Rumors are flying as to whether Kawasaki will be on the MotoGP grid come 2010. If the Italian press is to be believed, Hayate Team Manager Andrea Dosoli has already declared that Hayate will be a no-show for next season.
However, an interview with Marco Melandri at Laguna Seca, by reliable MotoGP Matters, suggests that Kawasaki has yet to make a decision on MotoGP, and could be holding judgment until after the next round at the Sachensring .
MCN is reporting that there will be no new ZX-10R debuted this year, as Kawasaki is breaking out of their 2-year production cycle in order to focus on a WSBK killer for the 2011 season.
You’ll have to scroll all the way down the 18th spot in the World Superbike Championship standings if you want to seen Team Green represented. Even BMW with their brand new bike, and first entry into true sportbike territory, has found greater success in the world production motorcycle racing venue (currently 16th & 17th in the WSBK standings).
We’re not sure how accurate this rumor is at this point, but it is clear that if Kawasaki wants to be a “race on Sunday, sell on Monday” company, they have room for improvement.
Source: MCN
Silly season continues here at Asphalt & Rubber. Next up on the rumormill is James Toseland, who is rumored to be looking at a return to World Superbike, possibly with the Alstare Suzuki team.
It would seem that the Dorna might be interested in adding Imola to the list of venues MotoGP attends this year. The Italian daily newspaper has reported that FIM’s Race Director Paul Butler recently visited the Imola race circuit, and seemed to approve of the track, and is considering it as a replacement to the dropped Hungarian GP.
There’s a rumor going around that Harley-Davidson is working on a water-cooled, four cylinder, v-twin motor with a displacement somewhere between 1,300cc and 1,600cc. The good, the bad, and the ugly after the jump.
The rumor that Rizla would be withdrawing its sponsorship from Suzuki in MotoGP has been rolling around the paddock for some time. The rumors started after Rizla announced that it would be withdrawing its backing from the Crescent Suzuki British Superbike team, which is part of the same program run by Paul Denning and Jack Valentine, who run the Suzuki MotoGP team.
While this speculation has been a common theme for paddock gossip since the latter half of 2008, the news that Rizla will be withdrawing its sponsorship from Suzuki’s MotoGP team is moving rapidly from the realm of speculation to the world of fact.
Italian magazine Sport Moto is reporting this speculation now as fact. According to them, Rizla will withdraw funding from Suzuki’s MotoGP team, cutting into the teams bottom line to the tune of 3.5 million euros per year.
It is impossible to talk about Rizla pulling out of Suzuki and not in the same breath talk about Suzuki leaving MotoGP. This possibility has been flatly denied both by Team Suzuki and MotoGP. The lost 3.5 million euros is a paltry sum to the factory team, with reports showing that it likely barely covered the salaries of Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi.
Ironically, the rest of the paddock may be relieved to see Rizla depart as a sponsor. Not because of the blow to Suzuki, but because it was widely felt in MotoGP that Suzuki had given Rizla a title sponsorship role at a rock bottom price. The paltry sum asked by Suzuki has dragged down the price that other teams could demand from sponsors for similar title sponsorship. Now with that sponsors precedent gone, teams in theory should be able to command more money for the title sponsorship advertising package.
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With specs for the road-going 2009 Aprilia RSV4 already out, and details about the WSBK prepped bike still coming, all has been too quiet on the Western Front in regards to if when the Aprilia Tuono will get the same V4 treatment as its more clothed cousin.
If Aprilia follows the previous formula for the Tuono, we can expect a literally naked version of the RSV4, in which case the above “rendered” speculation is likely a pretty close estimate, with maybe only some changes to the headlight, and “chin” fairing.
With already a plethora of naked bikes in its stable (Mana, Shiver, Dorsoduro) the Tuono can only exist if it differentiates itself from these bikes in some way (which would mean it has to adopt the V4 platform to continue on). Still, it would be nice to see Aprilia think a little bit outside of the box with the styling options.
Instead of just dressing down an RSV4, maybe the Tuono would become more than just a small market bike if it had its own legs to stand on, without looking like the Emperor in new clothes.
Wow us Aprilia. Wow us.
Four days ago we broke for you the price on the Aprilia RSV4, and today we bring you price leaks on not only one bike, but three of them: the 2009 KTM Super Duke 990 R, the 2009 KTM Adventure 990 R, and the 2009 KTM RC8 1190 R. Click after the jump to see the release dates and prices for these three bikes.
I’ve sat on this story for a few days now, trying to figure out what exactly is going on? Is Aprilia once again digging up the Gilera brand as a sportbike entry? Is this wishful thinking by an Italian designer known for “concept” sketches? Is this poor reporting by the motorcycle blogsphere? Or all of the above?
Let me start from the beginning, and in the end I’ll let you decide.
Ducati has added a flash intro to their site telling of a “Streetfighter” to be released this Monday, November 3rd. We can only speculate on what this bike could be, considering the wraps on the new Monster 1100 is already out. Could this be the rumored 1098 streetfighter to help stave off the likes of the Aprilia Tuono, Benelli TnT, and other naked sportbikes?
UPDATED: Only time will tell what the real bike looks like, but read more to see some artistic “opinions” of what the naked livery could look like.
