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Honda Goes 1, 2, 3, at Second Day of Testing at Sepang

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The Honda boys were out in full-force today, as MotoGP testing continued at Sepang. With only Toni Elias outside of the Top 7, Honda’s race package for the 2011 season is looking very stout, despite the fact that chassis selections still haven’t been finalized. While landing at the top of the results list is about as useful as yelling “first” in the comments section, Casey Stoner just barely snatched the honor away from Dani Pedrosa in his final lap around the Malaysian circuit, leaving only .058 seconds between the teammates.

Like yesterday, the Yamaha Racing factory squad looked in good form as well, with Spies showing marked improvements despite crashing in one of the sessions. Jorge Lorenzo spent some time on two different bikes, confirming the direction his crew was going with developing the 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1 for the new season.

Things weren’t progressing as well in the Ducati camp though, as all the teams struggled with front-end issues. Notably absent from the day was Valentino Rossi, who has come down with cold/flu like symptoms. He retired to the hotel, in the hopes of being well enough to ride in tomorrow’s last day of testing. Carrying the Corse flag alone, Nicky Hayden had a tough day that ended with gearbox problems. Still, the ever-positive American was hopeful for better fortunes on Thursday as the team seems to have worked out some chatter issues.

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Bikes

2012 Honda Goldwing Gets Minor Tweaks

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There must be a new rule in the tourer market segment where “all new bikes” consist of minor revisions to existing machines, as Honda has apparently taken a page out of Harley-Davidson’s playbook, and done an exciting upgrade to the 2012 Honda Goldwing. While rumors were overly-hyped that an all-new Goldwing would be making an American appearance, it appears instead that the Honda engineers have gone on to further improve upon their design of the legendary touring motorcycle.

No longer built in America at Honda’s now defunct Marysville, Ohio plant, the Japanese produced 2012 Honda Goldwing comes with a slightly larger price tag, but boasts some improvements to justify the cost. Revamped bodywork, larger capacity luggage pieces, improved built-in GPS with iPod/MP3 player support, and revised suspension complete the changes for the new Goldwing. It’s hard to impress sport bike guys with a big bike like the Honda Goldwing, but if you’re interested in buying the gold standard (no pun intended) of motorcycle touring, things just got a bit more appealing we imagine.

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Bikes

Honda NSF250R Moto3 Race Bike Breaks Cover

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Honda has finally given us an unshaded photo of its 250cc four-stroke Moto3 race bike, dubbed the Honda NSF250R. Despite the clearer view, there are no real surprises here (this actually looks like the same photo as used before, sans photoshopping), as the majority of the bike is still covered by the primer-painted fairing. Honda says the new NSF250R is designed to be like the RS125R it replaces: high-performaning, lightweight, and compact. This should make the switch from two to four-strokes easier for young riders, and limit the need to adjust riding styles for the new machine.

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Racing

Rumor: OEM Entering Electric Racing This Season

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There’s a quiet rumor going on in the electric racing circles that a major OEM of internal combustion motorcycles is poised to enter one of the electric racing series this season. Which manufacturer and which series is not being openly discussed, but judging from whom is talking about the possibility, and perhaps more importantly who is not talking about it, our best guess would be a Japanese manufacturer like Honda is at the center of the rumor. Honda has already been caught testing hybrid componentry at the 25hrs of Thunderhill, coincidentally with technology produced by electric motorcycle upstart Mission Motors.

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Racing

Castrol Honda Talks about Being Castrol Honda

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The name “Castrol Honda” in motorcycle racing is something that spans several decades, and for this writer conjures up the days when v-twins ruled World Superbikes. The battle in 2002 between Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss is a season talked about when referencing “the glory years of World Superbike”, and I can still remember watching The Showdown at Imola, the final race of 2002 season, when Colin Edwards clinched the World Championship (did you just get goose bumps too?)…in fact it’s that race that got me hooked on motorcycles in the first place.

Taking that legacy into 2011, the newly reformed Castrol Honda team, campainged by Ten Kate Racing with factory Honda support, has quite a legacy to live up to…and the team knows it. Talking about what it means to wear the green, white, and red livery, Castrol Honda team members talk about the name’s past, and what they plan to accomplish this season while wearing the oil company’s banner. Check out their video after the jump.

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Racing

2011 Honda RC212V – Not All Bikes Are Created Equally

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Repsol Honda made its 2011 MotoGP season debut today, showing off its three-man team of Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, and Andrea Dovizioso, along with the 2011 Honda RC212V, which will compete against the Yamaha YZR-M1 and Ducati Desmosedici GP11. An oddity in the GP paddock, HRC will field the three riders under one roof, having wooed Stoner away from Ducati after the Australian rider and Italian team had spilled bad blood in the 2009 season.

