Harley-Davidson is recalling over 4,000 Sportster motorcycles because their brake fluid warning labels may detach from the brake fluid reservoir caps.
If this occurs, then the motorcycles would fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 122, “Motorcycle Brake Systems” and thus need to be recalled with the NHTSA.
There has been much debate over the past two months over the use of front ride-height devices, hydraulic-mechanical systems which lower the front of a MotoGP bike on corner exit.
Ever since Ducati turned up with the device at the Sepang test, the other motorcycle manufacturers have complained about it as a waste of money, an expensive way of finding small performance gains.
That prompted an internal discussion inside the MSMA, the association of motorcycle manufacturers racing in MotoGP.
Marc Marquez has suffered yet another injury setback on his long road to recovery. He has been diagnosed with another episode of diplopia, or double vision, after his huge highside in the morning warm up before the Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika.
Marquez was ruled unfit after the crash, and did not take part in the race at Mandalika. At the time, he had undergone scans to check for broken bones and brain trauma, but the scans turned up nothing serious.
Fearing a concussion, however, Marquez was not allowed to ride, a decision he and his team supported. During his trip back to Spain, however, he started to suffer vision problems again.
Episode 268 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us covering the Indonesian GP at the Mandalika International Street Circuit.
On the mics, we have the full crew of Steve English, David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they look at the second race of the 2022 MotoGP Championship season.
The ranks of the MotoGP Hall of Fame are set to grow once again, with three new inductions coming in 2022 – Max Biaggi, Jorge Lorenzo, and Hugh Anderson.
The Honda Hawk11 made its public debut this past weekend, unveiled at the Osaka Motorcycle Show.
Thanks to spy shots and details that leaked ahead of the bike’s debut, there aren’t too many surprises to be found from this Africa Twin powered roadster.
In fact, the biggest surprise is not on the spec-sheet, as Honda is so far saying that the Hawk11 is destined only for the Japanese market, with nary a word from the European and North American subsidiaries about the bike arriving in those regions.
The first Indonesian GP in 25 years has been a complicated affair. A new track, in the middle of a construction site where a new resort is being built. A track which was resurfaced after the test uncovered issues with the asphalt.
The blistering tropical heat, capable of raising track temperatures to well over 60°. The swapping out of the rear tire used at the test for an older, safer tire used in Austria and Buriram to prevent the tire from blistering if track temperatures get that high.
And the intense rains which leave the track wet for a long time, have eaten into setup time, and keep washing dirt onto the surface.
We say it pretty much every Friday of a MotoGP weekend: it’s hard to draw conclusions from the first day of practice.
The first day of practice is usually spent trying out different setups and then assessing which tires are the best compromise between performance and durability for the race, so just glancing at the timesheets doesn’t tell you as much as you would like.
The first day of practice at Mandalika is even more complicated to unravel. First, there is the fact that it rained heavily on Friday morning, leaving the track damp at the start before drying out.
Then there’s the fact that nearly half the track has been resurfaced, the work finished not long before MotoGP arrived.
Finally, Michelin changed the construction of the rear tire from the one used at the test, in response to the heat at the track, the new surface, and the data from the test.
Yamaha Motor has announced that it is going to donate $700,000 towards humanitarian aid for Ukraine and its surrounding regions.
Tomorrow starts the Osaka Motorcycle Show, a venue that often showcases new models from the Japanese OEMs, and one of the highlights we expect to see this year is the Honda Hawk11.
There have been rumors of the Honda Hawk making a comeback in Big Red’s lineup, and that arrival is set to be this weekend, as Honda is teasing the Hawk11 street bike.
Episode 85 of the Brap Talk motorcycle podcast is out with another “weekly” episode, for your two-wheeled listening pleasure.
In this episode we talk about what happened last week in the motorcycle industry…and the week before that…and the week before that. Okay, we talk about a lot of things that have happened so far this year.