Motorcycle
Yamaha unveils hybrid electric motorcycle and limousine scooter
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October 28, 2005 UPDATED IMAGES Yamaha revealed a hybrid motorcycle concept at the Tokyo Show which is quite unlike any form of two wheeler seen to date. The motorcycle, to be known as the Gen-Ryu, uses the high output lightweight compact YZF-R6 600cc motor and an electric motor to deliver the type of performance normally associated with a much larger capacity engine, and is packaged as a futuristic cruiser with advanced aerodynamics and some form of noise cancelling in the cockpit area to enable voice activation of the navigation system, mobile telephone, intercom communications with the pillion and other similarly equipped riders plus a dazzling array of advanced technologies such as headlights which turn to the inside of the corner and rear cameras playing through LCD screens in the dashboard. The Gen-Ryu will be joined on the Yamaha stand by the previously reported and equally radical stretching and shrinking DEINONYCHUS and the limousine-styled Maxam scooter. With massive overhangs, plush white leather upholstery and long, feet-first styling, the Maxam is the most distinctive two wheeler we’ve ever seen.
Suzuki gets serious with a 107 cubic inch motorcycle
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October 11, 2005 The Suzuki M109 is intended for the power cruiser marketplace – the market begun and dominated by Harley Davidson that has attracted competitors from Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and latterly, the only truly original contender in the field since the Harley itself, Triumph. In this market, brutal torque is the currency, so bigger is better when it comes to engine size and the original Harley V-twins which seemed ginormous at 1280cc have been trumped and countertrumped all the way to 1700cc by Yamaha, 1800cc by Honda and 2000cc by Kawasaki – the largest V-twin motorcycle engine in the world. Then there’s Triumph’s 2300cc Rocket III, but that’s another story entirely. Currently, the Suzuki is the runt of the pack with a capacity of 1.6 litres, but quite soon we’ll see a newer, meaner and much higher revving Suzuki contender – the M109 gets its name from the cubic inches it packs – 109 of them.
Yamaha introduces computer-operated clutch and electronic shift actuators on FJR1300
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October 28, 2005 UPDATED IMAGES Yamaha is introducing an interesting innovation to motorcycling with a 2006 version of the Yamaha FJR1300 – a computer operated, electric gearshift which eliminates the need to operate the clutch. The Yamaha Chip Controlled Shift (YCC-S) system is very similar to the electronic shifting systems used on F1 race cars and as with the cars, you can choose to shift up and down with your left thumb or the old fashioned way with your left foot – neither requires the clutch. Its apparently smoother and faster but we’re not sure if the motorcycle community will be queuing up for this one and the blogs are already full of “scooter” jokes though it must be said this is not an automatic motorcycle. There’s something immensely satisfying about snicking up a gear and feeding in 145 horsepower but we’ll treat it with an open mind until we can throw a leg over it.
World Superbike Championships - Corser and Suzuki take the title
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October 2, 2005 Troy Corser is the 2005 Superbike World Champion following the penultimate round of the series held at Imola, Italy here today. Corser finished a very close second to his nearest rival Chris Vermeulen (Honda) in the first race of the day, which took part on a drying track after earlier rain. But, just before the start of the second race, the heavens opened and deluged the 4.933 kilometre circuit. The riders and officials waited and inspected the aging circuit which still has the original racing surface in some places and decided it was too dangerous to hold the event under the conditions and decreed the race cancelled. The cancellation meant Corser’s points lead was unbeatable in the remaining races, giving him and Suzuki’s GSX1000R this year’s championship!
MotoGP Qatar: Rossi’s tenth victory secures team title for Gauloises Yamaha
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October 2, 2005 Just six days after lifting the MotoGP title with Valentino Rossi in Malaysia, the Gauloises Yamaha Team were celebrating again today as Valentino Rossi’s record-breaking tenth victory of the season secured the Teams’ World Championship at the Qatar Grand Prix. Yamaha is likely to secure the trifecta by winning the constructor’s title at the Australian GP in a fortnight’s time. Once again, Spaniard Sete Gibernau was the front-runner for most of the race, relenting once more when the chequered flag grew near to finally finish fifth. Gibernau has led 111 (32%) of the 347 laps in this year’s 14 races compared to Rossi’s 87 laps (25%) yet Rossi has won ten Gps and a championship compared to Gibernau’s zip and eighth place in the standings. The Spaniard remains the most obviously capable rider other than Rossi and is reportedly negotiating a move from Honda to Ducati for next year.
