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Benelli BN600 – Italy’s Other Street-Naked

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A Chinese-owned Italian brand, Benelli makes some of the most beautiful motorcycles we have ever seen (Benelli Tornado anyone?), but the company has been rather absentee since getting acquired by the Qianjiang Group. Sure, Benelli seems to walk out a new variation of the Benelli TnT or TRE-K just about every year or so, and the Benelli Due has been a work in progress since before the first Obama administration, but for the most part, Benelli has been phoning it in when it comes to its proper motorbikes.

That seems to be changing though, as at EICMA the Italian brand will debut the Benelli BN600 — an 80hp, 600cc, inline-four street-naked. Building off the same established Benelli road-bike aesthetic, the BN600 (we cant tell if that that is Mandarin for either ‘horrible motorcycle name’ or ‘Benelli Naked 600cc’) is an interesting new model from Italy’s other motorcycle manufacturer, as it adds yet another street-naked to the Benelli line, and is close in displacement to the 118hp Benelli TnT 899.

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Racing

Moto2: Marc Marquez Accused of…What Exactly?

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The Moto2 paddock in Phillip Island was awash with rumors of cheating, and not for the first time. There have been accusations of cheating by Marc Marquez’s Monlau Competicion team running around the paddock for most of the two years the young Spaniard has been racing in Moto2, accusations which we have been reporting on since earlier this year.

The rumors in Australia centered round illegal manipulation of the spec HRC ECU fitted to all Moto2 machines. The German magazine Speedweek suggested that Marquez’s team had been able to load an illegal map on to the ECU, capable of overriding the quickshifter function and preventing fuel from being cut when the quickshifter was used. This, Speedweek claimed citing an unnamed technician, is what the Monlau team had been doing, and this explained his superior acceleration.

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News

American Suzuki Files for Bankruptcy

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Certainly wanting to bury the news in the after-work hours, American Suzuki Motor Corporation has just announced that it is filing for Chapter 11 protections, as the American subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation heads into bankruptcy and business restructuring.

Pivoting its business to focus on marine and motorcycle/ATV sales, Suzuki will wind-down and ultimately stop selling cars in the US market. In its press release, Suzuki says will honor all current warranties, and parts and servicing will continue to be available to Suzuki automobile owners.

Today’s news should have little to no immediate affect for Suzuki motorcycle owners in the USA, as the Chapter 11 proceedings are focused more around Suzuki dumping its failed automotive business here in North America, than anything else.

While it remains to be seen how the Japanese company will restructure its American office, the move in fact could be a boon to motorcyclists, as it could mean some life could be pumped back into ASMC. The American Suzuki office has suffered recently from under-staffing and disorganization, and the company could benefit from a proper reorganization.

Time will tell how effective Suzuki’s restructuring will go, and we certainly haven’t heard the full extent of this news item yet. As the ball of yarn untangles, check out the full press release is after the jump. Suzuki’s letter to motorcycle owners is here, car owners here, and there is also an FAQ.

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Motorcycle Art by Adam Nickel

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There isn’t a enough motorcycle art in the two-wheeled world. I am not talking about a shortage of photos, paintings, or drawings of motorcycles; but instead, I lamenting my desire for more of these pieces that really move me — works of art that strike a chord with my emotions, and then lead my thoughts down to some longing, proposal, or recollection of good times on a motorbike.

For our own part, A&R strives to pair inspiring photographs with our articles, often showing photos that add another dimension to the story, or at least a double entendre. But alas, the seemingly requisite need for visuals to provide an editorial explanation to the words below them can make achieving both goals often a lost endeavor.

Motorcycling in the western world is about passion though (that’s not to say there isn’t passionate motorcyclists all over the world, of course), so we still strive to straddle both sides of that fence anyways. It is for this same reason that we publish intriguing concept sketches & designs, when we find them, since the reality of the still unknown is a powerful one. You do remember what an imagination is, right?

Coming across the work of Adam Nickel, my imagination was again lit-up. Publishing a few of his drawings on his blog, I was drawn to the alliterately titled pieces Dedication, Defeat, Dreams, & Decisions — which portray four events that are sure to feel familiar to any motorcyclist. Enjoy them after the jump, and be sure to stop by Nickel’s site for more pieces of moto-inspiration.

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A Minimum Rider & Bike Weight Rule Coming for Moto2?

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Moto2 paddock rumors has it that the intermediary prototype class could put in place a minimum weight requirement that would combine both the weight of the motorcycle as well as the weight of the rider. If the rumor pans out to be truth, the move would benefit riders like Britain’s Scott Redding, whose size and weight have served as a hindrance in the tightly contested class.

With the Moto2 class comprised of machines that use nearly identical 600cc Honda engines, which have been said to produce between 130-140 rwhp, the racing results have been heavily influenced by rider skill, as well as subtler differences like chassis manufacturers. However, some in the Moto2 paddock believe some of the series’ results have been affected extraneous factors, most notably by rider dimensions, with taller and bigger riders at a disadvantage.

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Bikes

XXX: Ducati Desmosedici RR

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Before Honda started working on its road-going version of its V4 MotoGP race bike, there was the Ducati Desmosedici RR. A fairly close approximation to its namesake, 1,500 units of the Desmosedici RR were built by the Bologna Brand, with the coup de grâce being the hyperbike’s $72,000 price tag.

Despite its racing pedigree, with a MotoGP World Championship at the hands of Casey Stoner too boot, sales for the Ducati Desmosedici RR were surprisingly sluggish. You can even find a few remaining models still on the showroom floors of some select Ducati dealerships.

