Exciting news for adventure bike enthusiasts! Apparently, KTM will create a 490 Adventure motorcycle. The parent company of KTM, the Piere Mobility Group passed the documents to their investors. These documents detail more than a dozen new bikes. One such bike is a parallel-twin 500cc adventure bike! Also, the CEO of KTM confirmed this.
The new bike won’t replace their 390 Adventure motorcycle. It will stay the entry-level motorcycle in their Adventure line of bikes.
We still don’t know how the 490 Adventure will exactly look like. Our assumption is that the bike will look like a bulky version of 390 adventure with the 790 Adventure engine under the hood.
With this bike in its already extensive lineup of adventure bikes, KTM will have a decent range of bikes that beats the competition. According to some sources, they are already up in sales compared to BMW.
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CES will certainly be very interesting this year. One of the compelling announcements before the CES is the CoPilot advanced warning system. The company behind this system is Damon Motorcycles, who licensed the QNX technology from BlackBerry, specifically their real-time operating system. They also plan to unveil an all-new electric motorcycle outfitted with this technology.
The CoPilot system includes all the cameras and sensors on the bike. It tracks the vicinity of the bike in real-time. The system provides alerts and warnings to the rider through visual information on the monitor. Also, all this information is brought via haptic feedback too.
The goal of Damon Motorcycles is to create the safest bike for the road. Its warning system should provide all the critical information about the bike and its surroundings faster than other bikes on the market. The partnership with BlackBerry will surely be beneficial here.
What Does the CEO of Damon Motorcycles Say?
Folks from Web Bike World had a chance to sit down with Jay Giraud, the CEO of the company. They asked him about the background of the partnership with BlackBerry. He says that one of their investors actually worked at QNX for numerous years. The investor connected Damon Motorcycles with the BlackBerry CTO. That’s how the partnership got conceived. Giraud claims that QNX software is the best of its kind, “when it comes to operating the mission-critical systems in cars.”
Nevertheless, this system will be different than its car counterpart. Giraud states that it will be more advanced.
Actually, over 150 million vehicles and a couple of million other systems around the world use the BlackBerry QNX technology. Some fields that use this technology to great benefit are aerospace, defense, energy, industrial automation, medicine, and robotics.
Damon aims to disrupt the motorcycle industry with their new motorcycle using this technology. We are certainly very excited for its reveal.
When Can I See the Reveal?
You can see the announcement of the Damon Motorcycles electric motorcycle at CES on January 7. The time of the event is 10 AM on the PST timezone.
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EICMA really showed us some nice lookers on the motorcycle front! One such bike is certainly the Husqvarna Norden 901, a concept bike that is coming soon to the Husqvarna showrooms. Some sources state that Husqvarna will probably extend this model line. They will add the Norden 250, 401, and 501; along with the Norden 901.
Still, we don’t know how the 501 and 401 will look like, as there are no images online. We presume that these two will look like the 901, albeit a bit smaller. Also, we know that the 501 will feature the KTM 490 parallel-twin engine. On the other hand, the 401 will feature the KTM 390 Adventure engine.
Also, the reports from investors show us that Husqvarna will create a 250 adventure bike. It is probably made with the Asian market in mind (looking at you, India!).
We expect these three new bikes to release after the Norden 901. At least, those are our expectations!
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Claudio Domenicali, the CEO of Ducati, revealed that they are planning to launch a lite, lower capacity version of their Streetfighter V4 motorcycle – the Streetfighter V2.
The new V4 is quite powerful, as its power is 205bhp. This power may alienate some riders, as this is an extreme powerhouse of a motorcycle. To that, Domenicali comments that they have the Panigale V2. It makes 155bhp and is in the range where you can experience the sports riding experience without going to the extreme. They also want to have naked bikes in different categories.
He says that the Streetfighter V4 will remain at the top of Ducati’s line when it comes to performance and power. They are also thinking about a new, interesting, naked model that will come sooner than we think.
Streetfighter V4 is essentially a Panigale V4 with flat bars and no fairing. We expect that the Streetfighter V2 will carry over most of the other specifications of its sports counterpart.
The speculation is that it will have the same 955cc liquid-cooled V-twin engine with a power of 155bhp. Along with that, it might have fully adjustable Showa forks, Brembo brakes with ABS, as well as Sachs shock and twin monoblock. It could also feature a quickshifter or autoblipper, braking control, and anti-wheelie and traction control that we can see in the Panigale bikes.