Yamaha's radical adjustable electric motorcycle
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October 28, 2005 UPDATED IMAGES For the last 125 years, motorcycles have been made up of two wheels and a motor, and they have all been arranged as a wheel, a motor and another wheel – in that order – all of them. But the freedom afforded to designers by the in-wheel electric motors which technology has recently spawned will make for some interesting changes over the coming years and Yamaha is the first of the motorcycle manufacturers to seriously look at alternatives available in the next generation of motorcycles. The Deinonychus prototype takes full advantage of the greater chassis design freedom afforded by an in-wheel motor, and offers a completely new type of two-wheel-drive (2WD) EV (electric vehicle) with "Stretch & Shrink" functions in the vertical and horizontal directions. Yamaha’s exhibition at the Tokyo Motor Show features a number of futuristic commuter vehicles other than the Deinonychus including a fuel cell prototype, a hybrid prototype and a production electric scooter. For the record, a Deinonychus is a lightly built, fast-moving, agile, bipedal, killer dinosaur. This article includes a full rundown of Yamaha's other electric, methanol and hybrid scooters shown at Tokyo
BMW to introduce F800S parallel twin sports motorcycle
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September 30, 2005 For several decades in the post war era, big British parallel twins ruled the motorcycle sports kingdom with names like Norton, Triumph, BSA and Royal Enfield. The late sixties though brought a wave of Japanese, German and Italian innovation which saw the demise of the English motorcycle industry and the banishing of the parallel twin from all but commuter machinery. Now, BMW Motorrad is to introduce a new generation of twin-cylinder middleweight parallel twin cylinder machines. The F800 S is the first of a series of agile, high torque, street machines from the BMW marque, starting in 2006.
Suzuki 2006 GSX-R1000 lands
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September 26, 2005 The latest incarnation of Suzuki’s world-beating GSX-R1000 performance sportsbike has landed on Australian shores and is expected to become available in most major markets in the next few weeks. Distributors have reported that demand for the current 2005 model has been very strong, and with the new colour options, particularly a matt black version, Suzuki expects the new 2006-model to be even more popula. The model is identical to the 2005 model apart from paintwork, which can be expected given that the Suzuki GSX-R1000 has a stranglehold on the World Superbike Championship, has already won the American AMA Superbike Championship and three-time Australian Superbike Champion, Shawn Giles is on the verge of claiming a record fourth title in the premier road-racing class as he heads into the final round with a 10-point advantage.
Rossi takes fifth MotoGP title but Ducati wins
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September 26, 2005 Complete report and image library: Valentino Rossi won his fifth consecutive World MotoGP title yesterday afternoon, though the race was won by Ducati-mounted Loris Capirossi who won his second Grand Prix in a week, giving Ducati its best ever MotoGP result when his team-mate Carlos Checa finished third. Having won a 125 and 250 title prior to his string of five consecutive MotoGP titles, Rossi’s championship t-shirt featured a Barry Sheene-style 7, for seven world titles, and a white commemorative helmet was created by AGV for the moment, also with the number 7 on it.
Crossing the Australian Continent by Raptor
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September 25, 2005 As we reported last week, a pair of Yamaha’s potent fuel injected YFM700R Raptor All Terrain Vehicles has just completed a trans-Australian crossing. Matt Brown and Ross Ledger left Byron Bay Lighthouse, the eastern-most point of Australia and spent two weeks in the harshest environment this side of the moon before arriving in Steep Point, WA and earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest trip ever completed on an ATV. The pair kept a daily diary and took pics along the way. This is the diary kept by a team of Matt, Ross and the support crew, in their own words, and these are the images taken by the support crew. If you’ve ever wondered just how big Australia is, check out the image library.
Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14: the most powerful and the fastest production motorcycle in history
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September 23, 2005 For several years now, the 178bhp Kawasaki ZX12 has had the most horsepower of any production motorcycle, though it has played second fiddle to the 175 bhp Suzuki GSX1300 Hayabusa (named after the Japanese Peregrine falcon, one of the few animals on the planet which can travel at 300km per hour which it does during a dive) because the Hayabusa has a higher top speed – the Suzuki’s aerodynamics enable it to more than make up for the slight horsepower deficit and it has now held the title of the world’s fastest production motorcycle for six years since it launched. The Hayabusa’s top speed as measured by the Guiness Book of Records is 317 km/h. But Kawasaki’s just announced ZX14 company flagship boasts 1400cc, much slipperier aerodynamics and the most horsepower and highest top speed of any production motorcycle EVER! The publicity conscious Kawasaki is keeping mum on the exact figures but the rumours emanating from Japan indicate we are just about to see the world’s first 200bhp production motorcycle and one with a top speed of waaay over 200mph. Full details inside.
New Suzuki road models for 2006 – details
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September 22, 2005 It’s new model time in the motorcycle industry and Suzuki has three new road machines for next year that are sure to set hearts racing, particularly the GSX-R 600 that has been significantly reworked with a view to challenging the domination of the Honda in the all-important SuperSport 600 racing category and the enormous effect this has on road bike sales in the class. The 600 and its almost identical 750cc sibling have both taken on the styling of the highly successful K5 model GSX-R1000 and it’s interesting to consider Suzuki’s sales strategy – make a competitive 600 machine for the racetrack and then it just that bit sweeter and more comfortable for the road with an extra 150cc of grunt. The Bandit 1200S has also come in for serious revision, shedding 6 kilos of weight and getting an adjustable seat height suitable for those humans with a low undercarriage.
Yamaha 700 Raptor snags world record crossing
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September 19, 2005 Yamaha launched its 700cc fuel injected Yamaha YFM700R Raptor two months ago and as part of the promotional activities for the potent new All Terrain Vehicle, it backed two Australian adventurers in a trans-Australian crossing on a pair of new machines. Matt Brown and Ross Ledger left Byron Bay Lighthouse, the eastern-most point of Australia and spent two weeks crossing Australia before arriving in Steep Point, WA earlier this month. The achievement will gain them entry to the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest trip ever completed on an ATV.
The 2006 Kawasaki ZX-10R
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September 22, 2005 Kawasaki built the first 1000cc sports motorcycle of the modern era when it introduced the Z1 900cc revelation in 1972 and it has a proud heritage of building big road bikes – the Z1, Z1R, GPZ900 and a long lineage since. But along the way, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki got very good at building them too, and nowadays with the World Superbike and European SuperStock Championships becoming so important, the competition between the manufacturers in the 1000cc supersport category has never been this strong – indeed, it’s downright carnivorous. Last year all the manufacturers completely redesigned their machines, and this year, all but one will be doing the same again. This is an insight into the Kawasaki ZX1000D6F- next year’s Kawasaki 1000. The Yamaha and Honda machines have been covered here, and Suzuki has elected to continue with the same machine which will win the 2006 world and US superbike championship, albeit with a new coat of paint. The Kawasaki will be a completely new machine, with a brand new engine, chassis and aerodynamic makeover, a repositioned CG, revised stiffness, balance, new motor mounts, more centralised mass, and relocated swingarm pivot. Read on for the full story
MotoGP Japan: Rossi crashes, Ducati wins
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September 18, 2005 Loris Capirossi took the Ducati Desmosedici to its second Grand Prix win at Motegi here today, winning at Honda’s own circuit, and relegating the Honda RC211Vs of Max Biaggi (Repsol) and Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta) into second and third place in front of 68,000 fans. The race was one of massive attrition with nine of the 20 starters failing to finish, among them championship leader Valentino Rossi, and leading contenders Marco Melandri, Alex Barros, Sete Gibernau and Shinya Nakano. For Capirossi, it was a dream weekend – he qualified on pole, half a second faster than anyone else in the field, and a full 1.2 seconds faster than Rossi, prompting the champion elect to pay the ultimate compliment to his friend and countryman when he said after practice, “I think all the riders can only dream about the pace Capirossi had today.” In the race, Capirossi and the Ducati were the best combination on the day and unlike his prior win where he was clearly not as quick as Rossi, this time he would have won the race regardless of Rossi's crash. Congratulations to Loris and Ducati.
