Motorcycle Racing News

The Honda Rider's Club of America (HRCA) announced today that tickets for its special hospitality area at the 2007 Red Bull USGP at Laguna Seca are going fast. Only current card-carrying HRCA Members are eligible to purchase the exclusive Turn 5 Chalet tickets.

Manufacturers generally select premium locations and luxury accommodations when it comes time to introduce their newest addition to their line. We may travel to Monza in Italy, the Baviaanskloof in South Africa, the rain forest of Costa Rica, which is all well and good. Imagine my surprise when Kawasaki took me to the mile marker 11.5 on desolate Arizona state highway 74 in the Sonora Desert, up against the foothills of the Hieroglyphic Mountains. There, circled well-worn travel trailers awaited, which would be home for the duration.

Naked SportBike, All Dressed Up

Does it surprise one for a moment that the champion of streetfighters comes from the country that originated hooliganism? That English heritage dates back to the 19th century, and is both a mark and a badge. While we decidedly pass on the destructive behavior, getting a little rowdy with the throttle inevitably seems to come with the territory when riding this particular high-performance motorcycle.

The traditional orange livery of KTM says it all. It isn't a posh Hermès orange or a trendy mid-century citrus. Rather, it is a shade that recalls highway workers clad in DOT-approved reflective garb. The color is all function with a dismissive nod to form, which is fitting, as the Austrian manufacturer has spent the last 73 years building durable off-road bikes better suited to pavement-free adventures than aggressive urban jaunts.

Honda Power Broker

John Ethell may not garner the same level of name recognition around the beer tents as racers such as Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke or Josh Hayes, but the engine-building virtuoso and undisputed master of the Honda racing mill is universally lionized in the paddock. Throughout his remarkable 18-year career, Ethell has earned the respect and friendship of the riders who have racked up countless victories atop his powerful motors.

Although the move from 2-stroke to 4-stroke has been painful for some off-roaders, there has been one feature that has made that migration much more palatable—electric starting!

When Aprilia initially revealed its revolutionary concept V-twin 450cc off-road powerplant at the Milan Motorcycle Show in 2003, the lightweight, high-tech motor was lacking just one thing—a chassis. Following years of building anticipation from the public, Aprilia has placed the V-twin in the guise of both supermoto (SXV) and enduro (RXV), as well as delivering the engine in two displacements—450cc and 550cc.

Effectively melding the design philosophy of its MotoGP racing division with its street-going, production-based supersport machine, Kawasaki has retired the 636 offering to concentrate their middleweight efforts solely on the 600. The result is an all-new Ninja ZX-6R.

Fraternal Twins

In the stillness of a high desert afternoon, we can hear the Yamaha YZF-R6 clearly as it makes a test run toward us. Considering the bike is still at some distance, the high-pitched wail cuts through the air with amazing clarity, and the gearshifts come in quick succession as the 599cc engine rips through the top end of its rev range in each gear. Close-ratio transmissions make that possible, and they are invariably fitted to high-revving engines, where the power band is comparatively narrow and crowded into the top end of the engine's usable rev range.

Manor Born

Louis Vuitton—as a purveyor of custom luggage and expensive bags, and owner of elite subsidiaries such as Donna Karan, Veuve Clicquot and Moët & Chandon, Hennessey, Givenchy, and Tag Heuer—is one of Europe's most profitable groups, yet is not too proud to maintain links with the concours and retro-rally scene.

20 years after.

Just as the two Gallery bikes in this issue revolutionized the street motorcycle world over 30 years ago, so too did the 1968 Yamaha DT-1 250 Enduro. The famous white-tanked bike was the first street-legal motorcycle that was also a capable, lightweight, reliable and powerful off-road machine. Yamaha's newly dubbed “dual purpose” motorcycle introduced untold hundreds of thousands to the sport of motorcycle riding, and spawned an entirely new market segment.

Michael Czysz Prototype

Several years ago, the motorcycling ether was finely misted with intriguing rumors of a man in Oregon embarking on the daunting task of creating a new American motorcycle. Industry press and curious enthusiasts ruminated on what the machine might be.

Roger Goldammer's simple complexity.

With motocrossers' designs in a maturation phase, the big changes in the dirt are happening off the closed courses. These three bikes reflect that reality.