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Bottpower’s BOTT XC1 Cafe Racer Rendered

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Earlier this year, we announced to you that Bottpower was working on a café racer version of its XR1 street-tracker motorcycle. Using a Buell XB as a donor bike, the Bottpower XC1 Cafe Racer kit transforms the big-displacement American twin into something a little bit more hipster.

Though we are not big on the café racer scene (you wouldn’t know it, looking at our posts lately though) we have been enchanted with the work done by Bottpower on this project so far. We imagine the finished result will be coming forth shortly; until then though, we’ll just have to drool over these nearly finalized renders.

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MotoGP

Movistar Confirms Sponsorship of Yamaha MotoGP Team

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Movistar is to sponsor Yamaha’s MotoGP effort. At the presentation of Movistar’s broadcast plans for the Grand Prix series in Spain last week, Luis Belo, Content Director for the Spanish telecommunications giant’s digital TV channel Movistar TV, let slip that the company would also be backing the Yamaha Factory team in MotoGP, Spanish magazine Solomoto is reporting.

The announcement confirms rumors of a deal between Movistar and Yamaha, which have been doing the rounds since December. Yamaha have yet to officially confirm the deal, but that is only a matter of time.

The deal mirrors the situation in Italy, where new pay-per-view broadcaster Sky is backing the Moto3 team run in conjunction with Valentino Rossi’s VR46 merchandising brand, fielding Romano Fenati and Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia.

To help promote the pay-per-view channels which MotoGP is being broadcast on in Spain and Italy, Movistar and Sky are backing major teams in the championship.

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MotoGP

2014 MotoGP Calendar Trimmed — Doesn’t Have Brazilian

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The FIM has today released the final, official version of the 2014 MotoGP calendar. As expected, the Brazil round has been dropped, after it became clear that construction work at the Autodromo Nelson Piquet in Brasilia would not be completed in time for the September round.

To ease the congestion in that part of the season, the date of the Aragon round has now been pushed back a week, and will take place on 28th September, the date originally scheduled for Brazil.

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MotoGP

MotoGP Goes Partial Pay-Per-View in Spain

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MotoGP series organizer Dorna appears to be pursuing a new strategy in its agreements with TV broadcasters. Where previously, Dorna had been fixed on securing deals with free-to-air broadcasters, recent deals have seen them agree terms with pay-per-view channels, in pursuit of higher revenues.

Spain is the latest market to see this development. The existing deal with Telecinco has been blown open, with Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica taking over some of the broadcasting from Telecinco. Telecinco will show 9 races live, and a further 10 on a delayed schedule.

Meanwhile, Telefonica’s special digital channel Movistar TV will show all races live, complete with six extra camera angles which users can select, along similar lines to MotoGP.com’s online video streaming package.

The new deal has been reached as a result of Telecinco’s desire to reduce the amount it was spending on MotoGP, according to Spain’s leading daily newspaper El Pais.

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MotoGP

Video: Take a Lap on a Moto2 Bike with Josh Herrin

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If you don’t make it a point to watch the Moto2 races during the racing season, you are missing out. The tight battles on the track have meant close competition for the Championship, and the intermediate series has even brought about a new style of riding, with riders hanging way off their machines and dragging their elbows in the process.

For the 2014 season, Americans have another reason to watch Moto2: Josh Herrin. The reigning AMA Pro Superbike Champion, Herrin has left the domestic riding scene for international competition.

Herrin’s signing with the Caterham Moto Racing team is hopefully a sign that young talented American riders can once again find their way into the GP classes, and there is a lot of weight on Josh’s shoulders to do well this year.

For now though, the pressure if off, as we are still a few months out from the season-opener at Qatar. So until the green flag drops on March 23rd, Josh can enjoy the off-season testing and continue to learn this competitive class. You can share in the fun too, and take an on-board lap with Herrin and his Suter-built Moto2 race bike at the Circuito de Almeria. Enjoy!

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Racing

FIM Organizing More Road Racing Camps for Women

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Attention female readers, if you can spare €500 ($683 USD), and can manage to pay your way to Spain’s Almeria circuit, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), together with its Women’s Commission (CFM), wants to provide you training for road racing motorcycles.