The Supersport 1000cc class of 2006
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September 14, 2005 The supersport category is a key category in motorcycle sales in most countries, creating a chicken and egg relationship with Supersport, Superbike and more recently Superstock racing. Since 2003, the emphasis has increasingly been focused on 1,000cc models and in 2004, all four of the big Japanese manufacturers launched new 1000 supersport bikes for the 2005 model year. All have sold well, though the biggest sales went to Suzuki due to the company’s early season dominance of World Superbike Racing and its success in the American Superbike Championships. For 2006, all but Suzuki will again offer completely new machines and this article covers the specifications of the first two to be made public - the Yamaha and Honda. The evolution of the 2006 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade makes an interesting story – it is a lighter, faster and more visually refined machine than the current machine. The surprise though is the Yamaha 2006 R1 SP – this is a special very exclusive, limited edition bike with special Ohlins suspension, lightweight rims and a host of refinements designed to ensure the bike wins on the racetrack. Suzuki's contender will be unveiled in the next few weeks but is essentially a new coat of paint. And Kawasaki's new beastie can be seen in fine detail here.
German WSBK: Vermeulen wins, Corser falters, Lanzi stars
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September 12, 2005 Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Chris Vermeulen won one race and finished second in another at Lausitz in Germany on the weekend, with Troy Corser’s championship point lead being cut to just 60 points with two rounds (four races) of the championship remaining. The race meeting will be remembered though for the birth of a new star in superbike ranks. Although he has featured in cameo appearances at the pointy end of major events a few times, Lorenzo Lanzi completed a sensational weekend for the Ducati Xerox Team as he stormed to the win in race two after being penalized with a ride-through in the first race. The 23-year-old Italian rider, made his debut for the factory team at the weekend in place of the injured Regis Laconi, took superpole in a blaze of glory and might even had a double win today, but for a mistake in the opening corner of the first race. Lanzi becomes the first Italian rider to win on a Ducati factory machine since Pierfrancesco Chili at Assen in 1998.
Dutch World Superbikes: Honda double reduces Suzuki lead
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September 4, 2005 Winston Ten Kate Honda’s Chris Vermeulen achieved his second World Superbike double by winning both races in this afternoon’s ninth round at Assen in Holland. The Australian enjoyed a fierce on-track battle with Japan’s Noriyuki Haga, who finished second in the 16-lap race ahead of British rider James Toseland. Toseland and Haga shared the podium in the first race, and runaway series leader Troy Corser finished fourth in both races having his worst weekend of the season. Now the only rider with a mathematical possibility of stopping Corser from winning the championship, Vermeulen trails Corser by 86 points with three rounds (six races) and 150 points still up for grabs. Vermeulen paid tribute to the team’s effort and his opponents, and refuses to believe that he cannot catch championship leader Troy Corser (Suzuki). “James and Nori made me work for it today, but it's a great weekend for the team, and we took a good double,” said Vermeulen. “From half season onwards we started to get some results and there are six races left. Troy still has a big lead, but I will be trying my best to pull it back.”
MotoGP Brno: Rossi and Yamaha again
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August 29, 2005 Gauloises Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi became the first rider in the history of the MotoGP World Championship to score nine wins for five consecutive seasons, as he clinched victory in the eleventh round of the 2005 campaign at Brno yesterday. Rossi’s record-breaking ride featured an intense battle with Sete Gibernau (Honda) that again came down to a dramatic finale, with Rossi making his definitive pass at the end of the penultimate lap. Gibernau tried to fight back but as Rossi edged clear through the final series of sweeping corners, the Spaniard’s slim hope of a victorious response disappeared completely as he suffered a “fuel starvation” problem and was forced to retire.
