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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
High Performanc blend from Oleon Oil In conjunction with Motologic Racing department Oleon Oils has finalised a blend of oil for use in high performance
street bikes and race bikes.
The formulation took the company 16 months to produce and develop and it has evolved
over five different blends. After many hours of Vigorous testing at each stage of development with the Motologic Honda Race
team both on and off the track, the company has come up with a semi synthetic blend of oil that is set to deliver maximum
horsepower outputs without sacrificing wear protection for your motorcycle.
“We are extremely pleased with
the results and development of our blend Moto Lube RR5 as we believe that we have achieved the optimum balance in power Vs
protection as seen on the track, on the dyno and ultimately in the pull down of the race bike engines,” said Shane Trovato
Oleon Oils Managing Director.
Oleon RR5 assisted Glenn Allerton to securewin his first Australian
Superbike Championship in 2008 aboard the Oleon supported Honda CBR1000RR Superbike.
“At Motologic it’s
imperative for us to use the best oils in our machines. The RR5 exceeds our requirements for both of our racing and our retail
customers. Our Honda Superbikes must operate at the highest levels of performance at all times and to remain dominant we must
continually develop all aspects of the motorcycle.” commented Motologic’s Mr Paul Free. “We are now extremely
happy to confidently tick the box in this area of development”.
To read more click here
Monday, June 29, 2009
California Superbike School for 2009  The California Superbike School has just released the remaining calendar dates available for classes in 2009 with
events at both Eastern Creek NSW and Phillip Island VIC. Please note that the August dates for the Eastern Creek circuit are almost sold out and that September dates
for Phillip Island are filling up quickly, so for all those motorcycling enthusiasts out there if you’re wanting to
polish up your skills, then we suggest you refer to the dates listed below and organise to make a booking. Remaining 2009 calendar dates available: Monday 17th August (Eastern
Creek) - Tuesday 18th August (Eastern Creek)
- Monday
7th September (Phillip Island)
- Tuesday 8th September (Phillip Island)
- Monday 12th October (Eastern Creek)
- Tuesday 13th October (Eastern Creek)
- Saturday 31st October (Phillip Island) Melbourne Cup Weekend
- Sunday
1st November (Phillip Island) Melbourne Cup Weekend
To read more click here
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Season best result so far for Chris Vermeulen at Assen  For Australian rider Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen earned his best result of the season in Assen on Saturday,the Australian
crossed the line in fifth place in the Dutch date. Whilst fellow Rizla Suzuki rider Loris Capirossi could have finished one
place behind, unfortunately he encountered a late difficulty in the form of Toni Elías who ran Capirossi off the track
and late rwould be penalised for the discretion.
Chris Vermeulen had this to say about his race "I'm obviously happy because this is my best result
of the year and we have shown that we have made a step with the bike after the Barcelona test - especially on the chassis
side of things. At this track - and the next couple that we are going to - it is not so important on the motor front, so the
slight speed disadvantage that we have is not so bad and we can still be competitive. I got a good start to the race and got
in with the front guys early on. I tried as hard as I could to stay with them, but didn't quite have the lap-times to
hang in there. I kept pushing all race and when Colin came past I tried to hang on to him, but he seemed to have a bit more
rear grip than me. Most of the race after that was pretty boring as I was on my own. I'm happy with fifth and it gives
us some valuable points in the championship and a good result to take forward into Laguna Seca." Whilst Loris Capirossi said this about his ninth place "It
was not a good result today and it began with a bad start by me, it made it very difficult all race because it is not very
easy to overtake here. When I was pushed wide I was really disappointed because it meant I had to start all over again and
chase the other guys to get past. I got past three riders on the last lap and I was just behind Kallio on the last few corners
and then he crashed, so I was sixth. I thought that would be not too bad, but on the last corner Elias tried to overtake me
and put me out and that was it, it was is all over. I am upset because I really think if I had got a good start today I would
have had a good race and we'd have been competitive, but it's finished now and we have to move on." To read more click here
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Dutch sunshine is out to welcome the MotoGP to Assen On Wednesday morning the paddock began to fill and the Assen circuit was treated to glorious sunshine.
The seventh MotoGP round of the 2009 World Championship season is at the historic Assen circuit, combatants
enjoyed fantastic weather as final preparations were made on Wednesday.
After Barcelona, in which a massive crowd was treated to Valentino Rossi’s incredible last corner victory over his
Fiat Yamaha colleague Jorge Lorenzo, which in turn put the pair level on points at the head of the standings with Ducati Marlboro’s
Casey Stoner, all this lead to even more exciting racing and another expected huge attendance figures this weekend.
