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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Yatri Motorcycles, a Nepal-based company, unveiled the Project Zero electric motorcycle in December 2019. This is their first motorcycle model.
There are only a few specifications known so far. We will have to wait until the bike release for more information.
We know that the motorcycle will be purchase, and test ride-ready in March 2020. That is not such a long wait, after all. Now, on some specifications. Yatri states that its bike will have a range of 230 km (143 miles) on a single battery charge. The power output of the bike is 30kW (40hp). Probably the most intriguing fact is that the bike can be fully charged, even using a standard wall outlet, in just two hours.
Yatri unveiled this motorcycle in Kathmandu earlier in December. There are no specific numbers when it comes to weight. Some sources claim that Yatri uses carbon fiber body panels to reduce the weight of the bike. The Project Zero motorcycles are designed and built in Nepal. Yatri uses parts from all over the world. They hope to open a factory and use Nepalese-made components for future models.
The motorcycle also features a 7-inch tablet that provides a touchscreen interface. It is quite a big display, but when you consider users with larger hands, this is a suitable design choice.
Make sure to check out the promo video for the Project Zero electric motorcycle below!
We still don’t know if the bike will undergo some design changes before its March 2020 release. For now, Yatri plans to sell this bike in Nepal. They have expressed their interest to expand on the international market, though. As of now, there is no information about the price or the availability of the bike. Nevertheless, it is certainly interesting to observe the growth of the electric motorcycle industry in the world.
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BMW released an extensive documentary that details the construction process of their S 1000 RR motorcycle.
You can see the video below.
The documentary is 49 minutes long and well worth your time. If you enjoy the kinds of documentaries that break down every part of the production process, this documentary is perfect for you. The documentary shows how the engine is The documentary shows the production from the creation of the engine to the finished S 1000 RR, rolling off the manufactury line. Of course, there is some riveting footage of track testing the S 1000 RR too!
It takes two hours for the bike to finish its production process. Human technicians and robots work together. to make this happen. Robots perform tasks that require additional precision and speed; while other tasks, like getting to hard-to-reach-areas, require an expert human hand.
There’s something calming about seeing the extremely accurate technique that goes into constructing this magnificent sports bike. All the people that work on this bike are trained professionals who do this process every day. Nevertheless, it is still amazing to see such n effective production process on video!
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