Contrary to what the AMA or motorcycling gentry may believe, not all motorcycles are created equal. Due to a combination of marketing, riding styles, and environment, the following five types of motorcycles are the country’s most dangerous.
While the NHTSA doesn’t track motorcycle accidents and crashes based on the type of motorcycle being ridden (among other things), the cultural factors that surround motorcycle injuries and fatalities paint a stark picture, which we’ve shared with you here.
A lot has happened with the Husqvarna name in the past few years. Recently sold to Stefan Pierer, head man at KTM AG, the Swedish dirt bike brand was also recently reunited with Husaberg, the brand established from the remnants left behind of the company in Sweden from when Husqvarna moved to Italy.
Folding Husaberg back into Husqvarna, the reformed off-road company was reintroduced to the market in 2014 as essentially rebadged KTM motorcycles — a similar statement can be said about the Husky entry in the Moto3 World Championship.
Not all of the 2014 line came to the US market though, and for 2015 we will see the company’s updated enduro models, the Husqvarna FE 350 S & Husqvarna FE 501 S, come stateside. Other additions to the US market include the FC 350 four-stroke MX and the TE 125 two-stroke machines. And yes, they’re still basically rebadged KTMs.
Late last year we told you about a new supercross concept that Red Bull playing around with, called Red Bull Straight Rhythm. Basically the real world realization of the video game Excite Bike, Red Bull’s Straight Rhythm features what can only be described as an SX course, minus the turns.
A half-mile of jumps and whoops, Straight Rhythm tests a rider’s ability to manage the rhythm sections of an off-road course. The initial videos of the concept seemed intriguing, and now Red Bull has pulled the trigger on hosting a live event.
As such, the first Red Bull Straight Rhythm competition is scheduled for October 4th, 2014 at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California. Racing a best of three head-to-head races against their competitors, racers will advance via a bracket format.
Billed as the toughest single-day enduro in the world, the Erzbergrodeo certainly seems to live up to the hyperbole. Four days of events, the Erzbergrodeo is crowned by the last day’s Red Bull Hare Scramble, where 500 qualifiers (pared down from over 1,000 entries) take to the Austrian quarry, and only a handful find the finish line.
The Erzbergrodeo is mildly ridiculous, and completely laborious…so, obviously we like it. Thankfully for the 2014 competitors, the rain wasn’t too big of a factor this year…because you know, it’s not like the hare scramble wasn’t hard enough to begin with. We won’t spoil the results for you, so a summary video (along with a bunch of hi-res photos) is waiting for you after the jump, while you can watch the 4hr long version right here.
On that fateful day during the Baja 1000, Kurt Caselli’s life was ended far too early. At thirty-years-old and still riding an upward trajectory with his career, Caselli had already amassed an impressive resumé of race wins, and had just been announced as the newest rider KTM Racing’s Dakar Rally factory team for 2014.
While it is easy to talk about his off-road accomplishments, the thing we hear the most, from the people that knew him best, was Kurt’s amazing personality. He was the very best at what he did, and also one of the very best doing it.
It is touching then to see that the short video “Caselli 66 – Ride The Dream” has been produced to honor our lost racer. For those that didn’t know Kurt, it is a great introduction into his amazing life, on and off the race track. And for those he was close to, the video serves as an excellent vehicle in which to remember those better times.
After the jump is the 30-minute-ish film, but be sure to grab some tissues before you hit play. It’s powerful stuff.
After we spotted the name “Africa Twin” in the USPTO online filings, buzz about a proper adventure-touring model from Honda have been swirling the internet, and even in print. German magazine Motorrad adds to the rumor mill, saying that the recently released privateer racer-only Honda CRF450 Rally will serve as the basis for the ADV model.
Italian online site Moto.it confirms that the Africa Twin will be visually similar to the CRF450 Rally, and goes on to say that the new model will likely not debut in 2014, but instead Spring 2015.
According to Moto.it, the Honda Africa Twin will have a strong off-road bias as an adventure model (a 21″ spoked wheel up front), be roughly 440 lbs at the curb, and have a displacement between 900cc and 1,000cc.
You may remember the Yamaha PED1 and Yamaha PES1 electric motorcycle concepts, which the tuning fork brand debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show last year. Modest, yet slightly futuristic looking, the overall impression we got from readers was that Yamaha was onto something with its PED1 and PES1 bikes, and it seems the Japanese OEM has heard your excitement.
Announcing plans in its 2013 Annual Report to bring the PED1 and PES1 to market by 2016, Yamaha is yet another major OEM to jump on the electric bandwagon and add legitimacy to this budding powertrain segment.
Here is a recipe for success: take a slow-motion camera, and film motorcycles doing awesome things with it. Presto! Internet gold. The folks at Red Bull did just that with their Romaniacs series. Enduro bikes taking big drops, crossing obstacles, and generally being bad ass…I feel like I don’t have to explain this video any further.
In honor of fallen off-road legend Kurt Caselli, the foundation named after him in conjunction with Red Tide Pictures, has decided to produce a movie about his life and stellar racing career.
Taken tragically on November 15, 2013 while competing in the Baja 1000, Caselli is a rider who will not quickly be forgotten, leaving behind a legacy and a stamp on the hearts of those who knew him.
The Kurt Caselli Foundation, an organization dedicated to the safety of off-road riders, has announced the release of their official website. The foundation was established in 2013 after the death of Motocross legend Kurt Caselli during the 2013 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.
The foundations website states that their goal is to emphasize safety in a three-part mission:
It was nearly a month ago that we heard that Spanish firms Gas Gas and Ossa had merged their operations in order to take on the difficult economic climate in Spain. The firms’ business position should be even stronger now, as Gas Gas has acquired the IP from Moto Italia, the holding company of Husqvarna’s remains.
When KTM’s Stefan Pierer acquired Husqvarna through his Pierer Industrie AG company, he did not buy all of the once Swedish motorcycle brand from BMW Motorrad. What wasn’t transferred into the Austrian company’s control was left behind as a new company, Moto Italia, which now will find a new home in Spain with Gas Gas.