The Streetfighter V2 will probably weigh like the Panigale V2 (200kg). It certainly won’t need four aerodynamic wings that V4 uses to keep the front wheel on the ground. That means that the front end may have a sleeker design.
All of the speculations about the Streetfighter V2 induce just more excitement. Yet another unknown fact is the price of the motorcycle.
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The pricing and specs for the new 2020 Kawasaki Ninja 650 have finally been announced. There are a few variants to pay attention to.
The Metallic Spark Black variant will cost £6899 (€8075/$9024).
Two other paint options are available too: Lime Green and Ebony, and Pearl Flat Stardust White. Both of the variants will cost £7049 (€8250/$9220).
You can also add a number of optional extras to personalize your Ninja 650; whether for touring or performance. That includes luggage, a higher seat (up to 30mm higher), a taller windscreen, and a full Akrapovic exhaust system.
Kawasaki Ninja 650 features lighter Dunlop Sportmax Roadsport 2 tyres. It also features a 4.3-inch TFT screen that includes smartphone connectivity.
Kawasaki has also shared the specifications for the Ninja 650. Its engine is 649cc liquid-cooled 4-stroke parallel twin. Ninja 650 has a power of 67bhp at 8000rpm. Its torque is 47.2 ft-lb at 6700rpm. The weight of the bike is 193 kg. The seat of the bike is 790mm high. The capacity of the fuel tank is 15 litres.
These bikes will arrive in dealerships at the beginning of February. Stay tuned for more info in the following months!
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The Honda CRF450L is a fantastic motorcycle. It is built for riders who want to go on the track but will never waste hours rolling around the racecourses.
The bike is incredibly flexible. There are people who fit a range of travel gadgets and then rode them back and forth to Morocco. But there is one aspect that has always been lacking in this bike – the power.
We love the torque quality of its engine, even if it is a little bit easy to stall at the edges. It generates only 23bhp of its 449cc single, particularly since the US version produces 40bhp.
In 2020, things are set for a change. As the US and UK variants of the bike are very similar, some people have ordered US parts and converted their UK bikes. Now, Honda UK will offer upgrade parts as an official kit.
The Power Up Kit consists of a new ECU and intake manifold. These two boost power into the mid-40 numbers. Still, there are no official figures from Honda. Also, the kit configuration won’t affect your warranty or service intervals. Honda initially set them up according to the engine of higher output.
If you have a 450L already, this is probably the kit you are looking for! It will release in February. We will make sure to cover the upgrade model in the following months.
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Kymco announced the Revonex, their new electric bike, earlier this year. It will go on sale in 2021. They claim that this motorcycle will revolutionize the motorcycle industry.
And just how is that bike supposed to do that? Motorcycle News sat down with the Kymco Chairman, Allen Ko. He explained that there needs to be a distinctive line between electric scooters and electric motorcycles. Ko thinks that electric scooter manufacturers need to focus on providing a complete solution, as there is no infrastructure. So, everything needs to be in its exact spot for the scooter to work.
In the case of electric motorcycles, car companies will take care of the infrastructure very soon. He states that they need to realize how to make the bikes work with this. People shouldn’t worry about range then. All that is left is to make the bikes desirable to potential customers.
Allen thinks that companies will always be less successful if they try to convince people to buy electric bikes instead of petrol bikes, just for the sake of no gas emission. It’s much easier to convince potential customers to buy superior products. The key to this is to make a better bike. He states that SuperNex and RevoNex are performance motorcycles, that happen to be electric too.
RevoNex is equipped with a six-speed gearbox, coupled with a quickshifter and an autoblipper. That offers you to change gears, or you can just leave the bike in third gear, and ride it like a huge scooter.
Allen Ko adds up:
“The key is that you have a choice. If you want, you could never use a clutch again. It’s the same with noise – for everyone who says they miss the noise, someone else likes how quiet it is. Lots of people tell us oh that’s nice when we show them an electric bike but then they don’t want to buy it. We are trying to change that. Technology is always difficult, but the really difficult part is the mindset.”
He states that in the next three years, there will be an enormous increase in battery tech, as well as in charging points. The future is bright for the electric motorcycle market.
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British gear producer RST has just released its first collection of airbag jackets. The rates at which they offer the jackets are suitable for the budget of everyday riders.
Usually, electronic airbag clobbers would cost from £1500 to £3500 (€1755/$1962 to €4096/$4578). A partnership with airbag specialists, In&motion, has opened a new opportunity for RST. Now, they offer their entry-level GT textile jackets outfitted with electronic airbag for just £399.99 (€470/$523).
