MV Agusta sent a cryptic teaser out earlier today, showing only a fabrication shop, and the letters “RVS” on a block of machined aluminum. Digging deeper, we know that “RVS” stands for “Reparto Veicoli Speciali” which translates to “Special Vehicles Department” in English.
Since the video shows the silhouette of a very custom-looking Brutale at its conclusion, we surmise that MV Agusta is gearing up to offer a factory customization service for its clientele, which could be very interesting.
EICMA is only a few days away, so it is not surprising to see some last-minute teaser campaigns popping up on the internet. We already saw one earlier today from KTM’s sister-brand, Husqvarna.
In it, the 2017 Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen was teased, which will be one of two new street models launched at EICMA, along with one concept bike.
For KTM, we expect a bevy of street models at EICMA, especially from the company’s Duke range. The Austrian brand acknowledges as much, though it is tough to tell which bike they are trying to hype in this bracket, as there are several possibilities.
Husqvarna says that it will be debuting two new street bikes at the upcoming EICMA show, along with one new concept bike. We have known for some time that one of those machines would include the Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen, the Swedish brand’s neo-retro take on the KTM 390 Duke platform.
Teasing us now with a short video of this “white arrow”, we get our first obfuscated glimpses of the 2017 Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen, though we doubt the bike has changed much from its concept form.
Remember the Ariel Ace? The VFR1200F-powered street bike from the revived British brand? The attractive street bike is about to get an even sportier sibling (sketched above), as the Ariel Ace R is set to debut at the NEC Motorcycle Live show, this November.
Unless you are well-coined, the NEC show might be your only chance to see an Ariel Ace R in the flesh, as the Brits plan on making only 10 examples of this R-spec machine.
Details are light at the moment, but Ariel does day that the Ace R will have a unique color scheme, and of course there will be better performance pieces and more power from the limited edition motorcycle.
It looks like we will get to see a new electric motorcycle at the EICMA show in Milan, as Energica says it will debut a new electric motorcycle concept at the Italian trade show.
Saying in its press release that the new concept will be “an evolution of design and technologies already adopted on Energica models. The company with this new concept will approach the most recent motorcycle market trends.”
Beyond this, Energica is being very tight lipped about the new machine. As such, it is not clear what kind of motorcycle Energica will actually unveil.
It seems like we have been talking about the Norton V4 superbike for ages, with not much to go on beyond concept sketches and vague promises. Well, this unicorn of a machine seems closer to reality now, with Norton giving us another teaser that we can sink our teeth into.
Debuting in three weeks’ time, it seems that we will finally get to see this 1,200cc V4-powered machine. The British brand says it has already sold out of the Norton V4 SS model (~£40,000), while you can still get your hands on one of the 250 units of the Norton V4 RR, which will cost £28,000.
Details on the bikes are still very much in short supply, which makes it hard to believe Norton has found already 200 individuals who are willing to buy the sold out SS model, sight unseen. Stay tuned though, the Brits are supposed to give us the full monty on November 19th.
In addition to bringing the Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled to market at the upcoming EICMA show, Ducati will pair its off-road focused scrambler model with a café racer version of the Scrambler, which has cleverly been named the Ducati Scrambler Café Racer.
The models will use the same 803cc air-cooled v-twin engine that we’ve seen already in the Scrambler lineup, and as you would expect, the machine will have the typical café racer aesthetic, with a round headlight and bullet fairing.
As with all of the Scrambler Ducati lineup, you can expect customization to be a big part of the Ducati Scrambler Café Racer’s appeal. Keep an eye out for its debut, November 7th in Milan, Italy.
We know from filings with the California Air Resources Board that we should expect two new Scrambler models for the 2017 model year – a “DS” model and a “CR” model.
With photos of a long-travel suspension Scrambler circulating, we assumed that the “DS” designation stood for “dual-sport”, but the latest teaser video from Ducati corrects our almost-right assumption.
While Ducati will indeed launch a more off-roady Scrambler model, as we expected, the 803cc machine will be called the Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled, an homage to the Baja-busting bikes of yore that carried the same name.
It looks like Norton wisely waited until after the bevy of press releases from the INTERMOT show, before teasing its V4 superbike again. Actually, it looks like we will have to wait until after the EICMA show as well, since Norton’s new teaser video promises a November 19th debut.
Norton’s V4 superbike has been coming for a long time, so the unveiling should be something interesting to finally see. The British firm has been targeting 200hp from its 1,200cc V4 engine.
The Brits over at MCN say that there will be two versions of the machine, a base model that costs roughly £28,000, and a higher spec version that will be limited to 200 units and cost closer to £40,000.
The 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6 is coming soon. We know this because Yamaha has released a second teaser reminding us to that fact. Set this time at what looks like Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, the teaser video again is light on giving anything away.
A few glimpses of a sport bike can be seen, and of course there’s the aural pleasure of hearing a 600cc inline-four engine being revved out to infinity. Our ear hears a flatplane crank for the new Yamaha YZF-R6, which is a topic we’ve covered before, in the last teaser video.
If we sample the frames to this video, we do get a couple good detail shots. One is of the vents on the fuel tank / airbox cover, another shows us what looks like an LED headlight, the best shot though shows us the shilouette of the new R6, which looks to be based closely off the current R1.
Beyond this, what features could Yamaha be bringing to the class-leading supersport? Only time can tell.
INTERMOT is this week, which means that we will see a few “advanced” previews of some of the machines we can expect at the trade show coming in the next 48hrs or so.
The Germanic brands, BMW and KTM usually debut a number of machines at INTERMOT, and the Japanese manufactures usually have a few bikes for us there, as well.
This means new bike season is upon us in earnest, and the first machine to get leaked, teased, or previewed — however you want to define those words as a marketer — appears to be the BMW R nineT Racer – a café racer styled version of the BMW R nineT platform, which we spotted in CARB filings a couple weeks ago.