Claudio Castiglioni, President of MV Agusta, passed away this morning in Varese, Italy at the age of 64. In a statement from MV Agusta, the company says that Castiglioni succumed from an unnamed illness while attending a clinic in Varese. Over the course of his career, Castiglioni touched such esteemed brands as Ducati, Cagiva, Husqvarna, and of course MV Agusta. His most recent accomplishment was bringing MV back into Italian ownership, in an act of business acumen that saw Harley-Davidson actually pay Castiglioni ?20 million to take back the recent refurbished company.
Head of Ducati Corse, Filippo Preziosi is a busy man under regular circumstances, and with the shenanigans going on in Ducati Corse?s MotoGP team right now, the former motorcycle racer is a hard man to get a word with, let alone on a race weekend in Brno. Somehow catching up with Preziosi during MotoGP?s Brno test, our friend David Emmett at MotoMatters, along with several other journalists, sat down with Ducati?s Maestro of MotoGP to ask him about where the Italian team was headed, and the challenges it is currently facing. Preziosi makes some other interesting comments that read well between the lines, check them out in transcribed interview after the jump.
According to the Dow Jones Newswire, Investindustrial, the private equity firm behind Ducati Motor Holding SpA, is considering putting the Italian motorcycle company?s stock up for sale in a private offering next year. Investindustrial bought the Texas Pacific Group?s 45% share in Ducati back in 2006, becoming the company?s largest single investor. Later in June 2008, the private equity firm lead by Carlo and Andrea Bonomi increased its stake in Ducati, controlling 84.6% of the company?s stock. If today?s rumors are true, Investindustrial would be dumping some, if not all, of its shares in Ducati, likely into other investment groups.
News from the salt flats is that Lightning Motorcycles was successful in achieving a land speed record for electric motorcycles. Making a pass of 206.981 mph during Sunday?s sessions, the speed averaged from Saturday?s pass of 205.238 mph creates a land speed record of 206.079 mph for electric motorcycles (class APS-?). As a capper to the weekend, the Lightning team posted a top speed of 208.386 mph through the speed trap on its record run, showing that the ?Flying Banana Mk. II? (as we like to call it) had a bit more pep left in it during its run.
Husqvarna?s foray into true-blue street bikes has unsurprisingly taken a two-pronged approach, as the Swedish brand has unceremoniously dropped photos of the base model Husqvarna Nuda 900. Sporting lower-spec components, and having a noticeably absent ?R? missing from its nomenclature, the Husqvarna Nuda 900 is no doubt going to be Husqvarna?s more affordable version of the Nuda 900R. Though we can only discern the differences that are skin deep at this point in time, it would look like the base model sees the R?s �hlins rear-suspension, Brembo monoblocs, and carbon-accented exhaust exchanged for lesser models.
Rumors are swelling around the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 (the Kawasaki ZZR1400 for friends on the other side of the pond). First up is that a new updated Kawasaki ZX-14 is set to debut by the end of the month. Expected to be only a cosmetic makeover, the 2012 Kawasaki ZX-14 will mechanically be the same as the current model. Looking farther down the pipe though, it would seem from reports and patents that Kawasaki has been eyeing putting a supercharger on the hypersport machine, presumably to better position the ZX-14 against the increasingly more powerful 1,000 superbikes, like the company?s on 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R.
I?m on the fence with this product. There?s an element with the Moto-Grip ?passenger safety harness? that strikes you with one of those ?now why didn?t I think of that? moments. The idea is a simple harness that a rider wears, which provides hand grips on the rider?s chest and back that a passenger can hold onto as they are performing their various pillion duties. Looking like one of those baby backpacks that helicopter parents employ to lug their child around in, the Moto-Grip is fairly straight-forward with its $179 design.
For Christopher Nolan?s last installment of his Batman trilogy: The Dark Knight Rises, Hollywood hottie Anne Hathaway will don the leather bodysuit (no word yet on the leather whip) of Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman. Exactly where in Catwoman?s tumultuous relationship with Batman will Hathaway?s character stem from is uncertain, but it looks like her feminine wiles managed to get her Batman?s motorcycle, the Batpod. Filming is currently going on in Pittsburgh, and confirmed from this photo, Pennsylvania is a no-helmet state. If this feels like a shameless attempt to get photos of Anne Hathaway dressed in leather on the pages of Asphalt & Rubber, then you?d be right.
After launching its electric equivalent of a 250cc four-stroke supermotard, A&R spent a little quality time with the BRD RedShift SM at its future production facility in San Francisco. That?s right, not only is BRD hoping to tackle gas bikes head-on (we hear they only want to race in gas events), but the company, thanks to some clever design work, will be producing its electric motorcycles in the otherwise expensive SF/Bay Area. Instead of using a chassis architecture that would require hand or machine welds (the latter being far more expensive to setup for small production), BRD is using a combination of a casting and milling build process to create a motorcycle frame that is dependent more on machine operation, than worker labor. This means labor costs will be low, and production is limited only by how many milling machines the small startup can keep running at anyone one point in time.
With the now infamous quote from Burgess that the GP10 could be sorted out in about 20 seconds still resonating in the MotoGP paddock, we stand now well over half of the way through the current MotoGP season, and it?s apparent that the Desmoproblema requires more than a quick-fix. The solution to fixing the Ducati Desmosedici can be broken down into three camps, and depending whose opinion you solicit, you?ll get one of the following causes for Ducati?s uncompetitive season: the motor, the chassis, or the rider. Walking us through that analysis is our good friend David Emmett, who may not be the most astute automatic transmission driver we?ve ever seen, but when it comes to comprehensive MotoGP analysis, the man is second to none.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AsphaltandRubber/~3/qdtdE5dIbOk/
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