While Stoner was originally supposed to have his own team, presumably under the Red Bull banner, Repsol finally stepped up to the plate with its pocketbook when the Red Bull deal failed to materialize. Having three top riders in one team left some doubts as to how Honda was going to manage its talented rider pool, and a cursory look at the different machines that each rider will field sheds some light on the subject.

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News

Honda Sales Up 19% Globally for 2010 – Sells 80% in Asia

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Honda Motor Co. just released its sales figures for motorcycles in 2010, and surprisingly the Japanese company has done very well during an otherwise dismal year for the motorcycle industry. The secret to Honda’s success? The Asian market. Eight out of ten motorcycles Honda produces, ends up in Asia…and this figure excludes motorcycles sold in Japan and China.

Honda sold 14.3 million motorcycles in what it calls Asian countries last year (17.7 million globally), a record for the company, and a figure that is 23% higher than the previous record, which was set last year (another horrible year for the motorcycle industry we might add). Compare that staggering quantity to the 1.3 million units sold in China (the largest single country for Honda sales), 261,000 units sold in Europe, and 210,000 in North America, and the true value of the growing Asian economy becomes apparent.

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Banter

‘Travel All Over the World with CBR250R’ Playing Honda’s Mind-Numbing Game to Promote the 2011 Honda CBR250R

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Promotion of the 2011 Honda CBR250R continues as Honda has setup a flash-based game (if you can call it that) for users to play its worldwide website. Touring the world on the 250cc entry-level bike, you can pick your color scheme (we were partial to the Tri-Color paint that will never reach American soil) and you can also select from a bevy of anime style avatars. Once you’ve done that, you’re pretty much done with the game, as the rest of the experience involves watching the animated Honda CBR250R go through landscapes that depict landmark features of various countries.

While you can slowdown and speed up, you can’t really escape from the horde of other animated riders who pelt you with quotes from Twitter that promote the game (an aggravating experience to say the least). Somewhere along the way you start repeating the countries you’ve seen, and the novelty begins to wear off. At this point you’ve lost about 10 minutes of your life, and Honda isn’t going to give them back to you. There seems to be some motivation for playing the game further as other countries appear to be available at a later time, and of course there are goals you can achieve, like riding 100 km, which is approximately a 1hr 40min undertaking.

If you have small children and need a lengthy distraction, you can access the game here.

Source: Honda

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News

Mission Motors Helps Power Honda to Podium Finish

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The Mission R electric Superbike is just one of many new projects to come out of San Francisco based startup Mission Motors. Despite the newswires over the past year being noticeably quiet from Mission, the company has been toiling away on more than a few projects, especially after launching its MissionEVT components and services offering.

Showing off its electric and hybrid chops at SEMA this year, we get news that Mission Motors has been working with OEMs to help integrate electrical components into their product offerings. One such example of this is a project Mission Motors undertook with Honda Automobiles, which saw a Honda CR-Z Hybrid upgraded with MissionEVT components, and then raced at the 25hrs of Thunderhill endurance event a few weeks ago.

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Racing

Video: Honda NRS 250 Moto3 Contender Teaser

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Perhaps as a belated holiday treat, Honda has finally seen it fit to give a better glimpse of its HRC NRS 250 Moto3 contender. With a few quick cuts and some blurry shots, HRC isn’t completely giving away the 250cc single-cylinder GP bike, but the footage does give us a better idea of what the final shape of the Honda will look like, and perhaps more importantly what it will sound like. If you’re a four-stroke fan, you’ll love the video after the jump…two-stroke fanatics, probably not as much.

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Racing

Johnny Rea Gets MotoGP Chance During Test at Sepang

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Jonathan Rea will get a chance to swing a leg over a MotoGP bike for the first time later this week, as HRC is conducting a MotoGP test at Sepang. With MotoGP riders forbidden to turn a wheel on a GP bike until the February tests, Rea will get the nod instead as Honda tries to further develop the RC212V race platform. For Rea it’s a big moment, as the Ulsterman was supposed to get a wildcard ride at Donington Park back in 2007, but had to cancel because of his schedule with British Superbike and the Suzuka 8 Hours. Rea was also on Hervé Poncharal’s short-list of replacements for Ben Spies earlier this season, but got passed over when the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team chose Cal Crutchlow instead.

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