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The Gigantic Sales Flop That Was the BMW HP4 Race

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Just picture it. You are BMW, and you made the S1000RR superbike, the machine that completely changed the game in the liter-bike market.  And now, you are about to crank things to 11, with an all carbon fiber version of this wickedly popular motorcycle.

Perhaps the best track bike ever created, the BMW HP4 Race makes an honest 212hp at the crank, weighs 378 lbs…fully fueled at the curb, and it has all the top-shelf components you can dream of, all of which are bolted onto the carbon fiber frame, carbon fiber swingarm, and carbon fiber fairings.

A thoroughbred. A true race bike, by DNA. The astounding thing about the BMW HP4 Race is that it is more than the sum of its parts, which is saying something because the parts are simply the best that the motorcycle industry has to offer.

I know this because I got to spend a lucky five laps on the BMW HP4 Race at Laguna Seca, courtesy of BMW Motorrad USA, and while that duration is far too short to give any sort of meaningful feedback about this track-only superbike, the BMW HP4 Race is exactly what you think it is:  an S1000RR taken to the next level.

So then, why has the BMW HP4 Race been a colossal failure in the United States? Because it most certainly is.

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Bikes

Modest Engine Upgrades Come to the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R

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The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R is getting an engine upgrade for the 2019 model year. As such, the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R as well as the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R SE will make an even 200hp at the crank, while the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR will make 201hp.

Across all three models, the updated Ninja ZX-10R gets a revised cylinder head, which includes a finger-follower valve train that has 20% less mass than the previous tappet-style valves. This has allowed Kawasaki to use a more aggressive cam profile, accounting for much of the power gained, to the tune of 200hp at the crank.

On the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR, things go a step further. The homologation special gets titanium connecting rods from Pankl, which drop nearly a pound (400 grams) from the inline-four engine’s internals. As a result of this weight reduction, the ZX-10RR sees its rev limit increase by 600 rpm over the previous model.

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News

Motus Motorcycles Closes Its Doors for Business

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It is with great regret that we inform you today that Motus Motorcycles is ceasing business operations, as the American motorcycle startup has reached the end of its financial backing from investors.

The news was sent to Motus owners via email on Friday, August 31st, and confirmed to us later that day by Motus co-founder and designer Brian Case via text message. We imagine that a more formal announcement will be coming forth after the Labor Day holiday weekend, so at the moment, details are light.

What we do know is that the news comes as a surprise, as Motus has been busy with dealer events around the country. Also, the startup was getting ready to launch its second model as well, later this year, which was a streetfighter based off the Motus MST sport-touring bike.

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Bikes

The “Glemseck” Honda CB1000R

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The Glemseck 101 is not an event that is known well in the United States, but in Germany, it is a gathering of like-minded two-wheeled enthusiasts, who celebrate the classic style of motorcycles.

Now in its 13th year, the three-day festival held outside of Leonberg, Germany plays host to tens of thousands of motorcyclists, all who pay homage to the old Glemseck 101 races from the 1960s.

This year, Honda is bringing a number of special machines to the event, including this specially prepared Honda CB1000R. This sport naked isn’t just for looks though, it plans to race.

Participating in the ⅛-mile sprint races, the “Glemseck” Honda CB1000R will be piloted by none other than Mick Doohan, and Honda Europe has built the machine to win.

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Rumors

A Naked Kawasaki Ninja 400 Cometh?

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Team Green surprised us last year, announcing the Kawasaki Ninja 400 sport bike as a successor for the still fresh Ninja 300. For bonus points, Kawasaki brought the Ninja 400 to the US market, where it has displaced its smaller rivals (do you see what we did there??).

Now it seems that Kawasaki is ready to bring another 400cc sport bike to market, as a filing with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) tip-off the upcoming Kawasaki Ninja ER400DK. 

In Kawasaki-speak, the “ER” designation has been used for many of the company’s naked motorcycles over the years, so putting two and two together, logic would dictate that a naked version of the Ninja 400 is on its way for the 2019 model year.

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Announcement

Welcome to A&R 2.0

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If you are reading this, it should be fairly obvious that Asphalt & Rubber has undergone a bit of an upgrade.

This redesign has been a long time coming, but we finally gave the old girl a sprucing up, just in time for her 10th birthday, which will be in October this year.

