Photo: Monster Tech3 Yamaha
For the Italian GP at Mugello this weekend, Fiat-Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi saw it fit to try something a little different in his look for the race. While we are still waiting to see if Rossi will whip out his customary one-off Mugello race helmet, it’s what’s being hidden under the lid that’s catching people off guard…namely that mohawk pictured above. We can only imagine what Fiat-Yamaha crew chief Jeremy Burgess must be saying to Rossi after seeing the haircut (leave your caption in the comments). More Rossi mohawk photos after the jump.
In case you weren’t able to attend the inaugural North American TTXGP electric sportbike race at Infineon Raceway two weekends ago, we’ve got a bevy of photos and videos to make you feel like you were right there at the Sonoma track (minus a lack of wine). Above we have the full race from the perspectives of Zero/Agni’s #21 Shawn Higbee and #14 Kenyon Kluge (courtesy of Zero Motorcycles). And after the jump, we have photos and clips from the race and practice sessions. Enjoy.
While most of our coverage this past weekend focused on the first electric sportbike race to hit US soil, another first occurred at Infineon Raceway: the first female winner of an AMA Pro Racing event. Elena Myers took the checkered flag on Saturday’s AMA Supersport race, albeit with some help from the man with the red flag. From that finish Myers is being touted as the first woman to win an AMA road race, and already there is talk of an entry point for lady riders into this male dominated sport.
As a California native, I’ve always wanted to ride around Laguna Seca on a sportbike. However my passion for track riding didn’t manifest itself until I moved away from the Golden State to Pennsylvania, making a Seca track day all but implausible. Having just moved back into California, and the warm weather finally upon us here in the San Francisco area, track days and Seca have been on my mind. So when Michael Czysz, Lead Instructor at the Skip Barber Superbike School (and of MotoCzysz fame) shot me an email asking me if I wanted to ride for two days around the fabled circuit and take Skip Barber’s two-day superbike course, I of course took him up on the offer. With perfect 70°F weather, I made my way to the Californian coast, ready to take on The Corkscrew with the brand new 2010 KTM RC8 motorcycle and with the help of Skip Barber’s instructors.
I’ve always heard how Laguna Seca is a special track, and how technical the course is on a motorcycle (or any vehicle for that matter). Driving into Monterey from Salinas, you get about half the distance between the two cities when the track entrance jumps up on you. Most tracks you can see for miles as you approach them, but Laguna Seca is nestled behind a hillside from the roadway, and sits inside a Monterey County park. This topography not only provides a scenic venue to enjoy when you’re not going full-throttle around the race track, but also accounts for Seca’s 300′ change in elevation as you go through the 11 turns that comprise the circuit.
Driving into the park I can already feel my nerves acting up. I went through eight years of competitive sailing, two Junior Olympics, and three Nationals with this same physiological response. On a typical track day this sensation would subside after my first session, and be greatly reduced after the first full-pace lap, but upon entering into the Skip Barber office the apprehension quickly disappears.
Photo journalist Sandeep “Sunny” Gajjar recently took a six day, 2,000km (1,240 mile) trip around the eastern coast of Australia on Can-Am Spyder. Taking his camera along, Gajjar captured some spectacular HDR photos of his trip and journey down under, and even proved the Spyder has some chops even when not on the asphalt. A self-described motoGrapher, Gajjar is a man of few words, so we’ll let his photos do the talking. Check them out after the jump.
UPDATE: The 2010 Yamaha Fazer8 ABS has officially been released.
Here’s another bike we’re not likely to see in the United States, the 2010 Yamaha Fazer8. Yamaha has been teasing us with the Fazer8 and its more naked variant, the FZ8 for several months now, and now the tuning fork brand has finally shown the Fazer8 in all its glory.
After photos of the new Yamaha FZ8 were leaked out on the internet, Yamaha seems to think it’s best to release an official picture of the entire FZ8 in it’s full colorful form. As seen from the earlier black and white photos, the Yamaha FZ8 is based heavily off of the FZ1, which may suggest where its performance features will lie when the final release to the public is made this spring.
Rumors has it that the FZ8 will feature the same stroke as the FZ1, which should provide for impressive torque figures, while power is expected to be closer to the FZ6. No word yet if the FZ8 is making it stateside.
Source: Yamaha
In a slightly bizzare manner, Nicky Hayden is responsible for the latest bit of news and photo leak from the MotoGP paddock. Making a stop in Bologna to celebrate the holidays with the Ducati Corse crew, in route to India to help open a Ducati store, Hayden got a chance to see the new Ducati GP10 race bike up-close. Armed with a cell phone, and a little indiscretion, the American rider snapped a photo of the new bike, posted the photo to his personal website, and there you have it.
We’re going to keep this one definitively filed under “rumors” still, but someone just dropped this photo off in the comments section of our spy shots of the MV Agusta “F3” three-cylinder motorcycle post. Leaving an @mvagusta.it email address, and mvagusta.com as the linked website, the suggestion would seem to be that this is spy shot is of the head off the MV Agusta F3. Totally legit, right?
That is of course until you realize the MV Agusta email address is a fake (we got an instant response from the server that no such email address existed on its domain), and that the user was posting from an IP address in the rain-soaked Netherlands.
We’re fairly confident in our saying that this is in fact not an image of the fabled MV Agusta three-cylinder, and instead just the product of a northern-Dutchman with too much winter on his hands.
But it just goes to show you, you can’t trust everything you read on the internet these days.
Nothing else to say. See the other spy shots here, here, here, and oh here too.
Source: Ducati News Today