Archive for September, 2005
Capirossi gets third straight pole
30 September 2005Loris Capirossi is on a hot streak. Three straight pole positions in three straight races. Since he went on to win the last two races, are we seeing the new rising star? Valentino Rossi won the championship last week but there are other positions up for contention in the championship points race plus much to [...]
Motorcycle Horsepower Wars - Are they back?
30 September 2005While I was perusing the new Yamaha models yesterday, I noticed something we haven’t seen for some time, … horsepower numbers. Right there among all of the other specs were clearly stated horsepower figures, FJR1300 at 145 hp, FZ1 at 150, R1 at 183, pretty interesting stuff. When Kawasaki released their new models, those numbers [...]
2006 Yamaha FJR1300 AE - electric shift
29 September 2005The big Yamaha FJR series has always been a very nice bike, lots of folks swear these are the best sport touring machines out there. This year, Yamaha has a nice high tech touch available on the FJR1300 AE model, electric shift five speed transmission, there’s no clutch lever. You shift with paddles on the [...]
2006 Yamaha R6
29 September 2005Yamaha brought out all of their new 2006 models, among them, the 2006 Yamaha R6. We don’t see the need to review each model every company brings out, they have whole websites for that, but we like to highlight a few distinctive features here and there. The feature about the R6 you’ve probably heard about [...]
Motorcycle powered Isetta and Messerschmitt
29 September 2005We’ve given a lot of attention to the Smartuki here but there were some early motorcycle powered cars with interesting designs, too. The BMW Isetta and Messerschmitt KR were around in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Long out of production, Tritech, a company in the U.K., started making replacement parts so owners could keep them [...]
Kawasaki adds to contingency program
28 September 2005Kawasaki has announced their 2006 contingency program:
Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., (KMC) recently announced that the all-new 2006 NINJA® 650R and NINJA® ZX™-14 will be included as eligible models in the Team Green™ 2006 Race Rewards Program. Effective January 1, 2006, Kawasaki is increasing payouts at major road racing events across the country, including Superbike and [...]
Ducati Sport Classics begin production
28 September 2005Two of the Ducati Sport Classics, the Paul Smart 1000 Limited Edition and the Sport 1000 have started rolling out of the factory.
From the Ducati press release:
At the end of 2003, Ducati previewed three new concept bikes at the Tokyo Motor Show, which embodied the beauty, timeless style and sporting heritage of the Ducati [...]
Motorcycle kits and components - part 2
28 September 2005Yesterday’s post on motorcycle kits and components drew some response and a long critique by one reader (Aaron), who pointed out some pitfalls. Most of the critique illustrated the difficulty of facing the manufacturers at their own game which is building the latest high tech bike. I would cede that territory without a fight because [...]
