Trending
Asphalt & Rubber
Author

Jensen Beeler

Browsing
Recall

Yamaha MT-07 & XSR700 Recalled for Loose Bolts

By

Yamaha Motor Corporation is recalling 3,493 units from its 689cc twin-cylinder platform – MT-07 & XSR700 – because of issues with the chain guard mounting bolts.

These are the bolts that connect the drive chain guard to the swingarm, and it is possible that they may loosen, which could cause the chain guard to contact the drive chain and break.

Since the Department of Transportation requires motorcycles to have a chain guard installed, this has lead to a recall for Yamaha MT-07 and Yamaha XSR700 owners.

Keep Reading
By
A&R Pro

The High Fives Heard in Milwaukee

By

There were high fives heard all over Milwaukee last week. Reading the headlines and stories that came from Harley-Davidson’s Mega Monday announcement, one could only conclude that the American icon was back. They did it. They were showing signs of life again. Boomshackalacka.

No one saw an adventure-touring bike with knobby tires coming from the Bar & Shield brand, and the idea of a sport bike from Harley-Davidson seemed inconceivable just over a week ago as well.

Milwaukee even impressed with its more “core” offerings, with the Harley-Davidson Custom being perhaps the first cruiser we would want sitting in our garage. It looks gorgeous, and is just sporty and modern enough to be “a real motorcycle” in our eyes…we think.

Let us too not forget that the iconic American brand is poised to lead the motorcycle industry with the first full-size, production, electric motorcycle from an established OEM. Stodgy, old, conservative Harley-Davidson will be an industry-leader this time next year, with its Livewire machine. Crazy.

Sprinkled into the news was a look at Harley-Davidson’s lineup of electric vehicles, which creates a pathway for non-riders to become diehard Harley-Davidson enthusiasts.

Harley-Davidson talked about its plans abroad; its desire to make entry-level / price-point motorcycles; its goal to add more riders, from more diverse demographics; its plans to add another engine platform that would range from 250cc to 500cc in displacement, and power bikes for the American, European, and developing markets.

Oh yes, there were certainly high fives heard all over Milwaukee last week, but it wasn’t because everyone was talking about all of this information that Harley-Davidson sprung on the motorcycle industry.

Instead, there were high fives in Milwaukee last week because no one was talking about Harley-Davidson’s shrinking Q2 sales, or the fact that the company’s stock price dropped 0.5% on the news.

Keep Reading
By
Rumors

Ducati’s Project 1309 Reveals a New Diavel Coming

By

We didn’t hear too much about “Project 1309” from World Ducati Week 2018, which is surprising considering what the past has shown us about Ducati’s secret reveals, but the Bologna brand was once again giving a teaser to fans in Misano.

In the past, World Ducati Week has been the place where Ducati showed us the first Scrambler model, and last year the event debuted the return of the Ducati SuperSport. This year, it is another new bike. A new Diavel, to be precise.

Set to compliment the current XDiavel model, the new Diavel features the same 1,262cc DVT engine with variable valve timing, but puts it into the more sport Diavel riding platform.

Keep Reading
By
MotoGP

Monday MotoGP Test Summary at Brno: Forward Progress

By

You would think that after a tough weekend of racing in punishing conditions, the riders would find it very hard to spend eight hours on a MotoGP bike, pushing as close to race pace as possible, testing new parts and setup.

Not according to Andrea Dovizioso. “No, for me it’s very easy, and it’s the easiest way to do that. If there is a break, it’s worse,” he told us at the end of Monday’s test at Brno.

There was a pretty full cast of MotoGP characters present, with one or two notable exceptions. The Reale Avintia and Angel Nieto Team Ducati teams were both absent, because they had nothing to test except setup, and testing is expensive.

Pol Espargaro was in the hospital waiting for scans on his broken collarbone and his back, which confirmed that luckily only his collarbone was fractured, and it won’t need to be plated (though he will definitely miss KTM’s home race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria).

