Just two weeks ago, we were rounding up the rumors on the next Honda CBR600RR, with talk that the 600cc supersport would be making an August arrival, and sadly not be an all-new machine.
Those rumors seem to be spon-on, because Big Red is now teasing the 2021 Honda CBR600RR on its Japanese website as well as YouTube. As such, we now expect to see the new Honda CBR600RR debut on August 21st.
It didn’t take long for Bimota to respond to stories about its next model, the Bimota KB4, as the Italian manufacturer has released two photos of the bike on its Facebook page…sort of.
The photos are purposefully blurred, thus obfuscating many of the bike’s details, but we can see that the round retro-styled headlight from the concept drawings is still a prominent feature on the KB4.
The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R is a bike that we are eagerly looking forward to, here at Asphalt & Rubber, which might seem strange if you don’t know too much about the quarter-liter sport bike.
But with a 250cc displacement coming from its inline-four engine, which revs to 17,000 rpm…well, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R isn’t your typical mundane small-displacement affair.
Team Green is slowly building the hype machine for this model, and to help get us in the mood, we have a short video of WorldSBK racers Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes putting the ZX-25R through its paces at the Jerez circuit.
If you like your motorcycles big, feet-forward, and German, then we have good news for you, as the BMW R18 finally has a release date: Friday, April 3rd.
That’s good news to our ears too, as BMW Motorrad has been teasing the R18 for more than a year with an onslaught of custom and concept motorcycles that feature the big 1,800cc boxer engine.
Expected to come as a platform of machines, we know to expect a model that is very similar to the BMW R18/2 concept we saw debut at EICMA last year.
An email just popped into our inbox giving us a hint at when we will see the Ducati Superleggera V4 superbike. The “Project 1708” machine has been teased a little bit by the Borgo Panigale, but the real news has been the slow leak of information about this exciting new motorcycle.
Built around the 998cc Desemosedici Stradale R engine found in the Panigale V4 R, the Superleggera V4 has carbon fiber frame, swingarm, bodywork, and wheels. This has allowed the Italians to cut 40 lbs from the the already very light Ducati Panigale V4 R, with the Ducati Superleggera V4 tipping the scales at a claimed 152 kg / 335 lbs (dry).
All of this is just “leaked” information about the extra-exclusive superbike from Ducati, but the Italians will officially be showing us the “Project 1708” bike on Thursday, February 6th – at 8am PST (5pm CET).
It seems Zero Motorcycles is gearing up to bring us another machine for the 2020 model year, as the electric vehicle company is teasing the release of its Zero SR/S.
Officially, the company isn’t saying more than a February 24th release date, but by connecting some obvious dots and a bit of inside information from our Bothan spies, we are pretty certain of what to expect in a month’s time.
Polaris Industries has begun teasing the next iteration of its three-wheeled sporting machine, better known as the Slingshot.
First debuting for the 2015 model year, Polaris in 2020 is finally bringing an update/new edition to the Slingshot line, which will hopefully help spur sales for this autocar.
The American brand isn’t saying too much about their new Slingshot right now, but our Bothan spies have tipped us to an automatic transmission option for the reverse-trike car.
It would seem that Triumph Motorcycles didn’t quite show us everything at the EICMA show in Milan (which is a good thing, since the British brand didn’t have much of note on display in Italy), as we are gearing up for the release of a “new” Triumph Tiger 900 in a few days’ time.
The news comes from Triumph itself, which is teasing the Tiger 900 on YouTube, and the rumormill is suggesting that the increase in displacement also brings a number of improved features to this popular middleweight ADV machine.
No press releases. No social media hype-posts. No big fancy displays. In fact, it was very easy to miss that Aprilia was giving us a glimpse at its next middleweight motorcycle at EICMA at all. But, it was there if you were careful to look at your surroundings.
Now granted, it is very hard to tell what is going on with the Aprilia Tuareg 660, since…well, the Italians covered it in shrubbery. Such is the state of their display at the Milan trade show, as they try to tease us with this ADV model.
But, we can pick out some details between the vines, bushes, and leafs…and they are intriguing.
For the past many weeks, we have been talking about Suzuki’s plans to bring back the DR Big name – a moniker that has deep ties to Suzuki’s off-roading prowess, and draw links to the iconic Dakar Rally.
Then, we saw spy photos of a new Suzuki V-Strom 1000, which looked better-suited for the dirty trails, and showed a number of updates to this venerable line of adventure bikes.
Now, we get our first solid look at the 2020 Suzuki V-Strom 1000, as the Japanese brand gears up for next week’s EICMA show in Milan.
The EICMA show in Milan is just a few days away now, which means that the big brands are reaching the zenith in their teasing for next year’s motorcycle models. Of course, this includes KTM.
We have already been teased the KTM 1290 Super Duke R ad nauseam, and today is no different in that regard. But…we do finally get to see the Super Duke R prototype in all its glory.
Other than seeing more clearly how KTM has built a new steel trellis frame (modeled after the one found on the RC8 superbike), the obvious use of WP Suspension’s top-spec forks and shock, and how the bodywork will come together (note the winglets hidden by the front shrouds), there aren’t too many surprises.
Still, we think KTM has a done a good job on this model refresh, and we can now finally appreciate it a little bit better than before, hence why we are sharing it with you.