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Dakar Rally – Stage 8: Despres Gives Yamaha First Stage Win

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Today’s stage for the 2014 Dakar Rally, a 486 km sprint from Salta, Argentina to Calama, Chile, gave riders quite a view as they glided across parts of the largest salt flat in the world, and up the Andes Mountains as they enter the Chilean section of the rally.

After taking third on yesterday’s stage, Cyril Despres of France took today’s stage win putting up a 5:23:20 on his Yamaha YZ450F Rally, with Joan Barreda of Spain coming in second at 2:09 behind him. This pushes Despres up one position into 9th place overall.

“The idea isn’t really to go looking for stage victories but to try and get back to the front of the rally,” Despres said. “Today, by making up the difference on the tracks between myself and the first riders, I won the special and that’s always a pleasure.”

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Recall

Zero Motorcycles Recalls Bikes that “Quit While Running”

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On the heels of its August 2013 recall for faulty brake caliper mounting bolts, Zero has announced yet another recall for its electric motorcycles, this time one involving  several 2012-2013 models.

In December of last year, Zero Motorcycles released a statement announcing that they intended to recall 667 motorcycles due to faulty firmware that may cause the bike to lose power while running, potentially resulting in a crash.

According to Zero, “the subject motorcycles have a controller firmware that may react to infrequently encountered signal faults.” In layman’s terms, the signal to the motor controller may drift over the course of extended use of the bike, causing the motor to shut down sporadically.

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Racing

Dakar Rally – Stage 5: Coma Leads, Despres Penalized

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Stage five of the 2014 Dakar Rally saw  riders battling  some very inclement conditions. With temperatures soaring to well above 100 degrees and poor visibility due to last week’s rain, Stage Five  took its toll on all the riders as they covered the 912 km jaunt between Chilecito and Tucumán.

“It was another tough day and it was really hot out there,” explained Marc Coma. “To get to the end of the stage I rode for 10 km lost in a river bed.” Coma and his KTM 450 Rally rode to the stage lead with Jordi Viladoms taking second nearly 13 minutes behind Coma, while Kuba Pryzgonski finished third.

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News

Analyst Predicts Indian Will Outsell Victory in 2014

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According to an analyst from UBS Investment Research, Indian Motorcycles is on track to outsell its sibling company Victory Motorcycles in 2014, its first full year of sales since the company’s recent rebirth.

If this prediction turns out to be accurate, this will be a huge feat for Indian, considering the fact that the American brand only sells three models since its relaunch in August of last year, compared to Victory’s current 15 model lineup.

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Recall

BMW is Recalling 50,000+ Bikes Due to Potential Fuel Leaks

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BMW Motorrad North America announced yesterday it will be recalling 50,184 motorcycles ranging from 2005-2012 due to potential fuel leaks. The models affected are the 2005-2011 R-models, 2005-2012 K-models, 2010-2011 S1000RR models, and 2006-2010 HP2 models.

According to BMW, the reason for the recall is the fuel pump flange and auxiliary fuel pump flange may develop cracks and leak, which may result in fires.

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Racing

Video: Setting a Land Speed Record on a Stock CBR600RR

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For SpeedWeek 2013, Shunji Yokokawa  set out on a journey to set a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats, but what he had not anticipated were the challenges that lay ahead.

Yokokawa had always dreamed of riding on the salt flats, but it was not until 2013 as Assistant Chief Engineer for Honda Japan, that he was afforded the opportunity to fulfill his dream, which he describes as “gliding” across the flats.

Assisted by a 2-man crew, Yokokawa traveled to Utah with a bone-stock 2013 Honda CBR600RR in hopes of adding yet another record to one of the many that Honda holds. The CBR was set up specifically with one goal in mind: to break a land speed record with a production class motorcycle, but as Yokokawa and his team wuold find out, there is a reason why so many fail.

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Rumors

Kawasaki to Release a Single-Cylinder 250cc Sport Bike?

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According to TMCBlog (more photos on their site), Kawasaki may be planning to release a new entry level sport bike as a cost effective option for the Southeast Asian market. Rumor has it that this 250cc, single-cylinder bike is under construction and would be the more economical cousin to the Kawasaki Ninja 300 and its parallel-twin engine, while providing more competition for the Honda CBR250R.

While none of this can be confirmed, for time being it is a safe bet that if Kawasaki wants to remain competitive in its Asian markets, and it would be a good business strategy for Kawasaki to produce a bike that is comparable to many of the other single-cylinder bikes in the region, which are being produced by Honda, Suzuki, and KTM.

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Racing

After a 50 Year Hiatus, Saroléa Announces Return to Racing

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Torsten Robbens, Project Manager at Belgium based Saroléa Motorcycles, has announced the company would be competing in the 2014 Isle of Man TT Zero challenge and the FIM eRoad Racing series.

After a 50 year hiatus this comes as a bit of a shock, since the company went defunct in 1963. Saroléa is one of Belgium’s oldest motorcycle companies and is seeking to reinvent itself with a new electric superbike.

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