HRC test rider Stefan Bradl was also absent, after stretching ligaments in his right shoulder in a crash he caused on the first lap. A crash in which he also took out Maverick Viñales, who also suffered a minor shoulder injury, and decided not to test.

Given the massive tension in Viñales’ garage at the moment between him and his crew, skipping the test may have been the best option anyway.

Keep Reading
By
Business

MAG Appoints Interim CEO & New Chairman

By

The past year has been a tumultuous one for the Motorcycle Aftermarket Group (MAG). In November 2017, the conglomerate filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, as it restructured its debt from missteps during the economic recession.

That process concluded in April of this year, with the company’s creditors (Monomoy Capital Partners, BlueMountain Capital, and Contrarian Partners) taking control and ownership of MAG.

Now trying to move forward, MAG has announced that Mike Buettner will become the company’s interim CEO, while Bob Peiser will serve as chairman of MAG’s Board of Directors.

The news comes as the Sturgis motorcycle rally kicks off in North Dakota, where both Buettner and Peiser will be in attendance, in order to meet customers and dealers who were affected by MAG’s restructuring. The pair will also be at the AIMExpo and the Tucker Dealer show, later this year.

Keep Reading
By
MotoGP

Sunday MotoGP Summary at Brno: Closer Racing, Tougher Rivals, & Rough Weekends

By

A third of the way into Sunday’s race at Brno, and there was a group of eleven riders fighting for the lead. That’s the MotoGP race, not the Moto3 race. In the Moto3 race at the same stage, there was still a group of twenty riders at the front.

In Moto2, ten riders were in the group at the front. If you wanted to see close racing, Brno delivered the goods, in all three classes. The MotoGP race saw the eighth closest podium finish of all time, and the closest top ten in history.

Moto2 was decided by seven hundredths of a second. The podium finishers in all three classes were separated by half a second or less. And the combined winning margin, adding up the gap between first and second in MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3, was 0.360. Are you not entertained?

“A good battle,” is how Cal Crutchlow described Sunday’s MotoGP race at Brno. “I think again, MotoGP has proved to be the best motor sport entertainment there is. Week in, week out we keep on having these battles.”

The race may not have seen the hectic swapping of places which we saw at Assen. The lead may not have changed hands multiple times a lap on multiple laps. Yet the race was as tense and exciting as you could wish, with plenty of passing and the result going down to the wire.

Is it any surprise that Brno should produce such great racing? Sunday’s race reiterated just how crucial circuit layout is in racing. The track is one of the widest on the calendar, with sweeping corners which run into each other.

A defensive line going into a corner leaves you open to attack on corner exit. What’s more, even if you ride defensively, or pass a rider and get passed again, you still end up with the same lap time. Brno, Assen, Mugello, Phillip Island: these tracks are made for motorcycle racing.

Keep Reading
By
Business

VW CEO Outlines Two Possible Futures for Ducati

By

The Clash’s hit song “Should I Stay, Or Should I Go” might perhaps perfectly fit the business situation for Ducati, within its parent company, Volkswagen AG.

The Italian motorcycle brand’s status in the German conglomerate has for the past few years been held on a tenuous string. Rumor about its divestiture, its selling to another company, are constantly dogging the iconic brand.

Talking to Bloomberg TV after Volkswagen’s quarterly earnings report, VW CEO Herbert Diess explained that there are two paths forward for Ducati, and one of them includes selling Ducati to the highest bidder.

“We have to look which is the best ownership for Ducati,” said Diess to Bloomberg. “Either we find a way forward for Ducati, which provides some growth, some probably additional brands, or we have to look for new ownerships,” he added. “I wouldn’t exclude that.”

While one plan would be to take Ducati – which Diess describes as the most valuable motorcycle brand in the world – and sell it to another company, the other option is much more intriguing.

Diess ideates that for Ducati to continue to be successful under Volkswagen ownership, the motorcycle company would have to become a house of brands.

We have seen this strategy tried before in the motorcycle industry, albeit in the Diet Coke version of the principle, with the Scrambler Ducati sub-brand.

