After releasing a bevy of photos from its tests of the 2011 WSBK-spec Kawasaki ZX-10R at the Autopolis & Suzuka tracks in Japan, Team Green has put together a video with clips of the bike in both the paddock and out lapping on the track of Autopolis.
Besides showing us some up-close details of the bike’s performance goodies (push-to-shift buttons make us drool), we also get to hear the new 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R revving under load and at different engine speeds.
The new ZX-10R sounds like a screamer to us; sorry Kawi fans, no cross-plane crankshafts here. Still, the bike looks good drenched in carbon fiber. Check it out after the jump.
Missing three races because of a mystery illness, Casey Stoner put any critics he had from his sudden departure in 2009 to bed with his masterful race at Phillip Island. Racing in front of his home crowd, Stoner slid around the Australian course to a decisive victory, in what we called one of the top races of 2009.
Making the moment even more special for Australian fans, and Ducatisti alike, was the special race livery that Stoner ran for his home race. Hoping to commemorate that race and Stoner’s contributions to the Marlboro Ducati team (Stoner is leaving Ducati for HRC next year), a French Ducati dealership in Moulins-lès-Metz has decided to sell a limited number of Casey Stoner Ducati 1198S Phillip Island replicas.
Crashing during Saturday’s qualifying session at Brno, Nicky Hayden found himself in the gravel trap after losing the front-end of his Ducati Desmosedici GP10. Somewhere along the way of sliding over the asphalt and into the stones, Hayden broke off a portion of his radius bone in his left wrist, and had to be taken to Clinica Mobile for examination.
X-rays confirmed the break, but the American rider soldiered-on through the Czech GP with extra padding on his grip. Finishing the race in respectable form, Hayden will have to heal up over the next two weekends if he wants to be 100% for his hometown GP at Indy. More pictures after the jump.
Triumph is right on schedule, releasing more information about its two upcoming adventure bikes. Set to have a smaller displacement than the Tiger, the 2011 Triumph Tiger Cubs will feature a long-stroke three-cylinder engine. Triumph says that the compact triple will be ideal for road and dirt use, allowing you “to do the business” (yeah, we can’t believe they said that) with the bike’s torque-on-tap power plant. Photos and video after the jump.
Emptying out the memory cards from the Red Bull US GP weekend, we came across a few blooper shots that we just had to share with you (like this one of Aleix Espargaró re-enacting “The Pass” that Rossi pulled on Stoner in the 2008 US GP). We often place MotoGP riders on a pedestal, looking to them as gods, but it’s good every now and then to remind ourselves that they are mortal men after all. Flip through this short series of photos after the jump for a couple of laughs.
Although it didn’t take part in the e-Power electric race at Laguna Seca, the Brammo Empulse RR was on display in the Brammo pit area during the weekend, and we got a chance to lay our hands on the bike for the first time. Based off the Brammo Empulse street bike, the Empulse RR comes packed with 12.5 kWh of battery power (same as the MotoCzysz E1pc), which according to Brammo makes it the best bike in the paddock in terms of power-to-weight ratios.
Coming together in just eight weeks, the Brammo Empulse RR still has some kinks to iron out, as the bike apparently cooked off its liquid-cooled motor during testing. While the Brammo team figures out its foray into liquid-cooled electric motors (the Brammo Enertia uses an air-cooled motor), the rest of the Empulse RR package looks very promising.