Maybe it was the price tag, maybe it was the public’s less-than-adoring relationship with the new MotoGP Champion, or maybe it was the fact that the production-based Ducati Superbike 1098R was said to be faster than the RR around certain tracks (Motorcyclist & MCN). Maybe it was a function of all the above.

However, in our eyes, the Ducati Desmosedici RR remains one of the most drool-worthy sport bikes produced in the past decade — after all, it really is as close as you’re going to get to a road-going GP machine…besides the Aprilia RSV4 Factory APRC.

After Ducati completed its production run of the Ducati Desmosedici RR, many began to speculate as to the company’s encore uber-exclusive model. Despite Ducati’s internal belief that the Desmosedici RR was a relative failure as a model (it would be safe to say that Ducati didn’t expect sales of the RR to take nearly as long as they did), as far as halo products go, the Desmosedici RR ticks all the right boxes, and begs for a next-generation.

In many ways, the Ducati 1199 Panigale is the company’s follow-up to the Desmo, and interestingly enough, the Panigale is now also beginning to struggle with sales, admittedly not to the same extent as the RR.

Looking at the photos after the jump, you can see a lot of the Panigale in the Desmosedici, which is of course due to the Ducati 1199 Panigale’s MotoGP-inspired “frameless” chassis design that uses the motor as the basis for the motorcycle’s structure.

Building the headstock/airbox off the forward-facing cylinder head, and the tail/rear-subframe off the rearward cylinder head on the Panigale, we see the same design elements in the Ducati Desmosedici RR, except maybe one or two generations behind the current superbike (Ducati went from a steel trellis design, to a carbon design, to an aluminum design, and now rests on a aluminum perimeter-frame design).

Allowing Ducati to make a ridiculously light motorcycle, the design philosophy holds some serious strong potential. We don’t imagine the thought process on this chassis is over just quite yet, regardless of what is occurring in MotoGP right now, though Ducati Corse certainly has its work cutout for itself in that arena.

Is there a point to all this? Maybe not, beyond something to mull over on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Daydreaming fodder is after the jump.

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MV Agusta Brutale 800 – Too Much of a Good Thing?

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It made a lot of sense when MV Agusta debuted the four-cylinder side of its Brutale line, as the oddly positioned MV Agusta Brutale 920 was absent from the now exclusively 1,078cc range. Priced close to the MV Agusta Brutale 675, the Brutale 920 likely would have cannibalized sales from its three-cylinder successor.

For a moment there, it seemed MV Agusta was about to shy away from its previous strategy of over-saturating market segments with multiple varieties of similar bikes, but luckily today, balance has been restored in Italian motorcycle land, as the Varese brand has announced the MV Agusta Brutale 800.

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Moto2: Ant West Caught Doping – Issued 30-Day Ban

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The Phillip Island was a high for Moto2’s Ant West, as the Australian rider put his QMMF Racing bike on the second podium spot after the well-fought race. With three Australians on the podium for each of the three GP classes, the Australian GP was highlighted with Casey Stoner’s last ride at Phillip Island, making the event a bittersweet moment for the local crowd.

For Ant West though, it will be his last memory for the 2012 Moto2 season, as the 31-year-old rider from Maryborough has been handed a 30-day ban from the sport, after failing a drug test at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Found to have Methylhexaneamine (DMMA), a mild stimulant that is found in dietary supplements, in his system at the French round, West will miss Valencia, the last round of the Moto2 season.

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Official Sketch of the MV Agusta Rivale

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Ahead of its debut in a couple week at the EICMA show in Milan, the MV Agusta Rivale has broken some of its cover, with the Italian “motorcycle art” manufacturer releasing an official sketch of the upcoming hypermotard-styled motorcycle. Obviously looking to drum-up some buzz about MV Agusta’s third addition to the company’s three-cylinder range, we think the sketch will have the desired effect.

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250cc Yamaha Sport Bike in the Works

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News coming out of India and Southeast Asia (which Cycle World is bizarrely taking credit for starting, despite being months late to the party), is that Yamaha is set to debut a 250cc sport bike for the world market. Said to be visually similar to the Yamaha YZF-R6 (concept sketch above), the quarter-liter four-stroke machine is certainly a response to the recent offerings from Honda and Kawasaki.

Expected to be a 2013 or 2014 model, we will almost certainly get our first glimpse of the bike, or its concept, at the upcoming 2012 EICMA motorcycle show in Milan. With details about the “Yamaha YZF-R250” being scarce, we would wager a 2014 launch date, but as always, time will tell. Expect pricing to be sub-$5,000 though, with optional ABS.

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Ducati Corse Confirms Carlos Checa & Panigale RS13 in WSBK – Hints at Factory Team for 2013

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After the shocking news this weekend that Ducati and Althea Racing would go their separate ways, the Bologna Brand has issued its own press statement about the break-up. Confirming that it has contracted former World Superbike Champion Carlos Checa to its payroll for next season, Ducati Corse also reaffirmed its commitment to race the Ducati 1199 Panigale in the series.

Ducati Corse has yet to release its official plans to race in the series, but the writing on the wall hints towards a factory team for 2013. Citing its strong ties and good relationship with the Althea Racing team, Ducati’s press release mentions the possibility of a “cooperation between Ducati and Team Althea” that could still be “found in the future,” which suggests that Althea could come on as a satellite team for 2013, or again takeover as the factory-backed effort at a later point in time.

While Ducati’s WSBK racing effort is still very much in the air, names like Liberty Racing and Davide Tardozzi are being banded about, and it is certain that Ducati Corse is exploring every option available. What is perhaps most intriguing in the news is Ducati Corse’s reconfirmation of its plan to race the Ducati 1199 Panigale RS13 next season.

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