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Confederate X132 Hellcat Speedster – By Pierre Terblanche

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The Confederate X132 Hellcat Speedster is the newest motorcycle from the venerable “Southern” brand, and that’s enough of a pedigree for the machine to grace the pages of Asphalt & Rubber, but this latest incarnation of the Hellcat line also happens to be the first work by a certain Pierre Terblanche, who became Head of Design at Confederate not too long ago.

Based around the same 132 cubic inch (2,163cc) v-twin engine as the previous Hellcat models, the Speedster is good for 121hp and 140 lbs•ft of torque. The styling is true to the Confederate canon, though Terblanche’s touches can certainly be seen in the details of the machine.

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Racing

Thursday at the Ulster Grand Prix with Tony Goldsmith

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Having travelled to Indianapolis through Dublin, it seamed only right upon my return to make the short trip over the border into Northern Ireland for the Ulster Grand Prix.

Having only visited The Ulster once as a spectator back in 2007, I’m pretty much a novice to the circuit. The corner names are not familiar, so I didn’t have much of a clue of were to shoot Thursday’s action from. One place I did know from my previous visit was the Deers Leap section, so I based myself there for the day.

The riders come onto the Deers Leap through a quick right-hand bend before wheeling over the crest at Deers Leap itself, and down under the trees into Cochranstown. There is a huge elevation change trough the section. Standing at the top looking down to Cochranstown it looks like the riders are dropping off the face of the earth as they the crest Deers Leap.

The racing on Thursday is actually the Dundrod 150, the traditional warm up to Saturday’s Ulster Grand Prix. After long delays due to two incidents in the early races, Guy Martin won the feature race of the day, after a race long battle with Bruce Anstey. Martin crossed the line only 0.244 seconds ahead of Anstey with Michael Dunlop 2.5 seconds further back in third.

All of  the results of the days racing can be found on the Ulster Grand Prix’s official website.

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Bikes

Report: UK Confirms KTM 1290 Super Adventure Model

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British website Visordown is reporting that KTM UK has confirmed the recently spied KTM 1290 Super Adventure as a 2015 model, saying that adventure-tourer will sit alongside the company’s current 1190 Adventure models, as a more premium offering of the ADV bike.

Fitted with what we presume will be a variant of the KTM 1290 Super Duke R’s engine, the 2015 KTM 1290 Super Adventure boasts a larger engine displacement, as the name suggests, which accounts for the larger air vents on the bike’s bodywork as well.

KTM UK says that the machine will have more luxury than the current Adventure bikes, likely similar to how the Ducati Multistarda 1200 Granturismo sits in Ducati’s lineup.

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Bikes

A Yamaha FZ-09 Based Sport-Tourer – A TDM Cometh?

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Trademark applications with the European Union have revealed a new sport-tourer model from Yamaha, which uses the FZ-09 / MT-09 three-cylinder standard as its basis, and looks very similar to the old Yamaha TDM models.

The model seems to be very similar to what was envisioned by designer Oberdan Bezzi, which saw the MT-09 / FZ-09 platform turned into a pair of convincing adventure-touring motorcycles, with a TDM variant as well.

Yamaha has made no secret about its plans to develop more three-cylinder machines, as the Japanese company tries to breath life back into its sales figures and model lineup, post-economic meltdown. With this new sport-touring triple now out of the bag, could the writing be on the wall for loyal FZ1 owners?

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Bikes

Suzuki GSX-S1000 Naked Bike Spotted in the Wild

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It appears that reports of a 2015 Suzuki GSX-S1000 debuting later this year are true, as we bring to you a couple photos of the streetfighter in the flesh.

Based off the Suzuki GSX-R1000 platform, the Suzuki GSX-S1000 features the same chassis and four-cylinder engine (likely in a different state of tune than the one found in the superbike), though with a more upright sitting position.

From what we can see in the photos, the GSX-S1000 will continue the aggressive styling we’ve seen coming out of Japan lately, especially in the liter-bike naked segment, and it seems Suzuki has opted to continue to partner with Brembo for its braking components.

Other features are rumored to include ABS and traction control, with the wheel-discs for those electronics are visible in the photo above.

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MotoGP

Photos of Colin Edwards’ Camouflage Leathers at Indy

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The 2014 Indianapolis GP will be the last American race for Colin Edwards, as The Texan Tornado will be hanging up his spurs at the end of the MotoGP season. The help commemorate his departure from Grand Prix racing, Edwards has picked a special helmet and leather design for the Indy GP, and unsurprisingly, it has a military theme.

Edwards has always used the Indianapolis GP to debut his helmets that honor the branches and people of military service, and the American rider told us that this weekend’s camouflage livery is an homage to that tradition.

Saying goodbye to his home crowd on Sunday, the Texan will for sure also race at Silverstone and Valencia, though the rumor is that Alex de Angelis will rider the NGM Forward Yamaha at the rest of the year’s races.

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