Diess seems to think that Ducati (essentially VW’s motorcycle group) could continue to grow by building or acquiring other brands. No longer a single-line two-wheeled business unit, Ducati could find a complimentary brand to build out its motorcycle portfolio.

We have seen this move before, with mixed results and mixed efforts.

Of course, no one can forget the failure that was Buell under Harley-Davidson ownership, though I would argue that the American brand’s ownership of MV Agusta was untested but looked incredibly positive.

KTM employs a similar strategy with Husqvarna, using the Swedish brand to make more premium versions of KTM’s products, and also to explore other designs and segments that are outside of KTM’s typical wheelhouse.

It is MV Agusta though that perhaps shows the way forward for Ducati, with the Italian set to revive the historic Cagiva marque, in order to build electric and off-road focused machines, which will dovetail nicely into MV Agusta’s gas-only sport bike focus.

What will the coming months show for Ducati Motor Holdings? That remains to be seen. The name itself gives some hints, however.

Source: Bloomberg TV

Keep Reading
By
MotoGP

KTM’s Counter-Rotating MotoGP Engine Debuts at Brno

By

Ever since Jerez, when the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team debuted a new engine with a counter-rotating crankshaft, fans and journalists have been asking when factory riders Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith would be able to use the new engine on a race weekend.

KTM test rider Mika Kallio had been very positive about the engine during the Jerez weekend, and Smith and Espargaro had spoken in glowing terms about it after the Jerez test.

KTM’s response was always that it would not be ready until at least after the summer break. Reversing the direction of crankshaft rotation is not as simple as sticking an intermediate gear between the crank and the clutch, to allow the crank to spin in the opposite direction while maintaining forward thrust.

Reversing the crankshaft means that the stresses in the engine are very different, and require careful testing to ensure it will operate reliably.

At Brno, it was evident that Bradley Smith finally had the new engine at his disposal. The difference is visible, if you look very carefully, from the torque reaction and other clues.

When Smith was asked whether he had the new engine, he refused to give a straight answer, telling reporters, “If you have any questions, [KTM MotoGP project leader] Sebastian Risse is the person to speak to.”

When we pointed out that we would see whether they had introduced the new engine once Dorna published the official engine usage lists, Smith replied, “I suppose you will.”

Dorna has now published those lists, and it is obvious that Smith has indeed been given two new engines for use at Brno.

Though the engine lists do not show the engine specification, only whether it is unused or not, it is unusual to introduce two new engines at the same time, unless they are a different spec. Riders need engines with the same specification during practice to allow them to work reliably on set up.

The bad news for KTM is that they are still having reliability problems. Smith suffered four different technical issues this weekend, forced to leave the bike at the side of the track a couple of times, and pulling into the pits earlier than expected on both Friday and Saturday.

So KTM decided to take the precaution of going back to the old engine for the race, with the forward rotating crankshaft. That engine is a known quantity, and should under normal circumstances last until the end of the race.

There was more bad news for KTM during the morning warm up on Sunday, however. Pol Espargaro crashed heavily just before Turn 3, and fractured his left collarbone in the crash.

Espargaro missed the race at Brno, but more importantly, he will also miss the official MotoGP test here on Monday. With Mika Kallio out for the long term with ligament damage in his knee picked up in the crash at the Sachsenring, the testing work will fall squarely on the shoulders of Bradley Smith.

It is still uncertain whether Espargaro will be fit in time for KTM’s home race, the Austrian round of MotoGP at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

Photo: © 2018 Marcin Kin / KTM – All Rights Reserved

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.

Keep Reading
By
MotoGP

Sunday at the Czech GP with Tony Goldsmith

By

Photos: © 2018 Tony Goldsmith / www.tonygoldsmith.net – All Rights Reserved

Tony Goldsmith is an Isle of Man based freelance motorcycle racing photographer specializing in MotoGP and the Isle of Man TT races. His website can be found at www.tonygoldsmith.net. He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Keep Reading
By