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Gone Riding…Again: BMW S1000RR M Package

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Greetings from a very warm Birmingham, Alabama where we are about to swing a leg over the new BMW S1000RR…again.

After a disappointing and inadequate international launch in Portugal, where the rain got in the way of our two-wheeled fun, BMW Motorrad USA has invited us out to the famous Barber Motorsports Park to ride their new superbike for a second time.

That is just fine by us, because yours truly has been keen to swing a leg over the 2020 BMW S1000RR, and see how it compares to the offerings from the other top brands, not to mention I have always wanted to ride this popular American track.

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Gone Riding: Honda CB650R & CBR650R

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Summer might be upon us, but the new bike launches are still in full swing. This time around, we have a two-fer, as Honda has invited us out to try its new CBR650R and CB650R street bikes.

Built around the same 650cc four-cylinder engine, the two models offer a fully faired and naked version of the same basic idea, but what is really important about the two machines is the last letter in their names.

That new “R” means that Honda has added some more pep to the lineup, with more power, more torque, more aggressive bodywork, more aggressive riding position, well…just about more of everything.

To test these changes, and to see if the unassuming sport bikes blow our hair back, we are riding out in the Palm Desert of California.

Unfortunately, yours truly had a previous engagement in Sweden (more on that soon) and couldn’t attend this launch, so we sent racer Shelina Moreda out to sunny SoCal to tell us all about the bikes, since she’s cut from that same “call it how you see it” cloth that we so greatly enjoy here as Asphalt & Rubber.

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What It’s Like to Ride the Indian FTR1200, A Review

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It is here, finally. The Indian FTR1200 is arriving in dealerships in the next few weeks, which means that the motorcycle press can finally hop on this street tracker and talk about it.

But, we have already done that. Asphalt & Rubber was one of a few publications that got to ride a prototype of this machine back in October 2018, and since then we have seen countless outlets and social media darlings swing a leg over the Indian FTR1200.

Furthermore, racers already have the bike in their garages and are competing in the Super Hooligan National Championship series, and while the press launch for this bike was underway in Mexico, other outlets were busy getting exclusive tastes of the machine, including A&R.

So, while we are very excited to be the first to tell you how the new Indian FTR1200 does the business, this is very much a machine that has been in the sphere for quite a while, and thus is already a known quantity.

We didn’t let the hold us back too much, and I can confidently say that no other publication has spent more time in the saddle of the Indian FTR1200 S than us, getting to know every bit of this new motorcycle and where it takes the Indian Motorcycle brand. Let me explain.

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Gear Review: Shoei GT-Air II Helmet

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Of all the accessories a rider can choose, a helmet is probably the most personal. Besides the fact that a helmet is arguably the most important piece of safety equipment, the helmet also must do a number of things that directly affect rider comfort.

Whether it’s keeping the rider cool when it’s hot, warm when it’s cold, or dry when it’s wet, a helmet affects multiple aspects of a rider’s environment. And though safety is paramount, for a street or touring rider, comfort and convenience are a close second.

Recently, Shoei North America hosted the introduction of its GT-Air II sport touring helmet in Costa Mesa California at the headquarters of The Medium Creative Group.

Situated among an eclectic display of rider memorabilia and unique collectibles, Mathias Beier from Shoei and Mr. Hiroshi Maeda, the new President of Shoei’s North American office showed-off their new helmet to the press.

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What It’s Like to Ride the Husqvarna Svartpilen 701, A Review

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Husqvarna is a sales-driven company. I know this because before our press ride, the (Austrian-owned) Swedish brand spent more time selling us on the company’s staggering sales growth rather than talking about the technical specifics on the new Husqvarna Svartpilen 701.

To that end, sales are good. Very good, in fact. For a point of reference, more Husqvarna motorcycles are being sold now than ever before in the brand’s extensive history, and some of that growth comes from the Husqvarna’s new entry into the street bike realm.

Don’t get me wrong, Husqvarna dirt bikes still out sell the brand’s street bikes by roughly 4:1 when we are talking raw numbers, but the revived company is knocking on close to 50,000 motorcycles sold a year now. That is impressive, no matter how you slice it.

The bike that they hope will push the brand over the 50k mark is the Husqvarna Svartpilen 701, which is the only new model from Husqvarna for the 2019 model year. The Svartpilen 701 is the counterpoint to the Vitpilen 701 that debuted last year, and it continues Husqvarna’s trend of releasing the mirror image machines in various sizes.

As such, the 701 series borrows its platform from the KTM 690 Duke, and its new single-cylinder engine that features dual balancing shafts (one at the crank, the other on the cam).

It is a motor we are quite fond of here at Asphalt & Rubber, so we were intrigued when Husqvarna invited us to Lisbon, Portugal to ride the new Svartpilen 701 – as we wanted to see if this motorcycle was just more than a re-skinned KTM.

The answer to that question is certainly a yes, but with an asterisk. Let me explain.

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Gone Riding: Husqvarna Svartpilen 701

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Greetings from Lisbon, Portugal as we come to our final destination on this three-week European press launch adventure. For this installment, we switch countries of origin, and get ready to hop on the Husqvarna Svartpilen 701 street bike.

A sort of street-tracker meets roadster type of bike, the Svartpilen 701 is a unique build from Husqvarna, and it pairs well with the company’s “white arrow” – the Vitpilen 701.

