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UPDATE: Cycle News has indeed closed its business doors.

Rumors are rife that Cycle News has closed it’s doors after nearly 50 years of motorcycle print publishing. Once the pinnacle publication of the industry, Cycle News has slowly seen its readership get eaten up by conglomerate driven publications like Cycle World, Motorcyclist, and Sport Rider…and of course web-based motorcycle news sites like yours truly. As Superbike Planet’s Dean Adams puts it, “if true, this is truly the end of an era for the motorcycle publishing industry,” we couldn’t agree more.

Last week I had a chance to ask Chip Yates some questions over email about the progress of the SWIGZ.COM Pro Racing Electric Superbike program. Chip’s responses tell us his team’s ambitious performance goals are on track and they are quickly signing on sponsors. SWIGS.COM Pro Racing remains the only electric motorcycle race team to put the cards on the table for 2010 in regards to target performance.

In late 2009, Chip announced he had assembled a team including two MIT grads turned aerospace engineers to develop an electric superbike to compete in the TTXGP race series. The press release mentioned some very impressive and somewhat controversial goals for the SWIGZ.COM bike including the ability to turn AMA SuperSport lap times (GSX-R600) and a KERS system to return braking energy back to the battery.

Since the announcement, the electric motorcycle racing landscape has changed dramatically with the entrance of the FIM e-Power series and the TT Zero race replacing TTXGP at the Isle Of Man. Some races have conflicting schedules that will force teams to choose one event or the other. Chip explains what series the team will run and which they will not. Unfortunately the team is not releasing any of the electric drive specs and vendors yet but some details should be announced next month.

See the full Q&A with Chip Yates after the break.

Asphalt & Rubber is pleased to finally take the wraps off a little project that we’ve been working on for the past few months, Asphalt & Rubber Street Level. A&R Street Level uses Twitter to allow anyone to report and share photos of motorcycle events going on around the world. Ideal for track days, races, bikes nights, and trade shows, A&R Street Level is a real-time perspective on motorcycling.

sanfranciscoskyline

If you weren’t too busy BBQ’ing it up this past Memorial Day weekend, you may have noticed that things around here at A&R were a little slow. Never fear, the rumors of our death were overly exaggerated.

We apologize for the lack of news as over the course of the weekend, A&R moved from the East Coast to the Left Coast, trekking through 10 of our Nation’s fine states. As of now, Asphalt & Rubber is coming to you live from San Francisco, a city with 3 major tracks and some of the best roads within sticking distance.

With an 11 month riding season, we have a feeling we’ll take well to the California coast, and the many, many roads it has to offer us. Look for us on the PCH and at the Sunday Morning Ride, and be sure to say hi.

monkey-typewriter

Asphalt & Rubber is pleased to announce that John Boyed will now be a regular contributing author to our daily news mix. John will cover general motorcycle news with a focus on the rising electric motorcycle scene. John has been a long time motorcycle enthusiast, and spends “far too much time digging around on the internet.” He has followed the electric motorcycle scene closely, and has a particular interest in the niche markets that occur in our sport. Our kind of guy for sure.

John owns and operates .