With global Ducati sales up 22% in the first six months of the year, it comes with no surprise then that Ducati North America has some sales growth to report as well.
Selling 6,961 motorcycles in the first-half of the year, Ducati North America is up 12% over last year’s same time period. Helping fuel that increase was an incredibly strong June, where 1,981 motorcycles sold — for a 106% growth over June 2014.
There has been a lot of movement in the rally raid scene lately. First, Laia Sanz jumped ship from Honda to KTM, then Marc Coma announced his retirement from racing and that he will become the new Sporting Director for the Dakar Rally, and now we get word that Husqvarna will enter the world of rally racing with a factory team.
The move is perhaps not that surprising, considering that KTM now owns the Husqvarna brand, and that the Austrian company is a fierce rally raid competitor, but this means also that the historic Husqvarna name will return to one of the most iconic races in the world.
Making a strong debut, the Husqvarna factory team effort is comprised of riders Ruben Faria of Portugal and Pierre-Alexandre Renet of France, who will in-turn race upon the the Husqvarna FR 450 Rally bike, which is likely to be very similar to the KTM 450 Rally race bike.
After competing in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last year, Guy Martin continues his pursuit of racing beyond just road race courses, with an announcement today that he will compete with Triumph for a land speed record at Bonneville.
The news sees the Lincolnshire-man aboard the Triumph Rocket III Streamliner, which is powered by two turbocharged 2.3-liter Triumph Rocket III engines that make a combined 1,000 horsepower.
Triumph and Martin hope to top the current FIM motorcycle land speed record, which is 376.363 mph, pop the 400 mph barrier, and thus bring the land speed record back to the Triumph brand, and the UK, after a 45 year absence.
Just last May, California seemed set to be the first state in the USA to codify a lane-splitting law. That effort seems to have stalled though, with Assembly Bill 51 being pulled by the bill’s authors, after the California State Senate didn’t seem to have the same support for the law that the State Assembly had shown.
This action doesn’t change much for Californian motorcyclists, who can still legally lane-split through traffic, though they do so under the state’s more nebulous “safe and prudent” catch-all driving provision.
The news, however, is a huge blow for lane-splitting advocates in the rest of the country, who hoped that California’s codification of its lane-splitting practice could be a model law for the rest of the United States.
At Assen, Dorna, the FIM and IRTA held a joint press conference announcing their plans for the future of the championship.
From 2017, they told the media, the MotoGP teams would receive 30% more money from Dorna, factories would have to make bikes available to satellite teams, all 24 riders will receive financial support from the organizers, and Dorna would retain the right to buy the grid slots of the two riders who finish last in the championship.
For Asphalt & Rubber readers, this is nothing new. We reported on this back in May, after the Jerez round of MotoGP.
Only a few details have changed in the intervening period, but those changes are worthy of comment. And it is important to note that the new regime starts from 2017, with 2016 being a transitional year. So what will the future of MotoGP look like? Here’s an overview.
Not to let Ducati have all the half-year fun, BMW Motorrad too is posting impressive sales figures for the first half of the year, with the German marque reporting a 10.5% sales increase in the first six month of 2015, compared to the equivalent time period last year.
BMW has sold 78,418 motorcycles and maxi-scooters, from January to June, with sales up 31% in June alone (15,490 units) — another record month for BMW Motorrad.
With last year being the best ever for BMW Motorrad, this news of course means that the German company is on-track to have another record-setting year of sales.
Marco Melandri has had his last race for Aprilia in MotoGP. The two parties have at last reached agreement to go their separate ways. As such, Aprilia test rider Michael Laverty will replace Melandri for the rest of the 2015 season.
Melandri had always been a reluctant participant in Aprilia’s MotoGP project at best. The Italian was halfway through a lucrative two-year deal with Aprilia in World Superbikes in 2014, when Aprilia announced the switch to MotoGP for the 2015 season.
Melandri’s priority was always to remain in World Superbikes and fight for the championship, and it was clear that Aprilia’s first season in MotoGP – a year earlier than anticipated – was going to be a transitional one.
At the time, Aprilia’s plan was to leave World Superbikes, only later lining up the Red Devils Roma team to run their factory operation. By then, it was too late for Melandri to make the change.
It is hard to overstate just how important the relationship between a motorcycle racer and his crew chief is. A rider must have complete confidence that his crew chief both understands what he needs from a motorcycle to go fast, and is capable of giving it to him.
A crew chief must be able to interpret the sometimes confusing and mixed signals from his rider, filter out the non-essential information, identify priorities from that which will offer the greatest gains, and assign the work to the rest of the crew in the garage.
There has to be complete trust between the two, or neither rider nor bike will achieve their full potential.
This was made all too apparent when I interviewed Ecstar Suzuki rider Aleix Espargaro and his crew chief Tom O’Kane for a story I wrote recently for the Dutch publication MOTOR Magazine, due out later this month.
One part of the interview which did not make it into the magazine was the relationship between Espargaro and O’Kane, and how they first started working together. However, it is a story which offers a fascinating insight into how a rider and their crew chief work together.
Unfortunate news today, as we get word that Kenny Noyes has been airlifted from the Motorland Aragon circuit, after sustaining a serious accident during the warm-up session for the CEV Superbike round at the Spanish circuit.
The Spanish-born American racer was taken to a hospital in Zaragoza, and currently is being kept in a medically induced coma. According to initial reports, Noyes appears to have collided with another rider on the track at Turn 8, and then hit the tire wall.
Ducati Motor Holdings is happy to report that its 2015 sales are off to a great start: up 22% over the first half of 2014. In total, 32,600 motorcycles have been sold by Ducati since January, the most ever sold by Ducati during that time period.
Ducati is also saying that 9,000 of the machines sold were Scrambler models, making the model the most popular in Ducati’s lineup by a strong margin.
For reference, the sales of the other models are as follow: Multistrada 1200 (4,700), Monster 821 (3,700), 1299 Panigale (3,000), the remaining 12,000 units come from the Diavel, 899 Panigale, Hypermotard, and Monster 1200
Ducati says it grew across all of its sales territories, with the USA still the company’s #1 market, and sporting a 10% growth figure so far this year. The USA didn’t post the biggest numbers though, with following countries showing strong sales growth: Italy (+51%), Spain (+38%), the UK (+36%), Germany (+24%), and France (+23%).
After shutting its doors, and putting the company into receivership, the legal process for Erik Buell Racing is moving right along, with a date now scheduled for the sale of the company’s assets.
Slotted to take place on July 21st, potential buyers will be able to bid on EBR’s assets, in bulk. All winning bids are of course subject to court approval, which will be granted/not granted quickly after the auction, on July 23rd.