In partnership with BMW Motorrad and Bike Promotion, there will be a series of training camps will run from February 17th through the 19th  — with 3 total days of instruction, training, track sessions and workshops. Hotel accommodations, meals, tires, fuel, etc included. Participants will ride BMW’s S 1000 RR during the event.

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Dirt

Gas Gas and Ossa Merge

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If you thought the times are tough here in the United States, be thankful that you don’t live in Spain right now, as the Iberian country hovers around 20% unemployment for the general population, with 50% unemployment for the country’s 20-something crowd. Indeed, all the Mediterranean states, save for France, are on the verge of economic collapse. It’s a scary time.

Therefore, it wasn’t surprising to hear last year that the rebirth of the Ossa brand saw the Spanish dirt bike company using the available production capacity in the struggling Gas Gas factory. It seems that manufacturing partnership has now gone a step further, with Gas Gas and Ossa formerly merging, so as to better take on the rough economic landscape.

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MotoGP

Video: Jorge Lorenzo Gardening at Valencia

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Is Jorge Lorenzo the best racer in MotoGP right now? The topic is certainly open to debate, despite Marc Marquez winning the 2013 MotoGP Championship — after all, Lorenzo won more races than Marquez, and brought the championship to a final round decision, despite his mid-season shoulder injuries.

Wherever you fall on that side of the argument, you have to respect the young Spaniard’s two-wheel ability, as he is doing what he does on a clearly under-matched machine to HRC’s Honda RC213V.

Between the prodigy that is Marquez, and the power that is the Honda, it surprises us to see that Jorge has time in his busy schedule to help with the gardening at the various circuits. He’s just a class act like that.

A special shout out to the Dorna marketing department for making this video embeddable on third party sites…as it should be. The “I thought only Honda made lawnmowers” jokes start in 3..2..1..

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News

Radical Ducati Closes Shop

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After 15 years of making unique Ducati street bikes, Radical Ducati has announced the closing of its doors. The Spanish firm has made a name for itself by building custom Ducatis from various pieces of the Ducati parts bin, but now Pepo and Reyes are off for new adventures. We will miss their unique flare for design, but wish the folks at Radical Ducati all the best in their future endeavors.

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Racing

Countdown to the Superprestigio: Marc Marquez Goes Training with Brad “The Bullet” Baker

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Normally, motorcycle racing fans face a long and empty wait between the last tests in November and the first tests in late January and early February. Fortunately, this year, it’s different, thanks to the revival of the Superprestigio brand by Jaime Alguersuari, father of the Formula One driver of the same name, and founder of Spanish magazine Solomoto.

Alguersuari has pulled off a massive coup by getting 2013 MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez involved, and getting him to front the race. On Saturday, 11th January, some of the best riders in the world will race on an indoor dirt track oval at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona’s Olympic Park.

The Superprestigio was always a chance for the best American riders to test themselves against the top Spanish riders, and Alguersuari has arranged for this to happen again.

With Marquez already involved, AMA flat track champion Brad ‘The Bullet’ Baker responded to a challenge from American writer Mark Gardiner on Twitter, and has traveled to Barcelona to race at the event.

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Bikes

Bottpower XC1 Cafe Racer Takes Shape

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We here at Asphalt & Rubber are big fans of the work that Bottpower is churning out, and whether your particular poison is the Bottpower M211 Moto2 race bike, the Bottpower BOTT 1000 Morlaco street bike, or Bottpower XR1 street tracker, the small Spanish company has a little something for everyone.

Next up for Bottpower is a cafe racer, which is based off the company’s latest creation, the XR1 (track day porn: here). Though the first iteration is almost ready for a customer, so far Bottpower has only given us some renders of the rolling chassis for public consumption.

Like the XR1, a donor Buell XB is used for its engine, brakes, and suspension (the first XC1 will use only a Buell motor however), which makes this machine more of a do-it-yourself kit for the mechanically inclined.

If Bottpower’s other work is any indication, we can’t wait to see how this project comes out. Also, note the custom swingarm, in orange, that Bottpower is building as well. Tasty.

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