Motorcycle News
MotoGP Seeks a July Start Date
In Spain in July As everyone knows, MotoGP has been put on hold like every other sport, but that could change. According to MotorSport Magazine, MotoGP rights-holder Dorna wants to kick off the 2020 MotoGP season in July. If this were to happen it would be in Spain and the first three races would be …
Confederate Motorcycles Releases 3 New Motorcycles
Now a Lineup of Six Motorcycles Confederate Motorcycles, alive and well for those who don’t know, has recently announced three new bikes, expanding its lineup to six motorcycles in total. Ernest Lee, the owner of the company emailed me about the new bikes. I’ve previously spoken with Ernest, and he hinted in that conversation of …
Watch and Love This Old Honda RC30 Promo Video
A True Work of Art The Honda RC30 is a bike built with precision in mind. It’s a bike that was created to be homologated for entry into the then-new WorldSBK Championship in 1987. It was a fully faired sportbike with a 90-degree V4 engine. It’s a beautiful machine even today, and the video shown …
Royal Enfield Could Dramatically Expand Its Lineup
More Twins and Some Others Royal Enfield may be looking to expand, thanks to some new information from the company’s executives. In an interview with Motorcycle News, Royal Enfield Head of Product Development Simon Warburton said the company’s Head of Product Strategy and Industrial Design Mark Wells had 14 new model ideas over the past …
Alpinestars Founder Sante Mazzarolo Dies at 91
A Blow to the Motorcycling Community Alpinestars is a household name in the home of motorcyclists and beyond. That’s thanks to the work of Santi Mazzarolo who founded the company. Mazzarolo died on May 1, 2020, according to Motociclismo. He was 91 years old and left a huge mark on the world with one of …
GasGas North America Announces the Trials 2020 TXT Racing Model Range
Gassing Up for 2020 GasGas North America has introduced its TXT Racing model lineup for 2020. The company recently showed off the 125, 250, 280, and 300 machines. The company will start selling these bikes in May through its all-new North American dealership network. John Hinz, the CEO of GasGas North America said the following …
CruzTOOLS Releases New Toolkit for BMW Motorcycles
It’s Trail-Ready Packing a good toolkit is an important part—or should be—of your motorcycle road trip checklist, especially if you’re going off-road at any point. If you have an adventure touring bike, like many of the fantastic GS motorcycles BMW sells, then a good toolkit is essential. Luckily CruzTOOLS is here to help those who …
Indian Motorcycle’s 2020 FTR Carbon Is Your Premium Flat-Track Inspired Bike
The FTR Goes Carbon the FTR Carbon is Indian’s latest bike. The company revealed it on May 1. Somehow it slipped past my radar, but I’m catching it now. The bike is pretty much an FTR 1200 S with a lot of carbon fiber on it, and some other premium upgrades. The bike gets a …
May Is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month
We’re Out There The nicer weather is here, or soon to be depending on where you live, and that means you’ll be out on two wheels. May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, and that means the U.S. Department of Transportation has put out some new material about keeping riders safe. The DOT is focusing on …
Yamaha Launches the 2020 Tricity 155
Only for Asian Markets Leaning trikes are becoming more commonplace, and Yamaha has just updated its leaning trike scooter in its Asian lineup for 2020. The Tricity as it’s called is an apt name. The bike is a scooter meant for urban, city environments. The bike received some notable updates for the 2020 model year. …
MV Agusta Superveloce 800 Serie Oro Enters Production
A Long Wait MV Agusta recently resumed production after the worst of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. With the company back to work, production begins on the Superveloce 800 Serie Oro. The bike was confirmed for production roughly this time last year, and it has taken this long for MV Agusta to get around to …
Suzuki Could Release the Chinese-Made Haojue DR300 as Its Own
Could This be the Suzuki GSX-S300 Suzuki and the Chinese motorcycle company Haojue have a strong partnership. Haojue has a new DR300 naked motorcycle and now the Indian press, publications like Zig Wheels, is speculating that Suzuki could release that motorcycle as a Suzuki model with the model name GSX-S300. Haojue isn’t a well-known name …
Harley-Davidson Begins “The Rewire”
