Fresh off of the news from two days ago, where the Harley-Davidson Board of Directors settled the power-grab by investment group Impala Asset Management, we now see the first fruits of that agreement taking shape.
Taking decisive measures, fueled by the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic, the Harley-Davidson Board of Directors held an emergency voting session on Tuesday night, which saw the group lay out a massive restructuring plan the Bar & Shield brand.
Want some good news to start your weekend? Thank your favorite Austrian motorcycle brand, because the KTM 890 Duke R is not only coming to America, but it will be here (in limited numbers) very, very soon.
This is because KTM North America has been able to import a small number of KTM 890 Duke R motorcycles into the United States, which will be ready for purchase in Spring 2020, instead of Fall 2020 (as 2021 model year bikes) as was originally planned.
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to be a wrecking ball to the MotoGP calendar, with now the Grand Prix of the Americas being postponed because of health concerns and travel restrictions.
The announcement coming jointly from Dorna, IRTA, and the FIM is not a surprise for those following the space, and just yesterday we speculated about today’s possible news.
With Italy overnight clamping down the entire country, and and cases of the virus continuing to grow in Europe and America, today’s announced postpone seemed all but certain.
Pierer Mobility is once again spilling the beans on its holdings, releasing the 2019 sales results from the KTM and Husqvarna motorcycle brands.
To that end, the combined effort sees another sales record for the group, with 280,099 motorcycles sold last year. This marks a 7% gain over 2018.
This makes 2019 the ninth year in a row that the KTM Group of motorcycle brands has seen positive sales growth, which is not a claim that too many brands can lay their hands on.
If you were an American hoping to buy the new Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP, you better hold onto your butt because we just got pricing on this incredible new superbike, and it will cost $28,500 in the United States.
The US pricing is a considerable break from Honda’s normal pricing scheme (and our own predictions here at A&R), and is more in line with the currency costs found in other markets.
For example, the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP will retail for £23,499 in the UK and €27,000 on mainland Europe – both of those prices equaling roughly $30,000 in US dollars.
In case you haven’t been following every day of the Dakar Rally – held this year for the first time in Saudi Arabia – you might want to keep your eyes on this iconic off-road racing tonight/tomorrow.
This is because American rider Ricky Brabec is on the verge of winning The Dakar, as he holds nearly a 14-minute lead over his next-closest competitor, Pablo Quintanilla.
A win from Brabec would be a huge disruption to the order of things, for several reasons.
While news of the Ducati Superleggera V4 is breaking the internet right now, other headlines are also coming out of Bologna, as Ducati has released its 2019 sales figures.
Tallying a total of 53,183 motorcycles delivered to customers worldwide, Ducati managed to beat the 53,004 units from 2018 – an increase of 0.34% in worldwide sales, for those who are counting.
Holding that figure back though was the brand’s progress in the United States, with the American market dropping close to 2% compared to last year, with 7,682 motorcycles sold last year.
We continue to wait to see what pricing will be on the 2021 Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP (whew! say that three times fast!), when it comes to the USA later this summer.
Our Bothan spy tipsters have pointed to the new Fireblade as being a pricey superbike (we have been expecting a roughly $25,000 price tag), and American Honda’s decision to import only the up-spec SP model adds further fuel to the fire that some price-point trickery is afoot.
With pricing already shown for the UK market, and seemingly confirming out suspicion, now we have another data point, as pricing on mainland Europe is finally out, and it seems to confirm the trend.
Official data on the US motorcycle industry for 2019 isn’t out yet, but Asphalt & Rubber has seen preliminary numbers, encompassing the first 11 months of the year on new motorcycle sales, and those numbers show that the USA continues to have essentially zero growth.
According to the documents supplied to us by our Bothan spies, from January to November of 2019, the US motorcycle industry grew a whooping 0.1%, with most of the major brands posting moderate single-digit losses for the year on new bike sales.
For the 2020 racing year, MotoAmerica has announced that it will run a three-round Mini Cup, in an effort to bridge the gap for young racers into professional racing.
The new series, which will race at Road America, The Ridge Motorsports Park, and PittRace, will have four spec-classes, all of which will use Ohvale motorcycles.
The class breakdown is as follow: 110cc (four-speed); 160cc; 190cc (racers aged up to 14 years); and 190 Adult (racers over the age of 15), with all of the races set to take place on karting tracks at the aforementioned race courses.