I won’t bore you with the technical and editorial advantages that A&R 2.0 brings us, though there are many, but from a reader’s standpoint there are a few things we want to highlight:

  • Loads faster
  • More stories on the front page
  • Better category browsing
  • Mobile and tablet friendly
  • Photo galleries actually work (check it out at the end of this post)
  • New storytelling formats
  • Rich media friendly (videos, podcasts, etc)
  • Way more cowbell

The full transition to the new layout and site will take a few more days to complete, so pardon our dust while we work. The basics should all be ready for you at this point though: reading stories, navigating categories, and commenting.

Our A&R Pro readers have been taking the new site for a spin this last month, and we have gotten a great deal of feedback from them and are already making those changes to the site.

Now that it is live for everyone, feel free to kick the tires on the new design and leave us your thoughts on the layout.

We know things like the A&R Pro pages, contact forms, and sidebar need some work. Those should be ready by the end of the Labor Day weekend, if not sooner. 

A quick shout out to a few people who were instrumental at the various stages of this process, I doubt we would have gotten here without their hard work: Ivan Lo, Dustin Gibbs, Louda Peña, and Dan Lloyd. Many thanks to them for dealing with my reptile brain.

And as always, thank you dear readers for coming to Asphalt & Rubber every day. You all make the hard work worthwhile. Let’s all head to the comments section and sing kumbaya.

-JB

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Rumors

BMW R1250GS Details Emerge – Now with VVT?

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We know that for the 2019 model year that BMW Motorrad plans to release nine new models. What those models may be is up for conjecture, though we have a pretty good idea about more than a few of them.

Now, add to the list a new GS model, as some technical details of the 2019 BMW R1250GS have emerged, and as the name suggests a revised design of BMW’s famous boxer engine features as the centerpiece.

The folks at BikeSocial say that the boxer twin will see an increase in displacement to 1,254cc (up from 1,170cc), which means an 11hp power increase, for 134hp in total.

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Rumors

“New” Ducati Hypermotard Spotted in the Wild

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Perhaps the longest tooth in Bologna’s motorcycle lineup, the Ducati Hypermotard 939 is set to get a sizable update for the 2019 model year, spy phots have revealed.

Taking a page from the original Hypermotard 1100 model by Pierre Terblanche, the 2019 Ducati Hypermotard gets a steel trellis subframe, along with an underseat exhaust system with dual cans.

The rest of the Hypermotard looks largely unchanged for the upcoming model year, though we can hope for a substantial electronics package revision.

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Rumors

Ducati and Hero MotoCorp Making a Baby…Motorcycle?

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Is Ducati thinking about making a 300cc sport bike? Is it going to do so in India? With Hero MotoCorp? That is the talk of the motorcycle industry today, though this isn’t the first time that this idea has been floated in the two-wheeled rumor mill.

The reason this rumor keeps coming around is that Ducati seems to be one of the last motorcycle brands really to adopt the small-displacement motorcycle strategy.

Motorcycle manufacturers are continuously investing in motorcycle models that would sell well with entry-level riders or in developing nations. This has lead to a boom in motorcycles that that are under 400cc – most of which are produced in Asia, though also sold in the western markets.

Despite Ducati’s continued commitment to staying out of the 300cc displacement category (it does have the 400cc Scrambler Sixty2 though), rumors continue to speculate on this future for the Italian brand, this time with Hero MotoCorp in the picture.

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News

Trump Encourages Boycott of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles

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Hoping to pressure Harley-Davidson into keeping its production in the United States, President Trump this weekend tweeted words of encouragement to riders who planned to boycott the American motorcycle brand.

This shouldn’t be too surprising, considering that Harley-Davidson has increasingly found itself at odds with the White House, primarily over President Trump’s trade negotiations and agreements.

The tension started with the United States withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, and reached a boiling point when President Trump imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel.

Now with Harley-Davidson signaling its plans to move into new segments and create a new business plan for the 21st century, the Trump Administration is increasing the pressure for Harley-Davidson to maintain the status quo.

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Recall

Alta Motors Has Its First Recall

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A motorcycle company’s first recall is a milestone event, an unwelcome milestone, but an inevitable one nonetheless. That is where startup Alta Motors finds itself today, with its first recall hitting the NHTSA newswires.

Affecting certain 2019 Alta Redshift EXR and 2018-2019 Alta Redshift MXR motorcycles, this recall concerns Alta’s throttle system, which under specific circumstances can fail, and cause an apparent “stall” of the motor.

The issue is software related, however, and the fix is an update to the firmware to the affected motorcycles. The firmware update takes about 15 minutes to perform.

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