Saturday at Mugello with Jules Cisek

KTM has debuted it latest ?ready to race? machine, the 2013 KTM Moto3 250 GPR production race bike. A for-sale-version of its Moto3 Championship contender, features forged aluminum OZ wheels instead of magnesium ones, and the production racer also comes sans Brembo brakes and WP suspension (items race teams would likely get from suppliers separately anyways). There is however one big technical difference, as KTM has reduced the bike?s maximum engine speed to 13,500 rpm, down from the 14,000 found on the factory bikes. This leaves the 2013 KTM Moto3 250 GPR production racer with just under 50hp on tap.

It remains to be seen how the high-reving Superquadro motor will fit into Ducati?s ?one-motor-fits-all? strategy, but the speculation is already becoming rife about a supersport version of the Ducati 1199 Panigale, and of course a streetfighter version as well. With the Panigale?s engine being an integral part of the superbike?s design, there is a definite challenge for Ducati?s design team in making the Emperor of the Sport Bike Kingdom look good naked. Until we see what Borgo Panigale can conjure up, we are lucky to have weekend couch jockey?s on the Ducati.ms forum who happen to have incredible photoshoping skills.

Set to debut the MV Agusta Rivale at EICMA this November, the newest model from the historic Italian is said to be a hypermotard-esque machine that is loosely based off the MV Agusta Brutale 675. Following the logical genesis of the Brutale 675 using the MV Agusta F3?s 675cc three-cylinder motor, most assumed that the MV Agusta Rivale would feature only chassis changes, and retain the same supersport-inspired motor. However, the news from Moto Revue puts that idea into doubt, and likely tips the Rivale to being an 800cc rival to bikes like the spied Ducati Hypermotard 848 and Husqvarna Nuda 900.

The final rubber stamp of approval to Audi AG?s acquisition of Ducati Motor Holding, the European Commission has cleared the transaction of any antitrust red tape. A deal that was over a year in the making, the German automaker bought the Italian motorcycle company for a cool ?860 million, including debt. Positioning Audi, and its parent-company Volkswagen, to take-on the likes of the BMW Group, the deal was met with mixed-emotions in the automotive and motorcycling communities during its announcement.

We could write a long list of what those involved in the Valentino Rossi-Ducati partnership have lost. Money, reputation, time, all have been lost in large quantities and on behalf of some of the most important people in motorbike racing. Smaller losses of various kinds have been incurred by many more people whose livelihoods are tied to Rossi?s success. But a huge number of people have lost something intangible but nonetheless important because of the inability of Rossi and Ducati to produce a winning package. Those many people who were attracted to motorcycle racing because first they felt an attraction to Valentino Rossi have lost something since his switch to Ducati.

As it stands now, electric motorcycles are basically conventional motorcycles with batteries and motors that replace fuel tanks and engines. It is the same basic offering that we have had since the turn of the century, except with three times the cost, forty times the refuel time, and a quarter of the range. While the big hold-up for electrics, battery technology, is still advancing rapidly, at the end of the day consumers are still be making apples-to-apples comparisons between internal combustion and electric motorcycles because only the most basic elements of this new technology is being offered by electric OEMs. Even I have a hard time looking at the market, and imagining a scenario where I would grab an electric motorcycle over its internal combustion counterpart.

BMW has updated its 800cc GS line, starting with the new 2013 BMW F700GS. An adventure bike with the road more in mind, BMW is differentiating the 2012 BMW F700GS from the 2103 BMW F800GS by using lower-spec suspension, cast wheels, a 19? front wheel, lower seat height, and lower horsepower output. Using the same 798cc four-valve parallel-twin liquid-coooled motor, the BMW F700GS gets a modest power increase over the BMW F650GS it is replacing, as peak power has been pushed to 75hp, up from the 71hp the F650GS made. Peak torque has also been boosted to 56.8 lbs?ft, while the curb weight is 209 kg (460 lbs).

This may not be strictly motorcycle-related, though we are pretty sure most motorcyclists can relate to the time and effort it takes to take apart a four-cylinder motor and put it back together again. As if refurbishing a motor bought off eBay, and swapping it out for a junked one that is still in the car wasn?t hard enough, our protagonist decided to document the whole process with thousands of photos. Originally only intending to use the snaps to ensure all the pieces went back together in the right spots, a short animated movie clip was born from his efforts.

With MotoGP adopting a CRT rule for the 2012 season, a provision that allows production motors to be used in a prototype chassis, the World Superbike Championship has been feeling its production-racing turf a bit infringed upon. Now whether or not the latest rule change from WSBK has anything to with what is going on between the two series is up for debate, but regardless for 2013 and onward, World Superbike teams will have to run faux-headlight decals on their race bikes ? in some sort of attempt to link what is on the track to what is sitting on dealership showroom floors.

Before he was a fixture in the MotoGP paddock, our main-man Scott Jones had to swing a lens just like everyone else: sans a GP photo credential. Luckily for our Nikon-clad photo warrior, his home track, Laguna Seca, provides some of the best vantage points on the GP calendar for non-credential holding photographer s ? a fact Scott exploited during his first forays into photographing the premier-class. Ready to share his hard-learned lessons related to shooting around armco, trees, and chain-linked fences, Scott will be down at the San Francisco D-Store on Sunday, July 15th, leading a seminar for would-be motor sport photographers, with the Red Bull US GP round at Laguna Seca specifically in mind.

Source: http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/racing/saturday-mugello-jules-cisek-2012/

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