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MV Agusta “Ballistic Trident” by Rough Crafts

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Recently, we have seen some really interesting motorcycles come out from the custom sport bike scene that surprisingly use MV Agusta’s three-cylinder platform.

Catching our fancy have been bikes like Walt Siegl’s “Bol D’Or” line, which blends old and new together masterfully; or bikes like Deus Ex Machina’s “AgoTT”, which takes on a completely different form of mixing retro and modern.

Today, we add another name to the list, as we bring you Rough Crafts’ “Ballistic Trident”, which is based off the MV Agusta Brutale 800 RR, and gives a nod to the race bike of yore that wore the Varese brand’s logo.

Working out of Taiwan, Rough Crafts plays to our weakness for dustbin fairings, giving a sort of half-shell dustbin fairing to the Ballistic Trident. We’re smitten.

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News

KTM Announces A New President for North America

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Big news from KTM, as the “Ready to Race” brand has appointed John Hinz as the new President of KTM North America, effective January 1st, 2017. This means that the buck will stop with Hinz, when it comes to KTM, Husqvarna, and WP Suspension brands in the United States and Canada. 

Hinz will take over from current President Jon-Erik Burleson, who will stay on through January 31st, in order to ensure a smooth transition. After that point in time, Burleson will shift to a brand ambassador role for Husqvarna.

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Bikes

Vanguard Roadster Set to Debut IMS New York

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Say “hello” to the very attractive Vanguard Roadster, which is hitting the interwebs ahead of its official debut at the IMS New York show. Based out of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City, Vanguard Motorcycles was founded by Edward Jacobs and Francois-Xavier Terny.

If the Vanguard Roadster design reminds you of something from Confederate Motorcycles, that’s no accident. The two machines share the S&S X-Wedge v-twin engine platform, but more importantly Jacobs was a former designer for Confederate, while Terny brings his business acumen to the startup.

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News

PJ Jacobsen Signs with MV Agusta for World Supersport

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American Patrick “PJ” Jacobsen will get an equipment change for his 2017 bid in the World Supersport Championship, jumping ship from Honda to the MV Agusta Reparto Corse team.

Jacobsen tested with MV Agusta at the recent WSBK test in Jerez, where his results on the MV Agusta F3 675 must have impressed the Italian factory, as the audition landed him the job.

The move to MV Agusta will hopefully be a benefitical one for Jacobsen, as he starts his fourth full season in the World Supersport Championship. PJ was the 2015 runner-up in the Championship, and finished the 2016 season fourth overall.

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Bikes

Spirit Motorcycles Debuts Potent Three-Cylinder Sport Bikes

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If you are having a hard time figuring out what to get that special motorcyclist in your life, let us suggest something from the recently formed Spirit Motorcycles brand.

The British marque’s first offering is a trio of motorcycles: the GP Street is a naked street bike, the GP Sport is its fully faired sibling, and the GP Corse R is the full-fledge track supersport machine.

The base model machines make 160hp from their three-cylinder engine, and tip the scales around the 320 lbs mark. But, if you want to spring for the R-spec models, you are looking at a 180hp and 309 lbs machine, sans fuel. Do we have your attention now?

To power their machines, Spirit is using a repurposed Triumph Daytona 675 engine, which has been boosted to 750cc by stroking out the triple. Engine compression has been modified to help boost power, as well.

Like many things on the Spirit lineup, the chassis is of note, as the chrom-moly steel tubes have been brazed-welded together, for added flex. Spirit says that the chassis steering angle, rake, and trail is fully adjustable. The swingarm is made from cast aluminum, and the fairings are carbon fiber.

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Bikes

2017 Honda CRF450 Supermoto, for France Only

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America might have invented supermoto racing, but the sport’s largest support base easily comes now from that other side of the Atlantic – more specifically, from France.

So, it shouldn’t surprise us to learn that Honda’s French importer Superboost makes a special supermoto version of the Honda CRF450 for the French market.

For the 2017 model year, the Honda CRF450 Supermoto follows that changes made to Big Red’s 450cc dirt bike, which notably includes the return of fork springs (goodbye air forks), an electric starter, and down-draft fuel injection.

Basically a kit that is added at the importer level, the 2017 Honda CRF450 Supermoto lineup has three models, building off the CRF450R (€11,299), CRF450RX (€10,999), and CRF450X dirt bike (€10,999), with each getting their own taste of the supermoto treatment.