Team KTM and Team Roberts acrimonious MotoGP split
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August 21, 2005 Sadly, black litigious clouds have formed over the MotoGP paddock, specifically directly over the pits of KTM and Team KR, whose interpretations of what their relationship has been until now differ enormously. KTM announced a dissolution of the relationship on August 12, stating it was no longer intending to provide engines for the team’s grand prix effort and was cancelling all its activities with the team. Though it had been no secret that KTM was on the verge of pulling out for some time, Team Roberts has subsequently issued a statement refuting a number of KTM’s claims and claiming that it had been informed of the decision simultaneously with the public announcement. Read both parties' conflicting statements inside. Photo: O.Bergamaschi
World Superbike Brands Hatch: Corser 1 & 2 and extends lead, Haga & Yamaha 2 & 1
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August 7, 2005 Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Troy Corser placed first and second in the two fiercely-contested 25-lap battles at Brands Hatch today, swapping positions with Yamaha’s Noriyuki Haga in the final race to take 45 points away from the weekend and further extend his championship lead to 110 points. Corser and Haga were wheel to wheel from the start to the finish of the races and served up a feast of closely-fought action in front of more than 100,000 spectators.
MotoGP: Yamaha and Rossi sign for 2006
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August 2, 2005 Yamaha Motor and Valentino Rossi signed a contract extension yesterday, ensuring that Valentino will stay with Yamaha for the 2006 MotoGP World Championship. Rossi won the 2004 MotoGP World Championship with Yamaha and is currently competing in his second season with the Japanese manufacturer's factory team. The Italian leads the 2005 MotoGP World Championship by 120 points, following his 8th victory of the season at last weekend's German Grand Prix. Significantly, it was Rossi’s 76th Grand prix victory and moved the 26-year old into equal third place in the all-time victory list alongside the late Mike Hailwood. Rossi rode his victory lap with a flag that read, “Rossi 76, Hailwood 76, I'm sorry Mike,” in deference to Hailwood. Only the greats Angel Nieto (90) and Giacomo Agostini (122) remain for “The Doctor” to conquer should he be able to remain focused for that long given the constant enticements to move to four wheeled motorsport. That said, Rossi’s 76th win last weekend had all the hallmarks of Rossi magic.
The Buell Ulysses: an Adventure Sportbike with long-travel suspension
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August 1, 2005 Buell has announced its 2006 range and the big news is a whole new on and off-road machine. The new Ulysses XB12X is an Adventure Sportbike with long-travel suspension and aggressive tires designed to offer outstanding performance on paved and unpaved roads. With a dry weight of just 425 pounds and the broad powerband of the 103-hp Buell Thunderstorm 1203 V-Twin engine, the Ulysses will offer an outstanding power-to-weight ratio and sporting performance on the tight-and-twisty back roads that often lead to dirt roads. It’s one of two new Buells that will added to the company’s product line in 2006. The other is the Lightning Long XB12Ss, a longer version of the original Lightning XB12S designed to offer more comfort. In addition, all 2006 Buell Lightning and Firebolt models are enhanced with a new swingarm design, a new transmission and a redesigned intake system.
British MotoGP: Rossi in a class of his own
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July 24, 2005 Gauloises Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi extended his advantage at the top of the MotoGP World Championship to 104 points, with his seventh victory from nine races this season in the British Grand Prix today. The Italian splashed his way through several centimetres of standing water and lashings of torrential rain to clinch his fourth MotoGP win at Donington Park after a treacherous race that saw no fewer than eleven riders crash.
