition.

To hoist the winner’s trophy though, riders will be tested over 12 stages, seven of which have timed sections of 400km or more. As fans should be well aware of, anything can happen over those 12 stages.

For 2017, the Dakar Rally will start in Paraguay for the first time ever (the race’s 29th host country), before it heads to Bolivia, and then ends in Argentina.

Six days will be spent above 3,000 meters in elevation, and Dakar Sporting Director Marc Coma says it will be the most grueling Dakar Rally ever – as a five-time winner himself, Coma’s words should be taken with a heavy burden.

To get you in the mood for the 38th running of the Dakar Rally (the 9th in South America), we bring you a bevy of photos of the bike that everyone wants to beat: the 2017 KTM 450 Rally.

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More Photos of the 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6

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Loyal Asphalt & Rubber readers will know how much we like our high-resolution photos here at A&R, so we wanted to make sure you could get a good high-res look at the 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6 that debuted today at the AIMExpo in Orlando, Florida.

Yamaha has left its class-leading bike mostly unchanged for the next model year, when it comes to the R6 motor and chassis, which might disappoint some. But with the addition of R1-inspired styling, traction control, ABS brakes, and better suspension pieces, we think supersport fans will be pleased with this update.

With the bar now set higher in the 600cc realm, hopefully we will see other manufacturers take up the challenge, and the supersport class will have new life breathed into it.

We’ll have to wait and see on that. Until then, enjoy this modest photo gallery.

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More Photos of the MV Agusta F4Z by Zagato

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It seems MV Agusta really couldn’t wait until September 4th to show us its collaboration with Italian coachbuilder Zagato, because today we have a high-resolution gallery of this one-off machine.

As the name suggests, the MV Agusta F4Z started life as an MV Agusta F4 superbike. Zagato then gave the F4 a visual restyling, with the intake, fuel tank, battery, and exhaust system all having to be redesigned to accommodate the flowing bodywork.

The lines of the MV Agusta F4Z are certainly polarizing, especially for hardcore fans of the MV Agusta brand, and that is probably just fine. This is because the MV Agusta F4Z is to be a one-of-one design, with a wealthy Japanese entrepreneur said to be the bike’s final recipient.

You can continue your love/hate relationship with this motorcycle after the jump, with some very high-resolution photos.

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Enjoy This Yamaha FZ-10 Mega Gallery

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I’m in North Carolina right now, about to take a ride on the 2017 Yamaha FZ-10 – the Japanese brand’s R1-powered streetfighter that looks like it just stumbled off the set of a Michael Bay movie.

This Bumblebee lookalike is growing on me though, and it’s easily one of the top new bikes I’ve been itching to try since last year’s EICMA show debut. Thankfully, I’ll soon get that chance.

Before we get into that though, Yamaha has a bevy of high-resolution photos to share with us for our two-wheeled pleasure. These photos represent the finalized USA-spec machine, whereas previous photos you’ve likely seen on Asphalt & Rubber were either of the European-spec Yamaha MT-10, or the non-finalized FZ-10.

The differences between the motorcycles are subtle, but we didn’t need much of an excuse to share the photos with you. No doubt, more than a few readers will find their future computer desktop picture in the files below.

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Some Thoughts on the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701

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This story has no timely reason, other than I was working my way through Husqvarna’s media site for a different story, and noticed that there were finally some well-lit shots of the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701 concept available for download.

The Husqvarna Vitpilen 701, as you may remember, builds off KTM’s Husqvarna’s 690cc platform, but uses the “Vitpilen” neo-café racer aesthetic. The result is what you see here, and it blew the doors off the EICMA show in Milan when it debuted late last year.

With these high-resolution photos, that thankfully were not taken in the dark this time, we can finally see the details of the Husqvarna Vitpilen 701, which were such a highlight when it debuted.

More importantly though, we can get a greater appreciation of where KISKA is taking Husqvarna, both in terms of separating the brand visually from its sister company KTM, but also on how the brand will sit apart from the rest of the motorcycle industry as a whole.

While I have no doubt that we will continue to see more conservative shapes and graphics on Husqvarna’s going forward, especially from Husqvarna’s dirt bike offerings, the Vitpilen segment is very intriguing as it brings a completely fresh take on a very tired-out market segment.

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