When it comes to the king of brake calipers, the Brembo GP4 lineup is tops, and features regularly on MotoGP and WorldSBK machinery.
Debuting at EICMA today, Brembo wants to bring this same braking dominance to the rising mini-moto racing movement. As such, say hello to the Brembo GP4-MINI.
Dorna Motor Sports has announced a new race series aimed promoting young racers and helping them start their racing careers.
The new race league is called the FIM MiniGP World Series, and it is a novel approach to finding young racing talent, ages 10 to 14, around the globe.
The concept is simple: Dorna and the FIM have created a standardized racing format that clubs at the national, regional, and continental levels can adopt, which creates a level playing field for young racers to make their mark.
Episode 48 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is back with another weekly episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.
Our final installment for 2020, this episode sees us talking about the how the new Shoei RF-1400 is on the open road, as well as the debut of the Ohvale GP-2.
From there, we take a look at some of the biggest stories from the year, and discuss what to expect in 20201.
When it comes to race-ready minimotos, the name Ohvale is all you need to know. The Italian brand has stormed onto the scene, and quickly found traction with youth riders and old pros alike.
It is easy to see why, as the platform offers top-shelf kit in a space that has been mostly about heavily modified Honda Grom street bikes and cheap dirt bike conversions.
If you were serious about developing your road racing skills on a go-kart track, then the Ohvale GP-0 190 was the beast for you.
Good news if you are a small-displacement racing fan, as the Aprilia RS250 SP will not just be a European affair, as we get word today that the 250cc track bike will be coming to the USA as well.
Interestingly enough, the Aprilia RS250 SP will not make its way across the pond via the Piaggio Group, but instead Rise Moto – the Ohvale distributer for the United States – will be importing the machine.
That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise for those who are in the loop on how the Aprilia RS250 SP came to be (and of course you are, as you religiously read Asphalt & Rubber every day).
When I was putting together the story on the pricing for the Aprilia RS 250 SP race bike, I thought I had shared already some photos of the bike from EICMA, but that wasn’t the case.
I am not sure if that oversight comes from the madness of dozens of bikes being released at the same time; a complete lack of sleep for a week coupled to a nine-hour time change; or if simply the paltry number of photos I had taken was the cause of the gallery not going up; but it doesn’t matter. Here we are.
I do want to share these meager photos though (still in hi-def, of course), not so much because of how impressive the Aprilia RS 250 SP is as a race bike (especially now that we know it’s priced at €9,700), but because of the idea behind the machine. Here are some quick thoughts.
At the 2019 EICMA show in Milan, one of the surprises we saw in Italy was the Aprilia RS 250 SP motorcycle. A race-only machine, this quarter-liter four-stroke motorcycle from Noale is designed to be one thing: a cheap racing platform for Italy’s future two-wheeled stars.
Built in partnership with the FMI (Italy’s motorcycling federation) and Ohvale, the Aprilia RS 250 SP promised to be an affordable turnkey race bike, which would compete in a spec-series in Italy next year.
While we knew a bit about the bike’s technical bits, the one key feature missing from the Aprilia RS 250 SP’s debut at EICMA was its price. But now, we know that too: €9,700 – ready to race.
For the 2020 racing year, MotoAmerica has announced that it will run a three-round Mini Cup, in an effort to bridge the gap for young racers into professional racing.
The new series, which will race at Road America, The Ridge Motorsports Park, and PittRace, will have four spec-classes, all of which will use Ohvale motorcycles.
The class breakdown is as follow: 110cc (four-speed); 160cc; 190cc (racers aged up to 14 years); and 190 Adult (racers over the age of 15), with all of the races set to take place on karting tracks at the aforementioned race courses.
A welcomed late-surprise at the EICMA show in Milan, two Italian names in small-displacement racing have come together to get young riders on the race track.
I am of course talking about Aprilia and Ohvale, which have collaborated to build the Aprilia RS 250 SP race bike.
A purpose built racing machine, the Aprilia RS 250 SP is like a bigger Ohvale in its presentation, complete with 17″ wheels, and all the high-performance parts you would expect to see on a proper racing machine.
Episode 21 of the Brap Talk podcast is now out for your two-wheeled audio pleasure, and it is packed with some interesting motorcycle discussions.
The show starts with some catching up on Jensen’s racing season, which ended with a five-hour endurance race in Minnesota with Kramer Motorcycles and colleagues Rennie Scaysbrook (Cycle News) and Troy Siahaan (Motorcycle.com). Joined by local fast guy Kris Skellenger, the foursome won the GP2 class in the CRA endurance race, and finished 5th overall.
“Make Motorcycles Great Again” – that should be the battle cry for the American motorcycle industry for 2019 and onward.
We have talked at great length about the various ways that the motorcycle industry in the United States can revamp itself for life in the 21st century, and while there isn’t a single silver bullet to fix motorcycling in the USA, there are several pillars that such a plan can rest upon.
One of those pillars is getting young riders involved on two-wheels, and on the race track there is no better way to do that than with mini-moto racing. It is cheap and approachable…and most importantly, it is fun.
Getting onto a local cart track with a motorcycle can be done for a fraction of the cost of big bikes on proper road race circuits, and your budget is really only constrained by how good you are at hunting for deals on Craigslist.
Though if you really want to go all out, we present to you the Ohvale GP-0. The pinnacle of the sport, the Daytona 190 model from Ohvale will set you back a solid $6,900 MSRP. Other models from Ohvale are also available, with the 110cc version starting at $4,500 MSRP.