The Catalan Grand Prix was a shot of adrenaline for the entire Fiat Yamaha Team as racers Lorenzo and Rossi fought for the first place on the podium. In the end, Rossi ended up drinking the winner’s champagne while Lorenzo came in second and Stoner third.
This has to be the greatest race of the season so far!
Get the detailed results and see the video after the break.
Hypermotards are all about combining the right amout of power with perfect balance and chassis geometry for excellent feedback. It all resumes to upgrating those aggressive riding skills and obtaining better and better lap times. That’s what Ducati concentrates on with their 2009 Hypermotard 1100 and 1100 S models, ensuring that every single owner brags about its ride each time it takes it closer to the limits. > More
According to Solomoto30, Honda is about to launch the street version of the EVO 6 concept bike, the “supernaked” that was first presented at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show.
Bassically, this is a muscle bike powered by a retuned version of the six-cylinder boxer engine behind the Goldwing 1800.
Can-Am has issued a recall for a number of 12,500 Spyders manufactured between July 2007 and May 2009 because of an apparent problem to the vehicle’s power steering system. This has reportedly caused at least three light injuries because, as stated in the recall notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "the operator of an involved vehicle may need to exert a force greater than expected to initiate the turning of the steering handlebar off centre in order to correct vehicle drift from a straight line path."
The Canadian Press< dig deeper into this aspect and gave the company’s spokeswoman Johanne Denault the opportunity to make things sound less dangerous… "The vehicle is not going to start zig zagging, it’s only a small drift", she said.
Although they don’t mention in what the correction of this problem consists, the suppliers of the power steering system (Kongsberg Inc.) are left with paying the repairs. Owners must contact Bombardier Recreational Products at 1-866-767-0707 or go to their local dealers to have their rides inspected and, if necessary, repaired.
No less than 9,932 possibly affected Can-Am Spyders were sold in the United States.
It’s always nice to see comebacks in the motorcycle industry, especially for fans of the different brands. In what Norton is concerned, although they’ll most likely never reach their former glory, the modern interpretation of their mid 1990s racer is enough to provide the industry with an accurate impression of how advanced the technology implemented in this model was for its time. And with performance data comparable to that of modern supersport models, we reckon the Brits have little catching up to do. > More
Because Marines and militaries in general use public roads and motorcycles on which they don’t have much experience (sport bikes) to go in search of an adrenaline rush similar to that experienced as soldiers, the US Marine Corp has launched what is called “Semper Ride”, an educational program that consists in a very interesting film containing an overall responsible riding theme, instructional material, and mentoring from some of the motorcycle industry’s most talented riders.
We’ve added the promotional videos of the actual film because this last is for the moment watched in military bases only.
In the video attached to this post, Dainese takes us through different versions of their D-Air system and, implicit, through the history of the innovative airbag safety jacket.
Most important, the latest Dainese D-Air airbag suit was recently put to the test by TT star Guy Martin, who’s impressions are: "It’s mega, the suit feels the same as my normal race suit. After about 10 seconds, the airbag goes back down and you could carry on racing.Top, mega, I love it."
There have been many speculations regarding the introduction of a road legal Norton NRV 588 and although production hasn’t even started, we’re able to come up with all the details concerning the radical new bike basing on an early press release that Norton had the kindness to provide.
Developed by Brian Crighton and Spondon Engineering, the Norton is powered by a twin-rotor engine, the same kind that won races against Yamaha, Ducati and Honda back in the early 1990s, before being excluded due to regulations.
So this is history knocking on our door, but it will take some time until we answer because Norton will start production at the Donington Park plant in 2010 with a limited edition series. Yet, that doesn’t stop them from testing what is virtually the prototype of the future road legal model and worm up the audience in expectancy of a second twin-rotor revolution wave.
Episode five of the Ducati Desmosedici Documentary enables all of us to understand how the engine of a race bike ended up powering the MotoGP replica that the Ducati Desmosedici RR, without a doubt, is.
This is the zero-emissions transportation vehicle that is supposed to offer the best green power-to-weight ratio in the near future. It is called the BMW X bike (althought the fact that it has three wheels qualifies it as a trike) and it was designed by Jacobus Marx, who’s inspiration came from BMW’s “efficient dynamic” theme (I guess we can supposed he’s at least fan of the German brand).
Electricity is the key to powering the X bike from zero to 60 in only 4 seconds and to a top speed of more than 150 mph. Two 80KW in-wheel electric motors with regenerative properties are supposed to be used and fed by ceramic batteries that recharge fast and weigh very little.
We must admit that this sound like a plausible concept and can’t help not being impressed by the interactive suspension that is sure to allow filtering through traffic with great ease.