Every year we post the latest supermoto offering from Husqvarna, even though the Swedish brand makes only incremental changes to its track-only, tire-shredding, dirt bike with street wheels.
Why? Because the world needs more supermotos in our lives, and right now Husqvarna is leading the pack when it comes to track-ready motards. As such, here is the 2022 Husqvarna FS 450.
On the KTM social media channels today, the Austrian brand has let slip that it plans on making a limited edition run of “Moto2” track bikes, for a select number of riders worldwide.
As such, Only 100 units will be made worldwide, according to the video, which is certainly an exclusive number.
Go to any motorcycle racing club, and you will surely see a fleet of Suzuki SV650 race bikes. The 650cc v-twin sport bike has been a mainstay for track enthusiasts and sport bikers alike for over two decades. The bike is an icon.
And yet, the venerable Suzuki SV650 finds itself under attack from all sides, no more so than by Suzuki’s Japanese rival Yamaha, which now has a two-pronged approach with its MT-07 and YZF-R7 offerings.
Something we have been hinting about the Aprilia RS 660 just came true today, as the middleweight-twin sport bike is now officially ready for racing duty, and being offered through Noale’s Aprilia Factory Works program.
What does that mean? A factory equipped ready-to-race bike that has been honed by the same hands that touch Aprilia’s MotoGP and WorldSBK projects.
The result is a 105hp machine that tips the scales at 337 lbs (153 kg) dry, which by our math should be good for 370 lbs when fully fueled and lubricated.
For a variety of reasons, the MotoGP team unveilings have become a dreadful boring affair in the recent years.
It used to be, that these events would be our first chance to see the new bikes from the coming season, but now these new bike revisions have become too secret to show before the racing started.
Instead, the events have become a release of new livery designs, plastered on last year’s bikes. The liveries rarely change though, and with the current rules package, the same could be said about the machinery.
That is not the case with the factory Aprilia Racing squad, however. Developing the Aprilia RS-GP at a rapid pace, we are witnessing a constantly evolving motorcycle.
This bad mammer-jammer right here is coming to a race track near you…if you live in Italy, that is. It is the Aprilia Racing RS 660 Trofeo, and it is the middleweight-twin cup bike from Aprilia Racing.
Built around the Aprilia RS 660 street bike (obviously), the Trofeo version is a track-only machine from the racing department in Noale, and it means business.
Built with support from Italian brands like SC-Project, Pirelli, Brembo, and Andreani, the Aprilia Racing RS 660 Trofeo is another stepping stone in Aprilia’s racing lineup to develop young riding talent.
When it comes to race-ready minimotos, the name Ohvale is all you need to know. The Italian brand has stormed onto the scene, and quickly found traction with youth riders and old pros alike.
It is easy to see why, as the platform offers top-shelf kit in a space that has been mostly about heavily modified Honda Grom street bikes and cheap dirt bike conversions.
If you were serious about developing your road racing skills on a go-kart track, then the Ohvale GP-0 190 was the beast for you.
Another juicy news item that comes to us straight from the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast, we get word that Kramer Motorcycles is working on a cheaper version of the Kramer HKR Evo2 race bike.
Based around the 690cc single-cylinder engine from KTM, the Kramer HKR Evo2 R is current available for a gasp-worthy amount of $22,500, which is obviously a lot of coin for a lightweight-class race bike.
Hoping to make that entry into the brand a little easier, and to provide racers with a platform that they can develop and customize themselves, we get word that Kramer is looking at a cheaper version of the Evo2, which will cost south of the $15,000 price point in the USA.
If there is a silver lining at all to the news that the Yamaha YZF-R6 is being discontinued at the end of 2020 for the European and American markets, it is that a version of the bike will at least be offered for interested track riders.
The newly named Yamaha R6 RACE is pretty much exactly what you think it would be – a track-kitted version of the current Yamaha YZF-R6 sport bike.
Matching the announcement by its sister company KTM, today we see the debut of the 2021 Husqvarna FS 450 supermoto.
Like the years before it, the 2021 model doesn’t see any major changes, though Husqvarna has tweaked the FS 450 enough (primarily in the suspension setup) to at least make you consider the spec sheet.
The new Honda CBR600RR may not be coming to the United States for the 2021 model year, but it certainly has generated some interest on this side of the Pacific Rim.
Adding fuel to that fire now is the race-ready version that HRC is making available in January 2021.