Leaked by Honda Hong Kong, these images are the first shots of the 2012 Honda CBR1000RR, and judging from our initial analysis, it looks like Honda is putting out only a cosmetically different version of the Fireblade for next year (*sigh*). Showing off the HRC tri-color paint scheme (that surely won?t be coming to the United States), the majority of the new Blade looks quite familiar. Obviously the wheels, headlights, and air intake ducts have clearly been worked over, and we see some big-piston forks on the front suspension, but otherwise the mechanical bits and and the rear of the motorcycle look like the current model.
Lightning Motorcycles is still on the salt flats at Bonneville, looking for the ultimate in speed on an electric motorcycle. After already on Sunday setting the fastest speed recorded for any electric motorcycle, the Lightning crew set back to work on crushing its own 206.079 mph land speed record. Posting a 214.209 mph speed yesterday, Paul Thede had to once again back up the team?s accomplishment with another wicked fast run today, in order to get into the record books. Battling gusty cross-breezes, Thede put in an astonishing palindromic 217.712 mph time to set another LSR for Lightning, which officially comes in at 215.907 mph in the APS-? class.
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.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AsphaltandRubber/~3/f3oT60qel8U/
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