In the adventure-scooter category, there is precisely one model in the motorcycle industry: the Honda X-ADV. It is an oddity of an oddity, and for the 2021 model year, the Honda X-ADV is getting a pretty sizable update.
Loyal readers of Asphalt & Rubber will know that I have a soft spot for KTM’s 690cc LC4 engine. The most powerful production single-cylinder motor on the market right now, the 73hp (55 kW) power plant is at home on the street, track, and trail.
For 2021, KTM plans on using this opus in the 2021 KTM 690 SMC R supermoto, as well as the 2021 KTM 690 Enduro R dirt bike.
That Harley-Davidson has been working on a small-displacement motorcycle for street rider is not a well-kept secret.
The project involves a collaboration with Chinese motorcycle manufacturer Qianjiang Motors, but the fruits of that labor have been slow to reveal themselves.
Like many of Harley-Davidson’s planned future models, the alleged “XR338” is at best MIA, and at worst DOA.
No one seems to know the next move from Harley-Davidson, including the Bar & Shield brand itself, which has been extremely terse about the details of its “Hardwire” business plan.
To help nudge them along the way, A&R contributor Michael Uhlarik has been working with Italian design show Engines Engineering (E&E) on an XR338 flat track concept for the street.
The airbag revolution continues in the motorcycle industry, as Alpinestars has just released its Tech-Air Off-Road airbag system to professional rally-raid racers.
Used by Alpinestars-supported riders since 2018, the new consumer-facing version is being offered to all professional racers now, just ahead of the Dakar Rally mandating airbags for all of its entrants.
When the KTM 890 Adventure R and Rally motorcycles debuted two weeks ago, our Bothan spies not only brought us the first pricing information for these two bikes, but they also told us that a third model was set to debut.
Our spies told us that bike would be a more affordable base model of the KTM 890 Adventure family (and similarly named).
Well now today, we get to see what that bike looks like, as KTM USA has officially confirmed that the KTM 890 Adventure is coming as a 2021 model.
When KTM debuted its 890cc ADV lineup – with the KTM 890 Adventure R and KTM Adventure R Rally – the Austrian manufacturer left out one key detail about the bikes: their price.
Luckily, our Bothan spies are always hard at work, and they have passed along to us the pricing information for the American market. As such, we have some good news for you.
The upside to no motorcycle shows is that a new motorcycle model can debut at a moment’s notice. Such is the case with the 2021 KTM 890 Adventure R, which just dropped on the internets.
As the name suggests, KTM has taken the very competent 790 Adventure R, and dialed things up a notch by 90cc. As if that wasn’t enough, there is a KTM 890 Adventure R Rally for 700 lucky owners worldwide (200 in the USA).
Ducati is onto its second of four teasers about the upcoming Multistrada V4 model, and today we learn the theorem that “the power is smooth and thrilling on demand.”
That isn’t too much of a reveal, but reports from Italy are saying that the follow-up to that release is that the Ducati Multistrada V4 will make 170hp when it debuts, which is a bit of news.
Ducati has begun officially teasing a new V4 engine platform on its website and social media channels – a move that is almost certainly the beginning of an unveiling for the Ducati Multistrada V4 adventure-touring motorcycle (the two off-road / on-road panels are a bit of a giveaway, shown above).
That a V4 version of the Multistrada was coming has been known for quite some time, with even Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali acknowledging that we would see the new model by the end of this year.
So that news, coupled to a bevy of spy photos that have caught the machine testing in its pre-production form, give us a good idea what to expect about this new model.
Still, there are some details we do not know about the Multistrada V4, and Ducati seems intent on teasing out those details in the coming weeks, via various “theorems” it is postulating.
The first time we saw the Aprilia Tuareg 660, it was in a glass box at EICMA, surrounded and covered by plants that obscured our view.
But, with the dirt-focused adventure bike getting closer to reality, we were bound to get a better glimpse before its debut. That brings us to today.
Caught for the first time on the open road, this photo posted to the Aprilia RS660 Facebook group (and then removed) shows the mid-sized adventure bike in its pre-production form.
You may have already seen the news from yesterday, where California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that will require all new cars and passenger trucks sold in the Golden State to be zero-emission vehicles by the year 2035.
The order also goes on to say that the state will phase out all new medium and heavy-duty trucks that are not zero-emissions by the year 2045, thus setting up the state to push electric vehicles onto its roadways in a big way.
There is a third provision in this executive order though, and it is getting far less attention than the other two, but it will greatly impact the motorcycle industry.
This is because Gov. Newsom’s executive order also says that by 2035 California will ban the sale of all new off-road vehicles that are not zero-emissions, where feasible.
Effectively, California has just set an expiration date on the sale of new dirt bikes, side-by-sides, and ATVs within its borders.