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There Aren’t Enough “Top Gun” Jokes for the Time When Maverick Viñales Visited the Spanish Air Force

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When your first name is Maverick, you surely have heard every Top Gun joke there is to make, especially by the time you are 20-years-old.

Just in case he hit the brakes, and watched them fly right by, we couldn’t help but serve up a couple more for Maverick Viñales, thanks in large part to his media event with the Spanish Air Force. Talk to me Goose.

Feeling the need for speed at the Danger Zone Zaragoza Air Base, near the Motorland Aragon circuit in Northern Spain, Viñales was treated to a tour of the facility and a flight aboard one of the Ejército del Aire’s F/A-18 Hornets.

Ecstar Suzuki teammate Aleix Espargaro was unfortunately not at the event, but is quoted as saying that once he got back to the track, Maverick could be his wingman anytime.

While we aren’t sure if the pattern was too full for fly-by, rumors of a shirtless volleyball 1980’s video montage are so far completely unfounded.

This is probably the coolest pre-event MotoGP media event ever, and after the jump we have a bunch of high-resolution shots from it, Ice…Man.

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Bikes

Volkswagen Ordered to Sell Its Stake in Suzuki

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The big news this week might be about how Volkswagen falsified emissions reports on its diesel-powered automobiles – a move that today lead to Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn stepping down from his position in the company, and VW stock dropping nearly 30%, at the time of this writing.

Less well-known though is that Volkswagen has also lost its long-fought battle with Suzuki over the Japanese company’s stock ownership. VW and Suzuki were supposed to untie the knot back in 2011, but Volkswagen did not go quietly into that good night.

Taking the case to arbitration, the London Court of International Arbitration has finally handed the two parties its verdict. As such, Volkswagen will have to sell its 19.9% stake back to Suzuki.

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Racing

SERT Wins the 2015 FIM Endurance World Championship

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Taking things all the way to the last round of the championship – the Bol d’Or 24 Hour race – the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team can finally lay claim to being the the 2015 FIM Endurance World Champions.

Though endurance racing is very much a team effort, this victory for SERT couldn’t have been achieved without the team’s EWC veteran riders: Vincent Philippe, Anthony Delhalle, and Etienne Masson.

The trio’s results have allowed Suzuki to claim its 14th EWC title, which is just one part of the Japanese brand’s domination in the FIM Endurance World Championship.

On its road to EWC glory, SERT won at Le Mans, finished fourth in the very competitive specialist field at Suzuka, landed second on the podium at Oschersleben, and wrapped up the Bol d’Or in the third position.

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Bikes

Suzuki Trademarks “Recursion” in the USA and Europe

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Could Suzuki’s turbocharged Recursion concept bike be coming to market? There have been rumors already, but that news just got a lot more solid because of Suzuki’s trademark filings this week.

Registering the name “Recursion” in both the US and European markets, for use with motorcycles, the Japanese brand seems set to debut the new model in the coming months.

The question of course then turns to how closely the production machine will be to the concept machine, which features a 588cc intercooled and turbocharged two-cylinder engine. Very closely, we hope.

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Bikes

No New Suzuki GSX-R Motorcycles for 2016 Model Year

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Despite the wishful reports that have been circulating the media sphere lately, Suzuki is seemingly not poised to bring any new GSX-R sport bikes for the 2016 model year, as Suzuki Motor America has confirmed this year’s models will return for next season.

This news is undoubtedly a blow to fans of the Suzuki brand and GSX-R line, who have been keen to see Suzuki reclaim its sport biking crown. There is however a silver lining to this news…

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Bikes

Some of That 30th Anniversary Suzuki GSX-RR Goodness

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I’m not gonna lie, we sorta dropped the ball when it came to sharing with you the 30th anniversary livery that Team Suzuki Ecstar is rocking in MotoGP. If anyone asks, it’s all Tony’s fault. Totally on him. Like, for reals…all Tony. Bad Tony! Bad!

