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Honda & Yamaha Team Up on Electric Motorcycles

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Typically, Honda and Yamaha see themselves as competitors in the two-wheeled space, but today it seems that the two brands are going to work together, to further along the process of bringing electric motorcycles to market.

The partnership sees Honda and Yamaha working with Saitama City (just north of Tokyo), in order to begin testing an electric motorcycles rental program. The project aims to put 30 small electric motorcycles (really electric scooters at this point) onto the roadways, with charging and battery swap stations available.

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News

3D Metal Printing Takes Another Step Forward

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The next generation of manufacturing is rapidly upon, if you will excuse the pun. Rapid prototyping and 3D metal printing is about to get considerably faster and cheaper, if you believe the hype surrounding manufacturing startup Desktop Metal, which just got another $115 million in funding, I might add.

Until now, traditional 3D metal printers relied on lasers to melt metal powders so they could be “printed” into complex shapes, which not only limited what alloys could be used in those situations, but it was also fairly time intensive.

Using what it calls “microwave enhanced sintering” though, Desktop Metal can print with virtually any kind of metal (including steel, aluminum, titanium and copper), and do it at a much faster rate – 100x faster than other additive manufacturing processes, if you believe them.

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News

Bids Come in for Ducati, Just Not from Harley-Davidson

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Reuters continues to dish on Ducati’s possible divestiture from the Volkswagen Group, with news that several bids have been placed on the Italian motorcycle brand. Reuters says that amongst the bidders are several key brands like, Polaris, Bajaj, and Royal Enfield’s owners Eicher Motors.

Noticeably absent from the list of potential buyers however was the much talked-about Harley-Davidson, a name that the same Reuters reporters first offered as Ducati’s potential future owner.

Now Reuters offers us another name as the likely front-runner, pointing to Italy’s Benetton family (as in, the United Colors of Benetton), which has reportedly submitted a bid of $1.2 billion, through its investment arm Edizione Holding.

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News

BMW Motorrad Sales Grow 9.5% in First-Half of 2017

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The motorcycle industry is generally full of doom and gloom this year, but BMW Motorrad continues to post record sales, as it boasts of a record first-half of the year, with 9.5% growth.

In the first six months of 2017, BMW sold 88,389 units to customers, up from the 80,754 units sold in the first-half of 2016. That growth is attributed mostly to progress made on the European continent, says BMW, which is up 12.9% so far this year.

Those European numbers break down as follows: France: 9,447 units (+21%); Italy: 9,099 units (+15%); Spain 5,573 units (+8%); and UK/IE 5,410 units (+14%).

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Podcast

Two Enthusiasts Podcast #58 – California Dream

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Episode 58 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast chronicles a busy week in California, as we head down to Laguna Seca for the World Superbike and MotoAmerica racing rounds.

The weekend involved getting the first glimpse of the Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition, the last v-twin superbike from the Italian brand. We also got to talk to Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali about the company’s new V4 superbike, with more than a few surprises being told about the new machine.

Of course there was the on-track action, which includes yours truly getting a some seat time the Monday after the races, riding at a no noise restriction track day (something that almost never happens) with the good folk at Pirelli tires.

While there, we sat down with Giorgio Barbier, the Director of Pirelli’s Motorcycle Racing program. We talked a bit of shop while at the track day, and have included that conversation towards the end of the show, for your listening pleasure.

The audio isn’t perfect, since we’re right on the track – did I mention there was no noise restriction for the bikes? – but you should be able to hear Giorgio with no problems.

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.

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Bikes

Assorted Ducati Concepts by Jakusa Design

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I’m a sucker for a good concept sketch, and these Ducati motorcycle renders by Jakusa Design have been fueling my imagination lately, so I thought it would be worth sharing them on the site.

These concepts are of particular note because of how Ducati uses its v-twin engine designs to power multiple motorcycles, across multiple riding segments, which adds to Ducati’s reputation as a v-twin brand, but more importantly helps the Italian manufacturer control costs.

This is something that is about to get more interesting though as Ducati introduces its V4 engine, which as Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali told us, will also power multiple bikes as a platform engine.

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Recall

Recall: 2017 Yamaha YZF-R3

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Yamaha Motor USA is recalling about 40 units of its 2017 Yamaha YZF-R3 motorcycle because of an issue with the bikes’ vehicle identification number (VIN) label.

Apparently, the affected machines were manufactured with Canadian Motor Vehicle Certification labels, instead of proper VIN labels for the US market. 

Since this means that the machines fail to comply with federal laws concerning the certification of vehicles, a recall must commence.

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News

Harley-Davidson Q2 2017 Sales Tank 9.3% in the USA

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Any hopes of the US motorcycle market making gains in 2017 appear to be going out the window, as Harley-Davidson reports that its Q2 2017 sales are down a whopping 9.3% – prompting the Bar & Shield brand to readjust its delivery numbers to dealers in the United States.

Sales worldwide were equally bleak for the American company, with international figures down 2.3% for the same time period. This means Harley-Davidson’s combined worldwide sales numbers are down 6.7% for Q2 2017.

As a result, Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich said that Harley-Davidson would see a reduction in its workforce, though he would not offer specifics on what that could look like for its mostly union workforce.

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MotoGP

Paddock Pass Podcast #56 – German GP

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Episode 56 of the Paddock Pass Podcast sees David Emmett and Neil Morrison on the mics, as they cover the German GP at Sachsenring. With a mix of conditions, and a few surprises, the results from MotoGP’s stop in Germany might have been easy to predict, but how we got to it was anything but obvious.

As such, the guys talk about the eventful race weekend for all three Grand Prix classes. The show then turns to some talk about current state of the rider market – who is staying with their current team, and who is moving on to greener pastures.

The show then concludes with a discussion of the weekend’s biggest winners and losers, as is becoming the custom on the podcast. It’s another great show from the Paddock Pass crew, and you won’t want to miss it.

As always, be sure to follow the Paddock Pass Podcast on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to the show on iTunes and SoundCloud – we even have an RSS feed for you. If you like the show, we would really appreciate you giving it a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

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Bikes

BMW Motorrad USA Issues “Stop Sale” on the R1200GS

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What started out as a worldwide service campaign for the water-cooled BMW R1200GS models is turning into a massive global recall for the German motorcycle manufacturer, as now the United States has joined the United Kingdom in issuing a recall on the popular ADV machine.

Accordingly, BMW Motorrad USA has issued a “stop sale” to BMW dealers, as documents for a recall with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are being readied for release.

The recall sees BMW Motorrad dealers inspecting the fixed fork tube on R1200GS models produced between November 2013 and June 2017. If the inspected motorcycle has an excessively large gap between the fork pipe and the seal plug, then the fork cannot be repaired by the dealer, and must be replaced.

If no gap is present (or if the gap is of an acceptable distance), BMW dealers must still press in a sleeve on the fork, before returning the bike back to the owner. With over 150,000 motorcycles potentially affected worldwide, this recall will be a massive undertaking for BMW Motorrad.

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