RST has also produced:
Unique airbag variants of their GT leather jacket – £699.99/€820/$916
Adventure X jacket – £499.99/€585/$654
Top-spec V4.1 one-piece racing suit – £899.99/€1053/$1117
The uniforms are almost the same design as their non-airbag equivalent. They have more than 40 subtle changes to suit the airbag system effortlessly.
Stuart Millington from RST says:
“We intend to democratize airbag technology so that ordinary riders – not just the wealthy few – can afford that extra level of safety. The injury reduction figures from airbags are simply staggering.”
Instead of being carried as a standalone jacket, the U-shaped airbag is placed on a plastic insert inside the jacket to secure the waist, arms, neck, and shoulders. At the same time, two filled tubes run down each side of the neck to avoid accidents.
The ECU and inflation mechanism are included in the CE-Level2 back protection at the back, combined with complete CE-Level2 limb protectors. Sensor bank scanning 1000 times a second feed details to the device, which then uses algorithms to identify a crash. The device is will identify the crash and inflate in less than 0.05s.
After you buy the jacket, you need to lease the In&box ‘brain’ for £12 per month (€14 per month/$16 per month), or just buy it for £399 (€467/$522). You can swap the payment between garments, and pause the subscription when you’re not using it. This software gets regular updates via a smartphone app.
After you trigger the inflator, you can easily gas it at your home. This RST range is going on sale in March of 2020.
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Pan America from Harley-Davidson is approaching its release. It was shown in prototype form at EICMA. It’s a wholly different beast, and the bike is exactly what Harley needs right now. The company has been struggling to find new riders for a while now. Pan America may turn the tables.
Motorcycle News managed to talk about the bike with Brad Richards, Vice President of Styling and Design of Harley-Davidson. This is what he said in the interview:
“One thing we noticed was that almost every competitor outside of KTM emulates BMW and their almost insectoid form factor. We realized no one had used the North American design DNA to make an adventure touring bike. No one has designed a two-wheeled Jeep. That was our ethos: let’s make a two-wheeled Jeep.”
The V-twin engine is probably the main selling factor of this motorcycle. Brad was also talking about the importance of really seeing the engine in the motorcycle. He also said there were some pains in the development process of this bike. There were numerous sketches and some tough reviews at different points.
This sure is an interesting bike. Harley’s response to the adventure motorcycle industry seems very fascinating. Richards mentions some interesting stuff in the interview, but not a lot of new information about the motorcycle.
The emblematic BMW “Airhead” are the bikes powered by an air-cooled, horizontally-opposed twin-engine. They’ve been the hallmark of BMW motorcycles for 40 years. Now, they are experiencing a renaissance in popularity.
Once the primary target of the stodgy old “BMW guys”, these motorcycles are now highly sought for by younger people. They are respected both as sturdy, rideable antiques and as a great starting point for a custom design, including the Vagabund Garage’s “V12.” It is the 12th motorcycle to emerge from this Austrian shop.
This motorcycle started life as a 1994 R100RT. That is an air-cooled, 1000cc BMW twin with a complete front touring fairing on it. Although powerful, these bikes were incredibly front-heavy and the brakes (or lack of them) may come as a bit of a shock to someone used to modern motorcycles. Vagabund garage stripped off that giant fairing, de-tabbed the frame walled the machine to its basics, and wrapped it all in matte black paint.
Image Source: Vagabund
The rear wheel cover is constructed of fiberglass-reinforced material. Everything else you can see that is obviously not a stock BMW component has been 3D-printed. That includes the rear end, the front fork cover (which also houses embedded LED turn signals), the headlight housing, and the switchgear housing. All the lighting is LED.
The forks were shortened from stock to give the bike a bit more of a “hunched over” look and, to make the turn-in faster. The wheels on the bike remain stock but are painted. The front brake master cylinder was modified, but the front single-pot calipers feel like they are original. The rear brake of the drum stays the same.
The frame was bobbed and tweaked to suit the streamlined seat and tail. The revised YSS shock now suspends the previous one-sided swingarm. Exhaust may seem to be stock, but may not be, as it is classified as “modified” by HATTECH. The matte black style continues in the powder-coated exhaust and the whole bike, except for the distinctive gloss design on the tank.
Vagabund is a custom garage to keep a lookout for. They love to start a custom design with an airhead. Since they’re based in Austria, those vintage, discarded airheads are still a handful. The V12 model is already sold to its new owner. We’re sure that you can contact the garage, and order one model for yourself if you like what you see.
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