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There will be a new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R for the 2019 model year, of this much we are certain.

It is a story that has been floating around for over a year now (I thought we had reported it already, but apparently not), but now this rumor is heating up, and we have some details to share.

First off, the confirmation. Making filings with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), we see that Kawasaki has plans for a new ZX-6R. It will have a 636cc (cheater) displacement, and produce roughly half the emissions of the previous model.

Likely ready for the coming wave of Euro5 emission regulations, details from across the pond show a power decrease and weight increase for the 2019 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, and point to a whole-new motorcycle coming from Team Green.

In the FIM Endurance World Championship, the GMT94 Yamaha team is at the top of the heap. The defending champions, GMT94 Yamaha is only 10 points back in the current season from holding the FIM EWC trophy, with only one race remaining.

One round is all that the French team has, however, as the GMT94 Yamaha team will be calling it quits after this month’s Suzuka 8-Hours race. Needless to say, this is huge news for motorcycle endurance racing fans.

With three world titles under its belt and seventeen FIM EWC race victories on its tally, GMT94 Yamaha will leave the Endurance World Championship for happier hunting grounds in the World Supersport Championship.

As such, the French squad will leave a massive hole behind in EWC, as the GMT94 Yamaha squad tackles the remainder of the 2018 WorldSSP season with Corentin Perolari, before taking on the World Supersport Championship full-time in 2019.

When it comes to fire hazards, Ducati hasn’t had the best track record in 2018, with the Panigale V4 already getting recalled for concerns with fuel igniting.

Now, the Ducati Supersport sees a recall because of a possibly flammable situation, as some 2017 & 2018 models have fuel-carrying hoses improperly routed, which could lead to the hoses melting and the fuel catching fire.

In total, the recall affects 1,462 units of both the Supersport and Supersport S models.

The sign at the starting line said “conditions excellent” as the Isle of Man provided another perfect arena for motorcycle racing, as Race 2 of the Supersport TT got underway.

With Michael Dunlop setting a 129 mph lap during Race 1, conversations already started about whether we would see a 130 mph lap from the supersport machines, an almost crazy average lap speed to consider from the 600cc machines.

While we wouldn’t see the record books change that entry today, we did see an eventful Supersport TT Race 2 at the Isle of Man TT.

To be the best, you've got to beat the best. Going up against Kenan Sofuo?lu was no easy matter for the top riders in World Supersport, but it was necessary if you were going to move on from the feeder class.

Kenan Sofuo?lu was the benchmark upon which every WorldSSP rider was judged. If you wanted to move from the class to race a superbike or a grand prix machine, you needed to prove you could beat Sofuo?lu.

As the dominant force of the class his rivals never underestimated the challenge they faced. To mark Kenan's retirement from motorcycle racing, we reached out to his fiercest competitors to see what they had to say about competing against the Turkish rider.

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In the World Supersport Championship, one name has dominated the results list for the past decade: Kenan Sofuo?lu. This is because the Turkish rider has posted five championship titles since he entered the class, along with 43 race wins in the WorldSSP class.

And now, the Kawasaki rider is ready to hang up his spurs, announcing that he will retire from motorcycle racing, after the WorldSBK paddock races in Imola this coming weekend.

Never fully recovering from a crash he sustained at Phillip Island during the 2015 season, Sofuo?lu broke his hip during a crash at Magny-Cours last season, and as a result the 33-year-old narrowly missed out on his sixth WorldSSP title.

Sofuo?lu has talked many times about his retirement from racing, and now with his family, he decided it was time to move on from racing motorcycles.

When we first heard that Ducati was bringing back the Supersport line, we were excited. The original SuperSport wasn’t exactly the best selling model for the Italian brand, but Ducati created some loyal enthusiasts with the half-faired sport-touring machine.

The new Ducati Supersport does a good job of tapping into the ethos of the old model, but visually it draws too close to the Ducati 1299 Panigale Superbike, rather than the lines of yore.

Here, Oberdan Bezzi plays another one of his “what if” games, drawing an air-cooled Supersport model (based off the current Scrambler platform), complete with the more classic half-fairing design. 

If you go to Triumph’s North American website, you will notice that the Daytona 675 is missing from the lineup. Similarly, the three-cylinder supersport machine is nowhere to be found on the Triumph Motorcycles UK site.

And even an intrepid look at Triumph Japan, Triumph India, and Triumph Brazil websites gives no joy, despite the latter’s still having the now defunct Tiger 1050 model. So what’s the beans?

The answer of course is the Euro4 homologation standard, which came into play for the 2016 model year, and has been killing motorcycle models ever since.

I really like the idea of BMW making a supersport model, to compliment the already potent BMW S1000RR. The category is a tough one though, and it is dominated by the Japanese brands. Maybe, this is why BMW Motorrad is the perfect brand to disrupt the supersport segment.

The S1000RR made a killing in the liter-bike space, because it brought European features and performance, at a Japanese price-point. Because of the success that resulted from that formula, maybe the Germans can do the same in the 600cc segment.

Putting some pen and paper to this thought, Nicolas Petit has inked together a render of a proposed BMW supersport machine, which he dubs the BMW S675RR.

As the name suggests, the bike is powered by a 675cc three-cylinder engine, and visually it makes a strong connection to the next BMW S1000RR, which we have already seen leaked in spy photos.