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Honda CRF450L Rally Concept Quietly Debuts in Italy

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When the Honda CRF450 Rally debuted for rally raid competitors in 2012, there was a cry for a production model of this Dakar-ready dirt bike. It took a while, but Big Red finally answer…sort of.

The Honda CRF250L Rally wasn’t exactly the bike that we expect to see in 2015, and it took over a year (and many, many teasings) for the concept to become a reality for the 2017 model year.

The 250cc platform was an interesting choice for Honda to make for its race-replica dirt bike, especially with the underwhelming debut of the CRF250L model, and thus the want for a 450cc version continued.

Now with the potent CRF450L on the market, it looks like that idea is starting to take shape…though, you would hardly know it from the Japanese brand’s actions at EICMA.

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Bikes

The Arc Vector Is an Electric Superbike Whose Big Plans Are Backed by Jaguar Land Rover

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One of the more interesting developments announced at the EICMA show in Milan, Italy was the debut of the Arc Vector electric superbike, which is being back by InMotion Ventures, the investment arm of Jaguar Land Rover. Yes, as in the car manufacturer.

The link to Jaguar Land Rover was an easy one, as Arc founder Mark Truman was formerly part of the company’s skunk works team, called White Space. Other funding partners include Mercia Fund Managers, the Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund which is part of the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, and a number of industry specialist angels.

Arc has been teasing the Vector for the past several weeks, with plenty of buzzwords to go along with its electric motorcycle offering. The company plans a multi-pronged approach to get into the motorcycle industry, which includes creating a line of smart apparel (co-developed with Knox) that includes a helmet with a heads-up display (HUD).

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Bikes

Ducati Panigale V4 RS19 Is Ready for Racing Duty

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In case you missed the launch of the Ducati Panigale V4 R superbike, the 998cc fire-breathing 217hp (162 kW) beast of a motorcycle, Ducati Corse is dead serious about returning to winning form in production superbike racing. In other words, the Bologna brand is all-in when it comes to WorldSBK next year.

Helping them to that object is the Ducati Panigale V4 RS19, a bike that is available only to the racing customers of Ducati Corse.

Dripping in carbon fiber, this track-only weapon is what Chaz Davies and Alvaro Bautista will use next season, as they aim to unseat Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki from their superbike dominance.

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Bikes

Fantic Caballero Rally 500 Is a Minor Work, But Still Gorgeous

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We are big fans of what boutique Italian brand Fantic Motorcycles is doing with its 450cc lineup. To our eye, the Fantic Callabero 500 is modern vintage done right. It almost makes us wish we lived in Europe, so we could go ride the big thumper in anger.

New for this year’s EICMA show is another 450cc bike from the brand, the Fantic Caballero Rally 500. It isn’t an earth-shattering design, and it obviously borrows very heavily from the Fantic Caballero 500 scrambler, but we still enjoy it.

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Bikes

A Better Look at the Pierobon X85R Superbike

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We teased the Pierobon X85R ahead of this year’s EICMA show, and now we have more photos and details of this amazing motorcycle.

Built to be a chassis kit for Ducati owners with an extra Superquadro engine laying around (899/959/1199/1299), the Pierobon X85R takes this potent street bike and makes it into a track weapon.

The concept starts with a steel alloy (25CrMo4) trellis frame, which includes aluminum alloy blocks (EN AW-6082 T6) that have been CNC shaped into lateral plates. The resulting frame can be built out with either a single-sided or double-sided swingarm.

For those interested, the base kit includes the frame, airbox, air ducts, rear subframe, foot pegs, and lateral electronic holders.

That should be enough to get most builders started, though Pierobon also offers its own fuel tank and swingarm designs (the stock units work with the kit though). The result is a truly unique motorcycle with one of the best v-twin engines ever produced.

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WSBK

Honda Dumps Ten Kate for Althea/Moriwaki in WorldSBK

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Honda is making waves in the World Superbike paddock for next season, as HRC has pulled its support from the Ten Kate team, and is instead creating a factory team inside the garage of Althea and Moriwaki, who will jointly run the Red Bull Honda WorldSBK racing effort.

Contracted to HRC, Leon Camier will remain on the Honda CBR1000RR SP2 next season, and he will be joined by Ryuichi Kiyonari. Possessing the correct passport, this news means that the 2019 season will mark nearly a decade’s worth of time since Kiyonari last started a World Superbike race.

