Black beauty !
The 2013 Ducati Street Fighter got a couple of minor upgrades, but the one i like the most is the traditional Ducati red frame coupled with the new matte race titanium body.
Action photo —click for more—
The Devil in disguise
The 2013 Diavel gets a new paint job. I like the red and the matt black but am not sure about the blue !
more photos —click for more—
The Civilized GS
I never liked or tempted to ride the BMW GS more than now, the new 2013 water-cooled BMW R1200GS is a Wolf in Cheap clothing. The looks of the new GS is very sharp and civilized yet at heart the GS is is still the same ridged bike we used to know.
I’ll leave you with some detailed photos of the bike. —click for more—
I miss the open roads !
BMW 2013 spy shots
Finally some news on the 2013 motorcycle line from BMW, it looks like they are planing 2 new bikes for 2013.
The first is a naked version of the S1000RR with a half faring that looks like a copy of the Aprilia Tuono -which i hate-, and the other one is a Roadster or Cafe Racer style based on the Lo-Rider concept they presented back in 2008.
More photos —click for more—
Bonjours Paris
My dear friend Hussain Al Samhan is in Paris, and he just sent me this photo.
He usually ride his bike all the way to Europe, but this year was an exception because riding thru Syria is not safe and there are no ferries from Egypt to Italy so he had to ship the bike to Morocco and tour Morocco then ride the ferry from there to Spain and ride the bike thru Spain all the way to Paris. I’m gona try to join him, but am not gona ship any of my bikes as am trying to buy a bike from France or Italy and spend a month touring Europe on it then sell it or just leave at a friend’s place.
I hope ill be able to do it before Hussain comes back.
Fastest torrent
I posted a couple of times about the movie “Fastest”, its like a Rossi biography but its nice watch. If you have been following MotoGP the movie is almost a Deja Vu but with riders talking about their feelings during the great battles they fought.
I liked the parts when Simoncelli talked about his racing style and when the movies talks about reasons behind Rossi’s shift to Yamaha.
You can get torrent from here or buy rent from here.
I tried to convince him
…..but did not succeed !I have much respect for his decision.
Shuhei Nakamoto, vice president of HRC
The announcement of Casey Stoner on his withdrawal from MotoGP at the end of the season shocked the motor sport world, Nakamoto confirmed that HRC were aware of Stoner plans…we talked about it many times, Stoner wanted spend more time with his family in Australia and as little time as possible to do tests. Nakamoto adds, We thought that the five month winter sleep is enough, but apparently it wasn’t !
According to tweets form @AziFarni quoting Stoner “over the years there have been things in the sport that were disappointing but also things that he loved…now the balance has tipped and after of years sacrifcing his family its time to stop as the passion is lost ”
Stoner’s decision will complicates Honda’s future MotoGP plans, rumors are already circulating that Honda is pressuring Dorna to abolish the rookie rule which obliges rookies in MotoGP to do at least one year in a satellite team before moving to a factory team. -Honda has their eyes on Marc Marquez.
One thing for sure is we are gona miss Stoners slides, and i personally believe Stoner will do a come back .
RR still the best
According to MCN the RR is the fastest and the best on and off the track, but i still think the RSV4 is the most beautiful bike.
It’s Official -almost-
The news is now almost official, Audi has agreed to buy Ducati for about 860 million euros ($1.12 billion) including debt. According to Reuters, sources very close to the negotiations have already confirmed the success of the negotiations – ongoing for the past several weeks – and one of them also stated that the liabilities of Ducati are well below 200 million euros. Analysts said that deal lacked obvious benefits for Audi and did little but polish VW chairman Ferdinand Piech reputation as a collector of rare and exotic brands !!
I guess it’s too early for analysts to predict the effect of the deal on the R&D, but lets hope they concentrate on the development of the core business and not only abuse the brand like the Americans did with brand extensions like Ducati wine, Ducati coffee, Ducati perfume and Ducati sanitary towels !!