Incredible debut for 250 KTM
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July 26, 2005 Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM had one of the most remarkable debuts of any racing machine in history when it gave its new KTM Grand Prix 250 its first outing in the hands of Australian rider Anthony West at the British MotoGP round. The 250 class is highly competitive with any one of a dozen riders capable of winning on any day, and a machinery war between Honda and Aprilia that keeps improving the two-stroke breed, minute-by-minute, making it nigh-on-impossible for a new bike to break into the top echelon of 250 racing. So despite KTM’s illustrious off-road racing pedigree, and a fine showing from its recently created 125 roadracer, it was not expected to be competitive for some time yet, given that it had only been ridden ONCE prior to arriving at the Grand Prix. Then West had the new 110 bhp motor seize up in practice at over 200km/h. Then, on race day it rained, LOTS!! But West had won an Australian dirt track title when he was 15 years old, and is comfortable with a bike sliding at very high speeds. What happened?
Corser increases WSB lead, while Yamaha takes first win
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July 17, 2005 The last time Troy Corser went to the Brno circuit in Czechoslovakia for a superbike round, he left with a superpole victory, fastest race lap and two wins and but for a small electronic problem in the second race history almost repeated itself today. In the end, he was not to repeat his 1996 glory, but he did have the satisfaction of increasing his lead in the championship. Without doubt the surprise of the round was the performance of Noriyuki Haga, who gave Yamaha its first victory with the R1-based superbike and brought to four the number of marques which have won so far this year - Suzuki, Honda, Ducati and now Yamaha. Kawasaki’s best so far is third with Chris Walker almost adding a podium on the weekend with a fourth in Leg One.
The first Diesel Superbike: the Star Twin ThunderStar 1200 TDI
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July 18, 2005 Our recent articles on The coming of the electric motorcycle and the Electric superbike brought a flurry of response from our readers pointing out that the diesel motorcycle was a far more viable alternative to the petrol-engined motorcycle than the electric bike at this point in time. indeed, our readers were quick to point to a number of prototype diesel sports motorcycles that look awesomely promising: bikes such as the Neander 1400 turbodiesel, the TrackDiesel One Litre TurbuDiesel, the Dieselfighter, the AVL Boost and the Dutch ThunderStar 1200 TDI diesel motorcycle - all of them motorcycles of immense potential and all of them readying themselves for market. In this the first of a series of articles on diesel motorcycles, we take a close look at the ThunderStar 1200 TDI - a sports motorcycle with a stronger midrange than Triumph's 2.3 litre Rocket III.
The World's Only Production Diesel Motorcycle
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July 18, 2005 The concept of a diesel motorcycle is not one that has occurred to a lot of people – at least not many have thought about it for long because despite a rich century of innovation in motorcycling, only a handful of diesel motorcycles have existed and until very recently, they have all been utility vehicles – bikes designed to get great economy on fuel of questionable quality in rugged and remote regions and said diesel two-wheelers had no performance pretensions. As we all know, diesel technology has come a long way in recent times and now the sans-sparkplug engine promises a renaissance thanks to its low emissions, good power output and low consumption ... and like so many aspects of technology, it was the muscle of the military dollar that brought the world's first modern production diesel motorcycle into being.
US MotoGP: Hayden leads American 1-2
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July 10, 2005 Americans Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards struck a major blow for the sport of motorcycle road racing when they finished 1-2 and demoted the world’s best rider into third spot at the Red Bull United States Grand Prix here today. In showcasing the world’s best motorcycle racing event to the American public, Hayden and Edwards did their home country proud and will surely have enhanced the prospects for greater acceptance and coverage of MotoGP in the world’s biggest and most important motorcycle marketplace. For Hayden, with a career just beginning and a rockstar’s good looks and persona, his first MotoGP win is expected by many to move him into the elite and make him a regular contender for the win. For Rossi, it was business as usual because although he finish in third place, he extended his points lead to 79 points, giving him a three race lead (at 25 points for a win) with nine races remaining in the title chase.
