Yamaha Motor Europe has begun its teaser campaign for what we expect to be a new adventure bike in the company’s lineup.
Debuting the Yamaha T7 Concept at the 2016 EIMCA Show, the 689cc, twin-cylinder, ADV motorcycle is the prime suspect for the unseen motorcycle in this teaser video.
Yamaha hasn’t been bashful about the T7 Concept either, with prototype versions of the bike being caught out testing, and even loaned out the bike for a special photo shoot with Italian publication DueRoute.
Even in Milan, it was widely known that the concept on stage would be headed into production. So, here we are.
If you are going to race at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, you might want to bring something a little bit more peppy than a stock Ducati Hypermotard – not that the Italian street bike isn’t tons of fun, but its now-rated 110hp is going to be robbed blind at it approaches the 14,000+ foot summit.
That is where Michael Woolaway’s latest project for Deus Ex Machina comes into play, as Woolie has taken the Hypermotard, dropped massive amounts of power into its chassis, and then stripped every last bit of unnecessary weight off the machine.
With 200hp on tap, and a paltry 345 lbs measured when fully fueled and on the scales, Woolie’s Pikes Peak Hypermotard is the ultimate in function before form. Of course, the minimalist technical requirements play into Woolie’s bare-bones design as well.
The great experiment that is Marco Melandri’s return to motorcycle racing has apparently paid off, with the Italian rider re-signing with the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team for the 2018 World Superbike Championship season.
The contract renewal is for only one year, with Melandri continuing to ride alongside Chaz Davies on the Ducati Panigale R superbike. Of course for the 2019 season, Ducati Corse will race in WorldSBK with its new V4 superbike, at which time both its riders’ contracts will be up for renewal.
Just in case you have been living under a rock, or been the victim of a massive coma, Ducati is set to debut a new superbike with a V4 engine. The news is a pretty big deal in Ducati circles – the Italian brand finally abandoning the v-twin format for its superbike offering.
Although…this isn’t the first Ducati superbike with a V4 engine, nor is Ducati unfamiliar with making four-cylinder machines.
Since 2003, Ducati has been using a V4 engine to power its MotoGP program, starting first with a “twin pulse” engine design, which operated essentially by having two v-twin engines mated together, and firing in near-unison.
Ducati Corse now uses a “big bang” firing for its MotoGP program. The separation between the engine pulses helps to translate the power from the engine, through the tire, and down to the pavement.
The engine design has also become a GP favorite, with Honda switching from a “screamer” format to a “big bang” format for the 2017, and KTM Racing basing its new MotoGP program around a “big bang” V4 engine design as well.
All of this work on the racing side of Ducati’s Bologna factory ultimately lead to the production of a street model, the Ducati Desmosedici RR. Not a race bike with lights, like we have seen with the Honda RC213V-S, the Desmosedici RR was an all new design that shared very few parts with its racing counterpart.
A limited edition machine, the Ducati Desmosedici RR was bred as an exclusive street bike, with obvious inspirations coming from the MotoGP machine, including its “twin pulse” firing order.
What does this all have to do with the here and now though? Ducati is about to repeat the process, albeit with a superbike that is more fit for mass production.
A couple days ago, we told you that Ducati would be making the updated electronics package on the 2017 Ducati 1299 Panigale, called DTC EVO, available to 2015 and 2016 Panigale owners.
The software update lets the Panigale take full-advantage of the inertial measurement unit (IMU) that is onboard, letting the traction control not only manage wheelspin, as it does on the 2015 and 2016 models, but also allowing it to control how much rear-wheel slide is allowed, as on the 2017 machine.
While DTC EVO is standard on the 2017 model, the software wasn’t developed in time for the earlier 1299 Panigale models. Thankfully, it is an easy feature to add retroactively. Unthankfully though, Ducati is charging a pretty penny for the update: $565 MSRP.
I was just talking last night to my Two Enthusiasts Podcast co-host Quentin Wilson about the recent recall for BMW light reflectors, saying that I bet that we will see another recall from BMW Motorrad – the German brand likely now under the microscope after its service bulletin turned massive recall on the GS front-end.
It seems that I didn’t have to wait long to be correct with the assumption, as BMW Motorrad has another recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this one affecting the 2014-2017 BMW R1200RT Police model
Episode 59 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and it sees a special guest joining the crew, Ms. Leticia Cline (of the internetz). One of the biggest social media influencers in the motorcycle industry, we spent almost two hours talking to Leticia about a number of subjects.
The big bullet points of the discussion revolve around Leticia’s time in the AMA paddock (she used to date some guy named Ben Spies), the state of the motorcycle industry, marketing to women, and how brands are leveraging social media to reach new audiences, like millennials.
Not only does Leticia bring with her a bounty of insight and knowledge, but she is pretty fun to talk to as well. As such, we think you are really going to enjoy this episode.
You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well.