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News

Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, & Yamaha Are Collaborating on Electric Standards for Motorcycles

By Jensen Beeler 04/09/2019 No Comments

The electric motorcycle segment is beginning to mature. We know this because word from Japan has Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha collaborating together on various standards for electric motorcycles.

If it doesn’t immediately strike you as such, this is incredibly big news.

The move sees the Big Four creating a consortium that will work together to bring homogenized battery, charging, infrastructure, and other items into reality so that there can be interoperability between the brands and less confusion in the marketplace.

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News

There Is More Talk of Dainese Being for Sale

By Jensen Beeler 04/08/2019 No Comments

Despite the company’s denials last year, rumors of Dainese being for sale have continued to hit our ear drums, and they continue to do so now.

This is because reports out of Italy are once again saying that Investcorp (the Bahraini investment group that has a controlling interest in Dainese S.p.A) is looking to sell its shares.

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News

Norton: We’re Not Dead Yet!

By Jensen Beeler 03/08/2019 No Comments

Earlier today, the British site Visordown reported that Norton Motorcycles was set to go out of business, as the British Companies House (a sort of business registrar in the United Kingdom) was striking Norton Motors UK Ltd from its list and dissolving the business for inactivity.

It was a shocking development, to say the least, and though Norton is a small company, the news came as a surprise. After all, the last few months have not been kind for the small manufacturers in the motorcycle industry, with the deaths of Alta and Motus still fresh on our minds..

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News

BRP Buys Parts of Alta Motors, Has No Plans to Restart Production

By Jensen Beeler 02/21/2019 No Comments

In a terse press release this morning, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) announced that it has acquired select assets of Alta Motors’ parent company Faster-Faster, Inc.

Those assets include “certain intellectual property, patents and some limited physical assets from the former all-electric motorcycle design and manufacturing company,” to put it in BRP’s words.

BRP plans to use these assets as part of its ongoing research into electric and hybrid drives for recreational vehicles, and hopes that the technology will help jumpstart its own efforts for electric transportation products.

The Canadian company is very quick to point out, however, that BRP has no interest in restarting operations of Alta Motors and assumes no liabilities.

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Racing

Bridgepoint Capital Sells Dorna…To Itself, Explained

By David Emmett 02/20/2019 No Comments

Motorcycle racing is a profitable business, it turns out. The leading UK financial paper Financial Times reported yesterday that Bridgepoint Capital, the private equity firm that owns Dorna, among many other assets, has hit upon a relatively novel way of paying out investors, by transferring the roughly 40% of Dorna that it owns between one Bridgepoint fund and another.

The proposed sale is a result of a review carried out by merchant bankers Lazard at the end of last year, with the aim of fixing a value and finding potential buyers. According to the FT, several private equity firms expressed an interesting in buying Bridgepoint’s stake, including former owners CVC.

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News

Report: More Americans Behind on Car Loans Than Ever Before

By Jensen Beeler 02/18/2019 No Comments

Here is some interesting automotive news for you that has bearing over our two-wheeled world, as CNN is reporting that more Americans are behind on their car loans than ever before.

The news accounts for two trends that we are seeing in the United States. One, the decline of automobile ownership; and two, the rising debt load amongst citizens, especially millennial buyers.

What this translates into the car world – namely that buyers are increasingly defaulting on their auto loans – likely bears the same reality in the motorcycle industry, since so many motorbikes are bought through financed payment schemes.

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News

The United States Is No Longer Ducati’s Largest Market

By Jensen Beeler 01/23/2019 No Comments

When it comes to sales figures for 2018, it is a good news / bad news type of situation for Ducati Motor Holding.

This is because the Italian brand sold 53,004 motorcycles to customers last year, which is a 5% drop from 2017’s figures, and ends an eight-year growth streak for the brand. That’s the bad news.

The good news though is that Ducati claimed the title as the top superbike brand in the world, with 9,700 Panigale models sold in 2018. This marks a 70% increase over the 2017 figures, thanks largely to the new Panigale V4 model.

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News

Moody’s Upgrades Piaggio’s Credit Rating to Slightly Less Horrible

By Jensen Beeler 01/18/2019 No Comments

Today’s headline is all about Moody’s upgrading Piaggio’s credit rating to “Ba3” – up from its previous “B1” rating.

I understand that financial credit rating systems aren’t exactly your typical fare on a motorcycle news site, so stay with me here for a minute.

The basic gist is that moving from a B1 rating to a Ba3 rating takes Piaggio beyond the threshold of being “highly speculative” investment opportunity to “non-investment grade” business in the eyes of investors.

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News

BMW Motorrad Sets Eighth Record Year of Motorcycle Sales

By Jensen Beeler 01/16/2019 No Comments

BMW Motorrad has released its yearly figures for 2018, and the report is mostly positive. Sales worldwide were up a very modest 0.9% for the year (165,566 in total unit sales), and this does mean that 2018 was the German company’s eighth year in row of growth.

The news was good for BMW Motorrad USA as well, with the American subsidiary showing a 2.2% bump in sales (13,842 units) compared to 2017, thanks primarily to the company’s introduction of the K1600 Grand America.

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News

KTM Set to Acquire Up to 50% of KISKA

By Jensen Beeler 01/10/2019 No Comments

KTM has been on a phenomenal track for the past eight years, seeing record set each successive annum.

Part of the secret sauce to that success has been KTM’s partnership with KISKA, the Austrian design firm that is largely responsible for making KTM’s bikes look good, both in real life and in the media.

As KTM ramps up its lineup of two-wheelers, and continues to push into new markets and segments, the motorcycle manufacturer is looking to secure its stake is KISKA, announcing plans to take its ownership position from 26% to 50%.

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Opinion/Editorial

The Five Most Important Motorcycle Stories from 2018

By Jensen Beeler 12/29/2018 No Comments

2018 is coming to a close now, so we of course are looking back at what happened over the past year in the motorcycle industry.

There was no shortage of weighty stories in 2018, so we picked just our Top 5 big themes from the year to share with you.

They range from business items, racing news, and new motorcycles (or the lack thereof). Without too much fanfare, let’s get into it, and see Asphalt & Rubber‘s most important stories from 2018.

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