A Big Mistake? Harley-Davidson is feeling the full brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis. The company is to put it plainly doing really poorly (big surprise, huh?). Because of this, Harley decided to restructure its strategy from the “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” plan that was put in place by the former …
Cake Ösa+ and Ösa Lite Deliveries Begin
The Bikes Will be Delivered Several Markets The innovative electric motorcycle company Cake has some interesting machines. The workhorse of the lineup is the Ösa model. Cake sells an Ösa+ and Ösa Lite, and I recently received word from the Cake team that the new model will now be delivered to United States customers. Europe, …
MV Agusta CEO Says It’s Focusing on Its Dealership Network
MV Agusta CEO Timur Sardarov Is Taking Point MV Agusta’s CEO in an interview with Italian media outlet Moto.it said that the company is reworking its dealership network. He called the previous dealership network a “practically destroyed dealership network” and the next move for the company will be to not only rebuild it but to build …
Could the TVS Apache RR 310 Birth a BMW G 310 RR
Another BMW Made by TVS? TVS has been in the news a lot lately due to the fact that it bought Norton Motorcycles, but the Indian motorcycle manufacturer has been in the big leagues for quite some time. The company has a partnership with BMW to produce the BMW G 310 R and G 310 …
Brixton Motorcycles 1200 Concept Will Enter Production
A Triumph Bonneville Challenger Enters the Arena If you don’t know about Brixton Motorcycles, then let me introduce the company. It makes classic-looking motorcycles in Europe. They’re handsome and fun machines priced reasonably. The company introduced a 1200 concept not too long ago, and according to MoreBikes, that motorcycle will now enter production. The Austrian …
Indian Motorcycle’s Sales are Actually up in Q1 of 2020
A Feat in Today’s World Yesterday I reported that Harley-Davidson is struggling pretty hard to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy. It seems Indian Motorcycle is much better suited to weather the storm. Indian’s sales were actually up seven percent when compared with Q1 of last year. Polaris owns Indian, …
Twisted Road Now Protects Owners and Riders for up to $1,000,000
All the Protection You Could Need The motorcycle rental company Twisted Road announced two significant changes recently to its insurance policy for both riders and motorcycle owners renting their motorcycle. Owners will now receive $1 million in liability coverage free of charge. Riders will now be able to receive up to $1 million in coverage …
Harley-Davidson’s Business Is Hurting Due to Coronavirus
COIVD-19 Takes Its Toll The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on every industry. The market has dipped considerably, and Harley-Davidson wasn’t able to escape it. Like other motorcycle company’s Harley is struggling to cope. The company saw sales drop by 18 percent in Q1 of 2020 when compared with 2019’s Q1 sales results. In terms …
NIU Launches the NQi GTS and UQi GT
Electric Scootin’ I’ve written about NIU before. The company has a lot of electric scooters around the world in various rideshare programs. Now it has launched some new electric scooters in Italy. The scooters are the NQi GTS and the UQi GT. They’re both small commuting scooters, and they provide good performance for urban environments. …
Indian Teases the FTR Carbon
It’s Coming May 1 On May 1, Indian will reveal the FTR Carbon. The upcoming new version of the motorcycle was recently teased on Indian’s YouTube channel. It was touted as the closest thing to the champion flat track racing bike. This would suggest to me that it will be fully decked out in carbon …
Energica Resumes Production
Getting Back In the Swing of Things I reported that Italy’s motorcycle manufacturers are starting production again since the COVID-19 outbreak. One of them kicking things back in gear, so to speak, is Energica. The company resumed production yesterday and will continue to ramp up production from there. Soon the company will be back to …
My Prediction for 2020’s Motorcycle of the Year
What Is the Best New Bike? Looking over the long list of new or updated motorcycles for 2020, I have to say that there are some truly killer machines out there this year. There are far more new or updated models than I originally thought, and there are standouts in each segment of the motorcycle …
Royal Enfield Meteor 350 Fireball Coming?
