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Money, Power, & Expectations: Why Andrea Dovizioso & Valentino Rossi Have Yet to Sign a Deal for 2021

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With three weeks to go to the official start of the 2020 season for the MotoGP class (Moto2 and Moto3 have already raced at Qatar back in March, lest we forget), the 2021 grid is starting to fill up.

Of the 22 seats available next year, 12 have already been filled: Maverick Viñales and Fabio Quartararo in the factory Yamaha team, Alex Rins and Joan Mir at Suzuki, Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira, and Danilo Petrucci and Iker Lecuona in the factory and Tech3 KTM teams respectively, Marc Márquez at Repsol Honda, Jack Miller in the factory Ducati team, Aleix Espargaro with Aprilia, and Tito Rabat, who already had a contract before the start of the season.

There are a few more seats we can pencil in as near certainties: Pol Espargaro at Repsol Honda, Franco Morbidelli at Petronas, Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin in Pramac Ducati, Alex Márquez at LCR Honda.

Cal Crutchlow is almost certain to be back, whether that be with LCR Honda or Aprilia – the Englishman appears to be giving serious consideration to what might be an attractive payday before he retires. Johann Zarco is likely to be on a Ducati again in 2021, the odds being that he is forced to accept another season at Avintia.

There are a couple of question marks too: the second seat at Aprilia is complicated, depending on the outcome of Andrea Iannone’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against his doping ban. If the CAS upholds his suspension, Aprilia will need a replacement for the Italian.

If the CAS lifts the ban, then Aprilia has stated their intent to keep him. If Aprilia doesn’t take Iannone, then Crutchlow could go there. If he doesn’t, and stays at LCR, then Takaaki Nakagami could be forced to head off to WorldSBK, and race for the Honda WorldSBK team.

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News

EICMA Trade Show Canceled for 2020

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Just 10 days ago, we had to bring you the sad news that the INTERMOT show in Cologna, Germany would not be held in 2020, with the show’s organizers looking to 2022 to resume the trade show’s biannual schedule.

With INTERMOT arguably the second-most important trade show for the motorcycle industry, eyes then moved to Milan, to see if the EICMA trade show would follow suit, and today we have our answer.

Because of COVID-19 concerns, and perhaps due to a mild mutiny from participating brands, the EICMA trade show in Italy has announced that this year’s edition would be canceled, with aims to resume in 2021.

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Racing

Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP Reporting for BSB Duty

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With racing getting started around the world in the coming weeks, we see that the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP (officially the longest name in the superbike category) is ready for British Superbike duty, with Honda Racing unveiling the bike’s livery today.

With black fairings, and notably few sponsors on the machine’s fairings, this CBR1000RR-R might be a bit of a statement about the status of the world’s economy, and the role that motorcycle racing plays within it, but we appreciate the clean look nonetheless.

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Bikes

Akrapovič Lists the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R Max Power at 41hp

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Last week we brought you a report that said that the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R made over 40hp at the wheel at a recent dyno test.

The report attributed no source, which made that horsepower claim a bit hard to verify, but today we seem to have found where that power figure came from, thanks to our friends in Indonesia at the TMC Blog.

Slovenian exhaust maker Akrapovič briefly listed the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R on its website, showing both the stock horsepower and torque figures for the quarter-liter four-cylinder monster, but also the gains made from the company’s racing exhaust line.

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Bikes

Yamaha Ténéré 700 Rally Edition Model Announced in Europe

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The Yamaha Ténéré 700 just debuted for the US market a matter of weeks ago, and already the Tuning Fork brand has a new edition of this middleweight ADV bike for our consumption.

The new model is called the Yamaha Ténéré 700 Rally Edition, and as the name implies, it is a more off-road ready variant of the Ténéré 700 motorcycle.

Before you get too bent out of shape about having to wait even longer for another Ténéré 700 model, the Rally Edition is mostly a parts bin bike, with Yamaha kitting a number of its aftermarket parts to the machine, along with a killer blue and yellow “speedblock” paint job.

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Racing

AMA Pro Superbike Champion Miguel Duhamel Shot in Head with BB Gun While Cycling

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Former AMA Pro Superbike champion Miguel Duhamel got more than a surprise while cycling near Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas, as he was struck in the head with what is suspected to be a BB gun pellet as a car passed by him.

“A car came behind me like they always do but this one came up and I heard a shot, like air disperse, it went pow!” said Miguel Duhamel, talking to FOX5 Las Vegas.

The incident left Duhamel bloodied, as the BB pellet passed through a vent on his bicycle helmet, penetrated a sweat cap, and punctured his skin. 

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Bikes

Check Out This Life-Sized Lego Build of a Ducati Panigale V4 R

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It was just two months ago that we were talking about one of the latest build kits from Lego, as it was a Technic set for the Ducati Panigale V4 R (kit #42107).

As such, our love for the little Danish bricks should be well known, especially when it intersects our love for motorcycles.

Today, we again see nice overlap of those two worlds on the Venn diagram, as Lego artist Riccardo Zangelmi has created this 1:1 replica of the Ducati Panigale V4 R, in order to celebrate the launch of Ducati’s much smaller Lego kit offering.

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A&R Pro

What We Know So Far About the Upcoming KTM 490 Series

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There is quite a lot of buzz going on right now regarding KTM’s upcoming 490 series of motorcycles – some of it is new information coming to the light, but most of it just rehashing old stories to fill in a dearth of headlines.

So, we figure we would sort wheat from chaff, and share everything we know and suspect so far from KTM’s next engine platform, and put it into one place for our A&R Pro subscribers.

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Bikes

Husqvarna Quietly Drops Pricing on the Vitpilen & Svartpilen 701

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When the Vitpilen 701 and Svartpilen 701 bikes first debuted at the EICMA show in Milan, we were excited. Husqvarna had taken the KTM 690 Duke and made it into a cool-looking retro-modern creation.

A couple years later, when the production bikes hit the asphalt, we were surprised to see that the different bodywork on this single-cylinder street bike came with a hefty price increase.

Whereas the KTM 690 Duke retailed for $9,000, these new 701 models from Husqvarna commanded a 33% markup – $12,000 MSRP.

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Rumors

Report: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R Makes 40hp+ at the Wheel

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It is a little strange that Kawasaki has yet to release any specifics about the Ninja ZX-25R model, especially when markets around the world are gearing up for their order and delivery. After all, customers need to know what they are buying.

One of the key pieces of missing data, what everyone is anxious to know, is how much power this quarter-sized four-cylinder engine can produce, as it screams its way to 17,000 rpm.

We seem to have that answer today though, albeit unofficially, as a report is quoting a dyno run that saw 41.4hp at 15,350rpm and a peak torque output of 15.3 lbs•ft (20.8 Nm) at 12,700rpm.

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