The plan is for us to get to know the Husqvarna Svartpilen 701 on the roads outside of Lisbon, riding along the coast for some twisties, touring along the highway, and doing some city miles in the urban jungle of Lisboa.

The route should give us a good idea of what to expect from the Swedish brand’s newest street bike, and to see if it is as fun as Husqvarna would like us to believe.

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What It’s Like To Ride the Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory at Mugello

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Imagine you have been given the opportunity to ride the iconic grand prix track at Mugello, and that you are going to do it on a superbike with well over 200hp at the crank. It has the latest technology, both in terms of electronic rider aids and physical aerodynamics. And oh, the Tuscan sun will be shining on you the whole day.

This is a sport rider’s dream. This is fat check mark on any two-wheeled enthusiast’s motorcycling bucket list. When the folks at Noale invited us to come ride the new Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory at the famed Italian race track in the Tuscany region, our affirmative reply didn’t take long to send.

I won’t lie and and try and pretend that the prospect of riding at Mugello hasn’t been high on my list of things to do before I die, but bucket-lists aside, I wanted to see where Aprilia was standing, now 10 years after the original debut of its RSV4 superbike.

What was really “new” about the decade-old machine? How did it compare to the new offerings in the industry? And, is all the hype about winglets really grounded in reality?

Well..I came back from Mugello overwhelmed, impressed, and befuddled. Let me explain.

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Gone Riding: Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory

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Greetings from the Mugello, as we continue our three-week European adventure, this time gearing up to ride the Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory superbike.

The culmination of 10 years of RSV4 motorcycles, this 2019 edition sees the engine displacement bumped to 1,078cc, winglets added to the front fairings, an Akrapovic exhaust, and a host of other changes made to the venerable superbike.

As you can expect then, this machine should be a rocket ship around this iconic Italian race track – rumor on the street is that rear-wheel horsepower is just over 200hp!

For the bullet points on what’s new here, the 2019 Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory weighs 11 lbs lighter than its predecessor, and makes 16hp more power, and 5 lbs•ft more torque as well.

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Not-A-Review: Vespa Elettrica, Italy’s Electric Scooter

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I will be honest, I don’t keep that close of tabs on the scooter segment in the motorcycle industry. This is probably because it feels like a separate entity all onto itself. I do try to keep a pulse on the Vespa brand though, and let me explain why.

When you think of scooters, no name is perhaps more iconic than Vespa. So, that makes it an obvious choice, but I also track the movement of the Italian scooter-maker because it acts as a bellwether for the space. Where Vespa goes, surely so too does the rest of the scooter market. 

This is why we have been covering the Vespa Elettrica with a great deal of interest on Asphalt & Rubber. As you can expect from the name, the bike is Vespa’s first electric model, and it is finally ready for public consumption.

Ripping around the streets of Milan, Italy on the the Vespa Elettrica, A&R gets our first feel for what electric urban mobility looks like from Vespa, and we were able to frame that against the company’s other newest model, the potent Vespa GTS Super 300.

As such, here is not-a-review of this intriguing new two-wheeler.

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Riding the Moto Guzzi V85 TT, A Review

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I can only sympathize for the Moto Guzzi engineer that got the design brief on the new V85 TT adventure-touring model. It probably read like a list of impossibilities, and represented a gauntlet of technical challenges.

An ADV bike is already a tough space to tackle, and right now the middleweight segment is hotter than ever. Even with a blank-sheet design, it is hard to create a motorcycle that can compete in this space, but for Moto Guzzi, creating the V85 TT must have felt like fighting with one arm tied behind its back.

It is one thing to create a motorcycle with 80hp and 500 lbs of wet mass, and then make it capable of handling both road and dirt. Customers in this segment demand a bevy of electronic features as well, so those must be developed as well. And then, make it cheap…because no one wants to hock a $20,000 motorcycle into a forest of trees each weekend.

But for Moto Guzzi, and that intrepid engineer, the task is even more complicated. You are married to the Italian brand’s “transverse” 90° v-twin engine design, which has always been a heavy and bulbous proposition. Oh, and this new 853cc twin-cylinder engine is to be air-cooled…because, Moto Guzzi.

True to the brand’s image too, this new bike will play on vintage themes, all while balancing the modernity that the market demands.

Indeed, this is a design brief filled with unique challenges, and I don’t envy the team that had to meet these lofty goals. The moto-journalist’s burden is to ride the creation though, and as I have often said, we are the spoiled children of the motorcycle industry.

The Moto Guzzi V85 TT is quite easily going to be the best selling model in the company’s lineup for 2019 – that is a low bar to achieve right now – but they are doing it with a bullet. The V85 TT is a stout all-rounder, that punches well into its weight class, for a bargain price. Let me explain.

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Gone Riding: Moto Guzzi V85 TT

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Greetings from the Mediterranean Sea, as we are on the island of Sardinia right now, gearing up to ride the new Moto Guzzi V85 TT adventure-touring motorcycle. 

A bike that has been in the wings for a little while now, we have been itching to ride the V85 TT ever since its unique look and color scheme graced our pages.

A part of the push for new middleweight ADV motorcycles, the V85 TT does a bit more of a heritage play for the segment, which is keeping in line with the Moto Guzzi brand as a whole.

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