For American readers, don’t expect to see these supermoto models at your local dealership, as this is strictly a project undertaken by the Frenchies.

Though, it would be nice to see American Honda supporting the local supermoto scene, and offering some sort of motard kit for its venerable CRF450. The Swedes and the Austrians shouldn’t have all the fun.

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MotoGP

Three Rider Opinions on MotoGP vs. WorldSBK

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With MotoGP and WorldSBK sharing the track at Jerez on Wednesday, Jonathan Rea surprised the paddock by leading the way for most of the day. So, Asphalt & Rubber sought out three opinions on the differences between the MotoGP and WorldSBK bikes, from the riders who have ridden both. -JB

As the sun set on the third day of the Jerez Test, Jonathan Rea hogged the limelight with the second fastest time of the day. With MotoGP bikes sharing the track with World Superbike runners, the story of the day was that Rea spent most of the day leading the “faster” GP boys. 

The question in the aftermath however was how does this reflect on both championships?

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WSBK

How Kawasaki Plans to Defend Its WSBK Title in 2017

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It took Kawasaki until last year to finally win a World Superbike manufacturer’s title. Having retained the crown in 2016, the Japanese factory will have to dig deep in 2017 in order to keep it.

Winter testing is a time to take stock of what worked well on your bike in the past, and what now needs now to improve. Kawasaki won over half of the races in the last three years, 39 victories from 76 races, but despite these successes the team is working hard to find improvements.

The final four rounds of the season saw Chaz Davies and Ducati dominate proceedings, and the Italian manufacturer’s renaissance over the last 12 months has made it the early favorite for title success in 2017.

New regulations will see split throttle bodies now outlawed, and there are also changes to the battery regulations. While Jonathan Rea has been running his bike in this specification for most of 2016 his teammate, Tom Sykes, has not.

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News

Motorcyclist Magazine Moving to Six-Issue per Year Format, As Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook Leaves the Publication

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Changes are afoot at Motorcyclist magazine, as the monthly publication is set to move to a six-issue per year format starting in Spring 2017. That transition will come from the direction of a new leader too, as Editor-in-Chief Marc Cook will be leaving Motorcyclist as well.

Cook outlined his departure, and announced the new format for Motorcyclist, in a short post to his “Cook’s Corner” column online, citing the many contributions his team of writers have made over the course of his tenure at the magazine.

As the opening paragraph to Cook’s goodbye letter coyly suggests, the media landscape in the motorcycle industry is shifting, pushing Motorcyclist magazine in a new direction, which also seems to be pushing hardcore journalists out of the medium.

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Bikes

BMW G310R Street Tracker by Wedge Motorcycles

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A few months ago, this pocket-sized street tracker caught my attention on Facebook. It was based off the BMW G310R street bike platform, that much I could tell, but I couldn’t find anymore information on the machine.

A few more weeks of this lonesome photo sitting in my ‘to do” box, and it finally moved on to the place where all good stories go to die.

So, imagine my surprise when our friends at BMW Motorrad Japan sent me the following photos, which depict a new custom bike they commissioned from Takashi Nihira, at Tokyo’s Wedge Motorcycles.

It is the same bike I saw months earlier, but now we know who to thank for its creation, as well as a little bit more about its build. Its is quite impressive, for an unassuming “little” street tracker, don’t you think?

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News

From Russia with Love, MV Agusta Finds New Money

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Last week, I was ready to start polishing the obituary for MV Agusta – the Italian company seemingly in an impossibly terminal state.

Italy’s Guardia di Finanza had found that the Italian company had been using the social security contributions of its workers to pay down the money owed to parts suppliers (something MV Agusta disputes is the case), and earlier this year MV Agusta CEO Giovanni Castiglioni was investigated for irregularities on his tax return.

All of this is on top of the ever precarious financial situation MV Agusta has been in for the past year, which has resulted in the company looking to restructure its €50 million debt in the Italian court system, furlough a good portion of its workforce, and reduce its production volume to roughly 9,000 units per year.

Now it seems MV Agusta’s fortunes are changing, with the Italian motorcycle maker signing an agreement with the Black Ocean investment group to recapitalize MV Agusta.

Details of the pending transaction haven’t been released, but we can assume that the increase in capital will help ease MV Agusta’s relationship with suppliers, get workers back on the assembly line, and continue the development of new models.

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