As we understand it, Althea Racing will run the logistics and hospitality of the new Honda WorldSBK team, while Moriwaki will handle what happens in the pit box and out on track.

Where this news leaves the Ten Kate team remains to be seen, though the championship is currently without representation from Suzuki, Aprilia, and MV Agusta – the latter making its plans to leave WorldSBK racing clear, earlier this year.

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XXX: So Many Hi-Res Photos of the Royal Enfield KX Concept

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If you are like us, you probably just finished drooling over the Royal Enfield KX concept, and were bummed that there weren’t any more hi-res photos to drool over and scrutinize from EICMA.

We feel your pain…that is why we have got close to 100 more photos for you. Booyakasha!

The bulk of the photos attached in the photo gallery concern the design process of creating the KX concept, which are interesting to see, though a little to “marketing focused” for our taste.

But, the real value comes as you scroll down and see the Royal Enfield KX concept in detail.

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The Honda CB125X Concept Makes Us Think Dirty Thoughts

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We are not sure how big the market is for a 125cc adventure-tourer, especially in the European Union. Close to zero, perhaps? Yet, we are very excited about the Honda CB125X concept (along with its fraternal twin, the Honda CB124M concept).

Maybe the Honda CB125R platform is the wrong starting point for this project, but we like where the Honda Motor Europe R&D team finished with this build.

The CB125X is a clean and attractive motorcycle, and we would romp through every river crossing we could find on this small-displacement thumper.

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Bikes

Honda CB125M Concept Makes Mini-Motos Great Again

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What you are looking at is a Honda CB125R…well, it was the retro-modern 125cc street bike, until Honda Europe R&D got their dirty little mitts on it. Rethinking the pint-sized machine, Honda has created a very fetching concept motorcycle, which it calls the Honda CB125M.

Honda pitches the CB125M as a supermoto, which makes sense with the bike’s 17″ wheels front and bike, but we think the format lends itself more to a mini-moto machine (we were actually surprised to learn that the Honda Grom was not the basis for this concept).

Either way you look at it, the Honda CB125M Concept is pure sex. It’s one of our favorite machines shown at EICMA this year. There is a growing movement in the small-displacement space, sub-300cc, and Honda is all over it (be sure to look at the Honda CB125X concept too).

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BMW F850GS Adventure Brings the Middleweight ADV

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As we predicted, the 2019 BMW F850GS Adventure made its debut at the EICMA show in Milan, giving the German brand another adventure bike in its arsenal on the segment. Obviously based upon the BMW F850GS that we saw debut last year, the F850GS Adventure takes the middleweight’s off-road capability to a higher level.

At the core of the machine is the same 853cc parallel-twin engine that is in the F850GS model, which means a 94hp (75 kW) peak power figure, along with 68 lbs•ft (92 Nm) of torque. It also means a 538 lbs (244 kg) wet weight at the curb, which is absurdly heavy, if we do say so.

Of course, some of that bloat comes from the 6.07-gallon (23 liters) fuel tank that has been added to the mix, which BMW Motorrad says is good for 340 miles (550 km) of riding, which is no joke. So, there are trade-offs to be made there.

Feature-wise, there is also a larger touring windscreen, which is taller and wider. BMW has also included adjustable shifter and brake levers, for better ergonomic adjustment.

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New Kawasaki Versys 1000 SE LT+ Brings Features…At a Price

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For the 2019 model year, Kawasaki is upgrading the Versys 1000 platform, and giving us a new model variant in the process, the Versys 1000 SE LT+, which just debuted at EICMA for the US and European markets.

At the core, the 2019 Kawasaki Versys 1000 SE LT+ is the same machine as before, but right away we can see that Team Green has made some changes, with the design language of the bike falling in line with the Kawasaki Ninja 400 and Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R. It also has the self-healing paint that first debuted on the Kawasaki Ninja H2.

This means that the Kawasaki Versys 1000 SE LT+ retains use of the 1,043cc inline-four engine, which puts out 118hp (88 kW) and 75 lbs•ft (102 Nm) of torque.

She is a big girl though, with a Curb weight that will be 567 lbs, without the saddlebags, handguards, and other optional hardware. What’s makes this bike new is harder to see, besides the bodywork, of course:

Kawasaki has added its KECS electronically controlled suspension pieces; the engine has been updated with electronic throttle valves and a quickshifter; there is a five-axis Bosch IMU that provides cornering ABS; and the dash is a color TFT unit with smartphone connectivity.

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