While Tony works on a personal apology note, hand-written naturally, for each and every one of you, we’ve got a small collection of his photos from Sachsenring and Indianapolis of Suzuki’s tribute to the GSX-R line.

We think it’s pretty fetching, which only adds to the fact that the Suzuki GSX-RR MotoGP race bike is one of the best looking machines on the grid. I actually had a dream about it last night…I’m not ready to talk about it.

Photos after the jump, ok? Enjoy! And Tony, I want those notes on my desk by Monday. Chop! Chop!

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Bikes

Suzuki GSX-R1000 Red & Black Commemorative Edition

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Suzuki already has a classic blue and white commemorative livery for its GSX-R line of motorcycles, but today at the Indianapolis GP, the Japanese brand debuted another commemorative edition of the Suzuki GSX-R1000, this time in red & black.

While the blue and white livery has become the more traditional colors for Suzuki and its GSX-R sport bikes, it was the red and black GSX-R750 machines of Yoshimura Suzuki that dominated the Suzuka 8-Hour in 1986, the first year of the bike’s debut.

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Bikes

These Are Not the Eagerly Awaited Suzuki GSX-R250 & All-New GSX-R1000…But They Should Be

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These images are very likely not of the hopefully-soon-to-be-released Suzuki GSX-R250 & GSX-R1000 sport bikes, as their purveyor, Japanese magazine Young Machine, has a fairly horrible track record with these sort of things…but that doesn’t mean that we should ignore them.

After all, here we see two very attractive offerings, which we hope the folks at Hamamatsu will take a long look at, as the Suzuki GSX-R1000 rendered here would be an attractive update to a name that was once the superbike to beat.

The rendering exercise from Young Machine also shows that a quarter-liter sport bike from Suzuki should be directly related to its liter-bike brethren, not only to strike the aspirational nerve of riders, but also to justify the added expense and limited return on the company’s superbike offering.

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Bikes

Suzuki GSX-R Gets a Special 30th Anniversary Livery

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Debuting today at the German GP in what has to be the best industry #tbt move ever, Suzuki is showing off a special 30th Anniversary livery for its GSX-R line, including the GSX-RR MotoGP race bike.

As the name implies, the livery celebrates 30 years of GSX-R sport bikes, which have sold over one million units since their first debut in 1985.

Helping celebrate the special occasion, the 30th anniversary livery bikes will be available globally from Suzuki, though there’s no word right now on how much they will cost in the USA, or when they will be available.

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MotoGP

The Importance of Suzuki’s Rider/Crew Chief Relationship

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It is hard to overstate just how important the relationship between a motorcycle racer and his crew chief is. A rider must have complete confidence that his crew chief both understands what he needs from a motorcycle to go fast, and is capable of giving it to him.

A crew chief must be able to interpret the sometimes confusing and mixed signals from his rider, filter out the non-essential information, identify priorities from that which will offer the greatest gains, and assign the work to the rest of the crew in the garage.

There has to be complete trust between the two, or neither rider nor bike will achieve their full potential.

This was made all too apparent when I interviewed Ecstar Suzuki rider Aleix Espargaro and his crew chief Tom O’Kane for a story I wrote recently for the Dutch publication MOTOR Magazine, due out later this month.

One part of the interview which did not make it into the magazine was the relationship between Espargaro and O’Kane, and how they first started working together. However, it is a story which offers a fascinating insight into how a rider and their crew chief work together.

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The Suzuki Bandit Returns to the USA for 2016

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Suzuki’s lineup continues to underwhelm, with perhaps the most noteworthy machines being the Suzuki GSX-S1000 for 2015, and the Suzuki GSX-S1000F for 2016.

We say underwhelming because at the core of both bikes is the GSX-R1000 engine…circa 2008; but that’s ok, Suzuki has made enough subtle changes to warrant them being called new machines. Really.

Another new machine that is coming to the United States for 2016 is the Suzuki Bandit 1250S. Yes, this is of course the same machine that Suzuki first brought to market back in 2007, and has kept relatively untouched since that inception.

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