If the Yamaha Star Venture wasn’t enough motorcycle for you, then you will be happy to hear that Yamaha…

One item we might expect to see at EICMA later this year is BMW Motorrad’s alleged “XDiavel killer” -…

Later this week, Ducati will debut its Desmosedici Stradale engine, the new 90° V4 engine that will power Ducati’s next superbike (amongst other models). To see Ducati’s next superbike though, we’ll have to wait until November’s EICMA show in Milan, Italy…or will we? This photo is going around the internet, purporting to show the new “Panigale V4” superbike. The photo looks legit, and looks very similar to the spy photos that we have seen of the Ducati’s new superbike machine. The bodywork on the Ducati Panigale V4 mimics very closely the previous generation Panigale (the v-twin model), though there are some obvious changes. It looks like the headlight recesses also channel air around the body, likely to aid in cooling the V4 engine.

In less than a week’s time, we will get all the details about Ducati’s new V4 engine, named the…

If you were in the market for a motorcycle that’s the size of a medium-sized car, we have bad news for you, as the recently debuted Yamaha Star Venture will be delayed in its coming to market. Yamaha strategically made this announcement at the start of a three-day weekend, assuring the news would be buried once the American market returned from the Labor Day holiday on Tuesday. It is not clear why Yamaha will delay the production of the Star Venture – Yamaha only offers an explanation in its press release that it “needed modification to the production process” at the factory in Japan – but the delay will mostly affect customers who purchased the bike through Yamaha’s “Priority Delivery Program”.

For the past couple days, we have been strangely attracted to this electric scooter, made by Krautmotors. The best we can tell, the “E-LisaBad” is based off the BMW C Evolution scooter, and what surely must have been the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. The stealth-looking angular matte black fairing catches the eye for sure, but so does the raw rear-end of the scooter, which shows the burly chassis that BMW is building for its electric platform. The whole machine has been lowered from its original ride height, with the rear shocks removed completely, and a drag strip racing slick fitted to the single-sided swingarm. Other than that, the core of the BMW C Evolution remains the same, with its 53 lbs•ft of torque.

In one week’s time, Ducati will unveil its new V4 engine, which will power the next-generation of the Italian company’s superbikes and other high-powered motorcycles. Set to debut the Thursday before the San Marino GP round for MotoGP, Ducati has begun teasing us some information, the first of which is the new motor’s name, the Desmosedici Stradale. True to Ducati naming conventions, the name of the engine literally means what it is, a road-going version of the Desmosedici engine that powers Bologna’s MotoGP project. Between the choice of that name, and the fact that the motor will debut at a MotoGP round, it is clear that Ducati is playing to the engine’s roots that stem from the Desmosedici GP bike, which also uses a 90° V4 power plant with desmodromic valves.

After a 17-year run, the Harley-Davidson V-Rod is finally going to the great motorcycle rally in the sky, as the Bar & Shield brand is quietly dismissing the V-Rod from its 2018 motorcycle lineup. The V-Rod has always been the black sheep in the Harley-Davidson motorcycle offering, with the motorcycle featuring a high-tech liquid-cooled engine that was developed in collaboration with German automaker Porsche. The problem with the V-Rod was also its biggest strength: it was unlike anything else in the Harley-Davidson lineup. The Harley-Davidson V-Rod line eschewed everything that was central to the core Harley-Davidson product attributes.

There is big news from the other side of the motorcycle industry, as Harley-Davidson has merged its Dyna and Softail lines into one, while releasing 13 “new” motorcycles for the 2018 model year. The new bikes fill out the Softail and Touring lines for the Bar & Shield brand, and feature the company’s new Milwaukee-Eight 107 and 114 engines. These changes for the 2018 model year mark the most performance that the Softail line has ever seen, with Harley-Davidson Product Portfolio Manage Paul James saying that the new bikes required “the most extensive research and development program in the company’s history.” The eight new Softail models include: Fat Bob (above), Street Bob, Fat Boy, Heritage Classic, Low Rider, Softail Slim, Deluxe, and Breakout.