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Behold the Honda CB650R Rally by Honda Wingmotor

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That the Honda CB650R and its ilk make for excellent custom motorcycles should be an established fact by this point in time. Honda Motor Europe has prove this point extensively with its bevy of customs over the years.

So, it does not surprise us to see that the Japanese brand’s operations on the Iberian peninsula are using the CB as the basis for a custom bike build competition. What does surprise us though are some of the entries, as they are truly unique.

Take for instance this example, dubbed the Honda CB650R Rally. It’s done by Honda Wingmotor in Lisbon, Portugal, and as the name implies, it is a rally raid interpretation of the venerable street bike.

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Bikes

Ducati Adds More Graffiti with the Mid-Range Hypermotard 950 RVE

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Starting in July, Ducati will have a new Hypermotard 950 variant for you to chose from, as the Italian brand has just announced the Ducati Hypermotard 950 RVE.

The new “RVE” model is a spitting image of the Ducati Hypermotard 950 concept that we saw last year at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, which got rave reviews from us and many others.

Interestingly enough though, the Hypermotard 950 RVE is built off the base model Hypermotard, adding the unique graphics package of the concept, as well as an up/down quickshifter that comes as standard on the “SP” variant.

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News

Adrian Morton Out as Design Director for MV Agusta

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A bit of a shakeup coming from Italy this week, as we get news that Adrian Morton will no longer be MV Agusta’s Design Director – working out of the Castiglioni Research Center (CRC) in Rimini, Italy.

Ending 20 years of work at the Italian brand, the news is surely to come as a disappointment for fans of MV Agusta, as Morton was the man behind the styling of the MV Agusta three-cylinder lineup, including the highly regarded F3 supersport and Brutale naked motorcycles.

Morton was also responsible for the Turismo Veloce, Rivale, RVS #1, and most recently the Superveloce 800, Brutale 1000, and Rush 1000. He is also known as the man behind the lust-worthy designs of the Benelli Tornado and Benelli TnT motorcycles.

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MotoGP

MotoGP Releases Revised 2020 Calendar with 13 Races

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There is a plan for the 2020 MotoGP season. With the COVID-19 outbreak receding all across Europe, Dorna has been given a second chance at setting a calendar for the 2020 MotoGP season.

The newly published calendar will see 13 races held at circuits in Europe in the first instance, with the possibility of four overseas races being tacked on at the end of the year, if conditions permit.

The calendar is explictly still provisional, subject to local rules and regulations concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Bikes

New Zealand Pricing for the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R Gives Us a Hint on What to Expect

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It is surprising to us that Kawasaki has been so tight-lipped about its upcoming Ninja ZX-25R model.

It is not like the Japanese brand has been shy about talking about the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R, instead they just don’t seem to want to say anything of substance about the machine.

Maybe it is because we already know the most important aspect about the ZX-25R – namely that it has a 250cc four-cylinder engine that revs to the moon, along with traction control and other go-fast electronics.

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News

COMOTO Hit with A Nearly $2 Million Fine by CARB

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COMOTO the parent company to RevZilla, Cycle Gear, J&P Cycles has just settled a dispute with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the alleged selling of non-exempted add-on or modified motorcycle parts in California.

In total, COMOTO will pay $1,937,500 to resolve the alleged violations, in a mixture of fines to CARB and payments for environmental projects that benefit the community.

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News

IIHS Says that Autonomous Vehicles Won’t Prevent Most Accidents

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Autonomous vehicles are set to upend the transportation industry, including how motorcyclists enjoy the roadways. This much, we know. But, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says that the effect might not be as large as we think it will be.

According to a recent study that they performed, the IIHS says that autonomous vehicles will only prevent about one-third of on-road accidents.

The work by the IIHS is interesting, though the study comes with some rather large caveats to come to its conclusion.

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Bikes

BMW M1000RR Superbike Concept by Nirjar Mardal

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Nirjar Mardal’s concept of the rumored BMW M1000RR superbike is blowing up the internet right now, and we can tell why. It looks really good.

Taking the pleasing, but safe, lines of the BMW S1000RR and then cranking them up to 11, these renders from Mardal make for a lurid idea.

The bike is much more angular than the S1000RR model, and numerous upgrades can be spotted in the render’s design.

The most notable one though is what appears to be an electric supercharger, which is appropos since the Bavarian brand was spotted last year patenting ideas around this concept.

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Rumors

Is Honda About to Drop Alex Marquez for Pol Espargaro

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For the past 24 hours, the internet has been blowing up over multiple reports that HRC is about to drop Alex Marquez from its factory MotoGP team, and replace him with Pol Espargaro in the Repsol Honda squad.

The news has been covered by Sky Sport Italia, Autosport, Motorsport, and The Race, and those reports have led to an interesting rebuke (of sorts) on by HRC’s Alberto Puig on the MotoGP.com website.

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A&R Pro

US Dirt Bike Sales Were Immune to the Coronavirus Lockdown

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That motorcycle sales are down because of the coronavirus lockdown seems like an obvious thing to state. Just for clarity though, American motorcycle sales through the first four months of the year are down 9% compared to last year.

Truthfully, that number is far less than we were predicting here at Asphalt & Rubber, and there is a good reason for that. While the COVID-19 scare has decimate on-road sales (-23%) and scooter sales (-24%), this has not been the case for off-road motorcycles sales totals, which are up 30%.

Even dual-sports seem to be buoyed by having a tire in the dirt, with sales reported to be down only 5% during the same time period.

Looking deeper into the dual-sport numbers though appears to give an insight on this odd dichotomy between street and dirt sales in the motorcycle industry.

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