One of the winningest supermoto teams on the FIM circuit, Luc1 Motorsport also happens to be one of the most talented teams at promoting itself on the internet.
While 2014 was a difficult year for Luc1, especially in the FIM S1 class, the team draws some positives from the season. For us, it means some awesome supermoto footage of racers backing it in, clearing jumps, and banging handlebars. Enjoy, after the jump!
We are six months away from the start of the 2015 Isle of Man TT, which for fans and media seems like an eternal amount of time, but for the organizers and competitors, the waiving of the green flag must surely seem like the event is rapidly approaching.
The off-season posturing is already in full-swing, with Michael Dunlop and BMW Motorrad seemingly parting ways, despite a very productive 2014 season. Instead Guy Martin will be on the German brand, perhaps giving him his best shot at a TT race win ever.
No one can count out John McGuinness, of course, as he looks to top Joey Dunlop’s outright TT race-win record. McPint is a contender in every class he enters, though his best hopes are surely in the electric class, where Team Mugen is the outfit to beat.
The electric bikes will be looking to lap 120 mph on the Isle this year, which is proper fast — no matter what standard you use — and puts those top competitors will be in supersport-pace territory.
We were a bit dismayed when Honda didn’t debut its new “Africa Twin” at the 2014 EICMA show, as a proper ADV machine from the Japanese had been well-rumored prior to the show.
To its credit, Honda did show us the “True Adventure” concept, which fit the bill quite nicely, though no technical aspects were made public, and no production date was mentioned.
Looking like a near-production machine though, we had hopes of seeing the Africa Twin / True Adventure / Whatever debuting officially soon, especially since the concept had some intriguing aspects to it (namely, no clutch lever).
Honda seems to be warming up to that release date though, after posting two videos to its European YouTube channel. The first video plays on Honda’s history in the Dakar Rally, an event that is rapidly approaching us; and the second video depicts various long-distance Honda explorers — both key elements to the ADV culture.
Could Big Red be readying its proper ADV for a last-model year release? It’s certainly acting like it.
With last year’s Superprestigio winner Brad Baker suffering a concussion to the head during qualifying, the hopes of American race fans in Barcelona rested squarely on the shoulders of 2014 AMA Pro Flat Track Champion Jared Mees.
The 28-year-old Mees faced a tough entry though, as some of the great names from a bevy of motorcycling disciplines had entered this year’s event — especially last year’s runner-up, a certain Marc Marquez.
As expected, the 12-lap Superfinal race was hotly contested, and featured some good handlebar-bashing action. Thankfully the riders had plenty of on-board cameras with them, and the promoter DTX Barcelona is savvy when it comes to letting participants and media sharing that footage.
As such, we have the battle for the top podium spot, for you, straight from the perspective of America’s top entry. Enjoy!
They might be better known as Team America at the Macau Grand Prix, since Team Splitlath was comprised of American riders Mark Miller and Brandon Cretu, riding on the American-made EBR 1190RX superbike.
Contesting the last stop on the road racing calendar for 2014, the Splitlath put together a short video about racing at Macau, the challenges they faced there, and the dangers of road racing in general.
Team Splitlath didn’t have their usual results this year as they switched to the Erik Buell Racing platform, with Miller finishing 12th and Cretu crashing out on the 7th lap. But you can be sure they will be back next year. Still, the video is a good watch. Happy Friday!
There has been a resurgence of energy in American road racing, after MotoAmerica replaced AMA Pro Road Racing as the national championship in the USA. At the helm of the resurgence is former World Champion Wayne Rainey, who is part of the KRAVE Group – the media rights holder to MotoAmerica.
Adopting class structures that fit in line with the rules and regulations found in the World Superbike Championship, MotoAmerica’s goal is once again to flood the international road racing scene with talented American riders.
Talking a little about that philosophy, with a healthy Yamaha commercial in the middle of it all, Rainey helps set the table to what American road racing fans have been waiting to hear for a long time. A stronger racing series domestically, and a path to see Americans competing at the highest levels of the sport internationally.
It’s almost the weekend, which means the end of another grueling work-week for many of our readers. With winter upon us, the release of riding a motorcycle after a long week has been diminished, if not extinguished entirely, which only adds to the no-motorcycle doldrums.
We have a little something for that though: 45 minutes of good ol’fashioned two-stroke awesomeness. The sequel to the much loved The Unrideables documentary, we bring to you The Unrideables Part 2, which picks up from its predecessor and covers the Rainey/Schwantz era of racing. Enjoy!
The 48th annual Macau Grand Prix was underway this past weekend, rounding out the 2014 road racing season, all the way on the other side of the world from the normal Irish and Manx roadways.
As much of a spectacle as its European counterparts, the Macau GP is set in the downtown area of the Special Administrative Region of Macu, and is proper elbow-to-elbow motorcycle racing.
A spectacle to see with the tight corners and dense cityscape, we regrettably didn’t cover the race this year due to a communication error on my part with our correspondent (my pay has been docked accordingly).
To try and at least make up for that error, we have for you the video highlights of the race, which Stuart Easton won quite comfortably, bringing his tally of Macau GP wins up to four now.
It is an exciting time for the Husqvarna brand, as it finds a new home within the KTM family. Reunited in a sense with Husaberg, the remnants of the motorcycle company when it left Sweden for Italy, Husky motorcycles are little more than rebadged Austrian machines at this point in time, though Stefan Pierer and his team would like to change that.
We have already seen Husqvarna return to the road with a supermoto model, in the Husqvarna FS 450, as well as the Husqvarna 701 street; and the company has also debuted two intriguing street concepts at the EIMCA motor show (based off the KTM 390 Duke), which may go into production.
Husqvarna seems determined to distinguish itself from KTM, and it is drawing heavily on its past and history for inspiration going forward. It should be interesting to see how the company evolves over the next few years.
The following is a rather long video of the Kawasaki Ninja H2R demonstrating earlier this week at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan (fast-forward to the 6 minute mark if you don’t want to watch the bike warm-up in the pits), taken during the All-Japan Road Race Superbike Championship.
To fully appreciate the video, it helps if you speak a bit of Japanese, but the what transcends all languages is the brute force of the supercharged 300hp the Ninja H2R, as it takes off — even in the hands of Kawasaki racer Katsuaki Fujiwara. We still think it’s pretty impressive, check it out after the jump.
Husqvarna has begun its teaser campaign for the three street bikes it will unveil at EICMA. We know that two of the machines will be concept bikes, while the third will be a 2015 production model. We also already know that the production bike will be a large-displacement single-cylinder machine, with premium components and electronics.
Releasing a video of the machine today, Husqvarna doesn’t tip its hand beyond the information we already knew…or does it? Clearly audible in the video is a street-going thumper, but the look and feel of the terrain, rider, and bike, suggests that Husqvarna could be set to release an ADV rider’s dream machine.