We knew the time would come when one of the major manufacturers started entering the electric motorcycle space, and it seems KTM is set to be the first to produce an full-sized electric offering with its Freeride near-series prototypes. After initially showing their prototype electric motocross bike in 2009, KTM has teased us with two new images of an electric MX and supermoto with a promise to release more information March 26th, at bikes’ unveiling at the 2010 Tokyo Motorcycle Show.
The crew over at On The Throttle TV have been doing a multi-part interview with AMA legend Mat Mladin. OTT asked Mladin what he thought about former rival Ben Spies as a racer. Mat’s response: the best rider of our time, or not far behind Rossi himself. That’s high praise a from a six time AMA Champion, and even higher praise from the Aussie rider. You can find the whole interview here, and the clip after the jump.
While the US motorcycle market posted a 36% decline last month compared to a year ago, BMW was busy posting up some impressive numbers. The German company is reporting its February 2010 sales numbers are up 52% compared to February 2009. The main reason for the surge: the 2010 BMW S1000RR superbike, which would make BMW’s gamble of competing head-to-head with the Japanese Four a venerable victory. More after the jump.
The subject as to where Valentino Rossi will race in the future and finish his career has been a subject of much speculation, and seems to endure through the seasons. As usual we’ve already seen the speculation that Rossi may drive a Formula 1 car for Ferrari, or join Ducati for a perfect storm of corse italiano. Rossi usually likes to fan the rumors by staying non-committal, but in a recent interview with Motosprint Magazine, the nine time World Champion Valentino Rossi revealed that he would like to stay in racing for another three years, likely ending his career with Yamaha.
Harley-Davidson is all the rage this morning on Wall Street as rumors of the company getting bought out by private equity firm KKR abound.
The rumors suggest that Harley-Davidson could be taken into private ownership if KKR’s rumored leveraged buyout (LBO) should materialize.
KKR is giving its standard “We don’t comment on deal speculation” reply, while Harley-Davidson reps could not be reached, which makes this rumor hard to confirm. True or not, Wall Street is acting like its the real thing.
The second of three 25th anniversary GSXR’s, the 2010 Suzuki GSX-R600 Limited Edition is a run of 25 motorcycles destined for our friends across the pond in the UK. Helping commemorate 25 years of the GSX-R series, the 25th Anniversary GSX-R600 comes with a retro 1999 World Superbike paint scheme, along with a Yoshimura exhaust system, commemorative top yoke, and a certificate of authenticity. For this sort of exclusivity, British buyers can expect to £8,799, or £1,000 over list price. Photos and more after the jump.
Yamaha has gotten on board with this amazing new age device called “the iPhone”. You may have heard about this crazy thing that kids are using, and perhaps even seen a segment about it on 60 Minutes. Helping fuel the addiction, Yamaha’s application brings riding a Yamaha street bike or dirt bike into the palm of your hand…we think. Our Japanese is admittedly not so good…as in, no one here at the A&R office speaks it.
Despite this setback, we’re fairly certain the idea behind this iPhone application from Yamaha has to do with reving a make believe motorcycle with one’s closed hand, and pretending that an YZF-R1 or YZ450F is blowing your hair back, all while wearing a black Alpinestars glove. If that’s still not clear, check out this video after the jump for a demonstration of how to use the iPhone application from various angles and riding modes. You can download the application and try it your self here.
When we first heard the news about the upcoming Moto2 series, we were excited about the rumors of Bimota coming back into the racing scene; after all the 600cc prototype class seemed like the perfect place for the Italian company to show off its amazing chassis designs. So understandably it saddened us to see Bimota not taking a dominant role as teams and the series itself matured. As the situation would have it, only FB Corse signed on to use the HB4 race bike. This however seems to be no longer the case, as another team has shown interest in what we believe is the best looking bike in the Moto2 paddock.
Officially official now, Team Agni has confirmed their entrance into the Isle of Man’s TT Zero electric racing event. Although we’ve suspected for some time that this announcement would come, Agni through up a dust storm a couple months ago when they said they would not compete at the Isle of Man if generators were being used to power the TT Zero paddock. The use of generators was quickly denied by TT Zero organizers, and apparently Team Agni was content with their response. For 2010, Agni will field two bikes on the TT Zero grid, with the hopes of achieving the first 100+mph speed average over the Mountain Course.
For the third and final installment of its One on One series with Ben Spies and Eddie Lawson, Yamaha asks the riders about their competitive nature both in training and on the track, the teams that supported them in their endeavors, what its like to ride the 500GP bikes, and Eddie leaves us with a closing story about some of his old antics. Like the second part of this series, this video is a nine minute insight into a top-level racer’s mindset, and speaks to the hard work that goes into being a champion. Watch it after the jump.
Loris Capirossi seemed destined to owe Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta a steak dinner after the Balatonring supposedly secured funding from the Hungarian Development Bank. That bad fortune (for Hungarian MotoGP fans, not for Capirex) seems to have changed however as the loan has now been refused by the Hungarian bank, which leaves the Hungarian circuit a big question mark for the 2010 MotoGP calendar as it struggles to raise the needed $80 million. Story gets worse after the jump.