Adding a Fireball? The rumor is that Royal Enfield has a Meteor 350 in the works, but new information suggests the company will add the suffix Fireball to the bike’s name. GaadiWaadi recently posted an article with some leaked images that showed the suffix added to the bike. It’s unclear exactly what this means. Maybe …
Former Harley-Davidson and Land Rover Boss Announced as Interim CEO of Norton
The New Norton Begins to Emerge Stuart Garner ran Norton Motorcycles into the ground, opening the door for TVS Motors to buy the company and start rebuilding. One of the company’s first moves was to appoint John Russell, formerly of Harley-Davidson and Land Rover, to the Interim CEO position with the brand. According to MoreBikes, …
Kawasaki Starts Home-Delivery Service
Another Brand Offering This With few people coming out to dealerships right now due to the Coronavirus, it makes sense to do home delivery. Several companies have started to do so and now Kawasaki is one of them. The company recently announced its home delivery program. This will be done through the current dealership network. …
Brembo Makes Million Euro Donation to Fight COVID-19
Trying to Stop the Coronavirus With some companies beginning to return to work after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, you might think we’re out of the woods. Well, that’s not the case yet. It will be many months before the pandemic is under control. Brembo is here to help. The company recently made a …
In India, the Biggest Suzuki You Can Buy Is a 250
Say Goodbye to Suzuki Large Displacement Bikes The upcoming emissions standards for the Indian market have killed off more bikes that we really like to see. It has opened up room for some new models as well, but now Suzuki has canceled all of its street bikes bigger than 250cc, according to various sources. The …
Trevor FTR Stella Is an Electric Flat Tracker
A Cool Electric Bike Most electric bikes fit into a few different categories it’s they’re either small commuter machines or they offer something on the complete another end of the spectrum and usually a sportbike. The Trevor FTR Stella is a little different. This bike is an electric flat track racer. Coming from Trevor Motorcycles, …
Ducati Is Back to Work, Others Will Follow
Getting Back on Track COVID-19 threw a giant wrench in the inner workings of the motorcycle industry. Bike manufacturers from all over were temporarily shutting down, and now it looks like things might start to reopen. According to OmniMoto, Ducati is easing back into production again. A number of Ducati employees are back in the …
MotoGP Could Race With Minimal Crew and No Race Fans
COVID-19 Racing MotoGP, like all other forms of sporting events, hasn’t been able to continue in the wake of COVID-19. Races have been postponed or canceled, and people are looking for a solution. One of the solutions being considered according to an email shared by Asphalt & Rubber is that races could be held behind …
Jawa Will Bring Bikes to Europe
Expansion Continues Jawa Motorcycles burst back onto the scene in 2018. Its resurgence was plagued by some issues, but it’s safe to say interest in the company is high. There’s a lot of promise with this company, and now it seems Jawa will bring its bikes to Europe. According to Indian Autos Blog and several …
Ducati, Piaggio, and Other Motorcycle Manufacturers Looking to Reopen
Getting Back on the Throttle In the Before COVID-19 (BC) days motorcycle manufacturers were churning out bikes developing new ones and things were chugging along rather well. After COVID-19 (AC), motorcycle manufacturers were forced to temporarily shut down and put all things on hold. Now companies are trying to return to the good ole BC …
Aprilia Has an Upcoming Small-Displacement Adventure Bike
It’s a 250cc Aprilia is known for its sportbikes, not adventure bikes, but the company recently saw success with the Terra 150 in Asia and now the company seems to be working on a 250cc. According to MoreBikes, the bike in the image above is a 250cc tester that was spotted. The spy photographer snapped …
The Royal Enfield 650 Twins Have Sold Well in 2020
The INT650 and Continental GT Royal Enfield, like many other motorcycle manufacturers right now, is having a tough time selling motorcycles in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s sales were down by 44 percent in India in March, according to Car and Bike. There is some good news, though. The company’s 650cc motorcycles, …
This Katalis EV500 Design for an Electric Scooter Is Awesome
The Electric Scooter The World Needs So, electric scooters seem to be gaining ground, and I would expect they will be an important force in the motorcycle world in the future. I have one big problem with the vast majority of them: they’re ugly. That changes with the Katalis EV500. Katalis is an Indonesian design …
Honda Patents New Mini Bike Design
The Rebirth of the Z50? Honda has the new Monkey, which is a fun and silly-looking bike based on the Honda Grom, but apparently that isn’t enough. The company looks like it’s thinking of an even smaller Mini Moto model. MoreBikes revealed some new patent drawings that show a smaller bike than the current Monkey …
Watch the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R Four-Cylinder 250cc Scream on the Dyno
That’s an Angry-Sounding Motorcycle Small 250cc motorcycles don’t usually have four-cylinders so, Kawasaki’s new Ninja ZX-25R is a unique machine. Unfortunately, at this time it is not going to be a North American model, but I hope that changes. Recently, the folks at Kawasaki Indonesia posted a video of the ZX-25R doing its thing on …
TVS Says Rebuilding Norton’s Brand Is Biggest Priority
Restore the Brand to its Former Glory It’s no secret that Norton Motorcycles has been in dire straights for quite a while now. After the company entered into administration TVS was able to purchase the brand. The Indian company has said the British brand’s production will stay in Britain. In a recent interview with Motorcycle …