Alpine Stars Motorcycle leather cooling system details
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July 19, 2005 A few weeks back we reported rumours of AlpineStars developing a motorcycle leather “cooling system” and our belief that the system was used by American Renegade Koji Honda rider Ben Bostrom at the Misano (Italy) round of the World Superbike Championships. Now further details have come to light and we can confirm that prototypes of a new Alpinestars cooling system incorporated into Alpinestars Tech back protector were used by United States MotoGP winner Nicky Hayden 10 days ago. Codenamed Embedded Air, the innovative project is part of Alpinestars’ on-going ‘Cool Rush’ program, which is looking at many new technologies specifically targetting the area of rider cooling. The entire Embedded Air system adds only 200g to the weight of the Tech back protector, while tests have shown the level of protection it offers isn’t adversely affected.
Limited Edition Titanium Fireblade
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July 4, 2005 Honda is releasing a limited edition Titanium version of the CBR1000RR – while it comes with all the breathtaking performance of the MotoGP RC211V-derived 2005 Fireblade, the only difference to the standard machine is the Titanium paint job gracing the latest Fireblade’s bodywork which is quite distinctive in 2005 with a sharper and more aggressively angled nose with a lower windscreen. The new Titanium model will be available from July in extremely limited quantities.
World Superbike Championships Rd 6: Ducati fights back
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June 27, 2005 A splendid double win for Regis Laconi thrilled a large Santamonica crowd yesterday to rejuventate the Ducati Xerox Team’s manufacturers championship ambitions but title leader Troy Corser appears safely in control of the riders championship. In a sweltering Misano (air temperature hovering around 32 degrees and track temperature at around 53 degrees), the French rider scored two dominant wins, finishing twice on the top of the podium together with Australians Chris Vermeulen (Honda) and Corser (Suzuki) in that order. Team-mate James Toseland also rode two determined races but had to settle for two fourth places.
MotoGP: Dutch TT to Rossi and Yamaha
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June 26, 2005 Valentino Rossi claimed another win, another record and staked another claim to being the greatest ever when he won the 75th anniversary Gauloises Dutch TT at the famous Assen circuit on Saturday afternoon. In doing so, he became the first Yamaha rider ever to win five consecutive premier-class races and fought off a new challenger to his crown in the form of an ever-improving Marco Melandri. Rossi has always had the ability to find something extra when it counts, but he seems to be regularly performing remarkable feats this year, coming up with several stunners on the weekend to increase his points lead in the 2005 title to 63 points – a buffer of more than two race wins.
KTM 950 SUPERMOTO: the international Press raves!
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June 25, 2005 The launch of the new KTM 950 SUPERMOTO was one of KTM’s biggest gambles yet. The Austrian marque has been undergoing the transition from niche purveyor of premium off-road competition machinery to fully-fledged motorcycle manufacturer and has its eyes set firmly on the road bike market with a 990 Supersport motorcycle set to spearhead its road machinery charge and successful forays into (125 and soon 250cc) Grand Prix racing set to give it credibility. So why it would choose to release such an oddball motorcycle as the 950cc supermotard to such great fanfare was a complete mystery … until the press rode the bike, which turned out to be a sensation. Our favourite quote on the KTM comes from Two Wheels Only: “The motorcycling equivalent of a man with a 1000 yard stare, a disturbing twitch and an unhealthy interest in firearms ...”
Suzuki GSX-R/4 Concept update for Tokyo?
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June 22, 2005 Rumours emanating from Japan suggest Suzuki might be ready to put the GSX-R/4 concept machine it first showed four years ago into production with an announcement due that this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. The multi-featured GSX-R/4 concept car combined Suzuki's automotive and motorcycle technologies to create a one-of-a-kind high-performance vehicle using the 1.3-liter 173 horsepower engine of the GSX1300R Hayabusa motorcycle to create a high-tech, aluminium-framed, light weight 640 kilogram two-seater sportscar capable of 140 mph and motorcycle-like acceleration. With the rumours already strong that a production version of the outrageous B-King concept motorcycle will be announced at the show with a 1500cc motor, use of the same motor would see the GSX-R/4 with more than 200 horses plus the same array of intelligent electronics that adjust the car to the driver’s style.