As the free practice commences on Thursday afternoon for competitors, the 125cc at 12.40pm, MotoGP at
1.55pm and 250cc at 3.10pm, with the prosepct of nice conditions predicted by the weathermen.
It has been
noted that on Friday that there is a chance of rain at Assen, with further showers and perhaps some storms for Saturday’s
races.
To read more click here
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Yuki Takahashi to race this weekend  Yuki Takahashi is set to return to action at the Alice TT Assen, although Takahashi did have to miss out on the post race
testing in Barcelona due to a hand injury. The Scot Racing rider was only able to participate in one of just two permitted
days of mid-season testing following a first lap crash on race day.
The micro-fracture
to his finger may cause difficulties for Yuki Takahashi this week, even with these problems he remains relaxed about
missing the track time at the Spanish circuit last time out.
“It is not
going to affect my performance,” said the Honda rider. “We brought forward the testing of some potential solutions
to Saturday in Spain, so I still had the chance to express my opinions to Emanuele (Ventura, Scot Racing Technical Director).
We know what we want."
Takahashi added “I never liked
Assen too much when I was a 250cc rider. I didn’t like Barcelona either though. But I have to say that with
a MotoGP bike things are different, and I have begun to also feel good on layouts like these.”
The Scot Racing team is set to undertake their second Grand Prix as a two-rider team this weekend as
gabor Talmacsi has signed up for the team in a permanent capacity just moments before practice for the Barcelona round. With
only two bikes in the garage for the Scot Racing team if it rains there will be some tough calls that need to be made.
To read more click here
Monday, June 22, 2009
Roberto Rolfo returns to the track Last week saw the Italian ex-World Championship rider Roberto Rolfo make a successful return to test a Team Siemens
Gigaset Laglisse Moto2 prototype machine at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit at Valencia in Spain.
Roberto Rolfo completed 118 laps over two days as he worked to understand the potential of these machines, putting in 58
laps on the first day achieving a best lap time of 1’37.50. With a number of 250cc Grand Prix riders testing on the
same day Rolfo’s effort compared well with the fastest time by any of those riders, a 1’37.16 put in by Mike di
Meglio on a factory Aprilia.
The second day he improved his best time
to 1’36.80, the same lap time as the fastest 250cc rider on that day, set by Héctor Barberá.
For Italian Roberto Rolfo was also helping Dunlop with tyre development and the English firm had technicians
working with the Team Siemens Gigaset Laglisse staff.
Afterwards Rolfo
said “It was great for me to have the chance to try the Moto2 bike that will ride in 2010 World Championship. The good
weather (33° air, 47° ground) helped us to follow the program we had planned and I concentrated on testing the setting
of the bike with the chassis and testing the Dunlop tyres. The bike was built with a Yamaha engine, but at the beginning August
it will be fitted with a Honda engine.”
Sunday, June 21, 2009
South Australia upgrading Hoon laws South Australia’s is set to upgrade hoon laws with the recent announcement that new dangerous driving laws
will be introduced and applied by the end of this year. These upcoming changes to South Australia's already strict laws were announced by the Police Minister
Michael Wright and Road Safety Minister Michael O’Brien and don't fe fooled they are aimed squarely at
illegal street racing and young, male drivers in particular. “These drivers are a menace,” said Mr O’Brien. “They threaten the lives of
every other road user when they put their foot to the floor. They endanger their own lives as well as their passengers.”
There will be a formation of a committee
that will include the Police chief superintendent Paul Schramm, and representatives of the Attorney-General, the
Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure and Road Safety.
The
group will aim to look at moving illegal street racing to a dangerous driving offence (note this is an offence which will
attract a higher penalty), the sale and/or crushing of impounded bikes and cars, impounding and clamping of bikes and cars
until court proceedings are finalised, and not to forget the introduction of even higher penalties for drivers caught speeding
by more than 45km/h. To read more click here
Thursday, June 18, 2009
BMW Motorcycle production plant BMW
Motorcycle production plant.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Bridgestone release details on test tyre Bridgestone tested a new tyre on Monday following the Catalunyan Grand Prix, this tyre may be used at Phillip Island
later in the season.
Tyre manufactures Bridgestone were pleased with the performance of their asymmetric tyres
at the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya, leading them to on Monday provide all riders testing with a new specification tyre
for Phillip Island which is another track where the emphasis is place on one side of the tyre. With a total of 15 MotoGP riders
present after the race for the Monday test it gave the Japanese tyre giants a chance to work on a tyre which they have in
mind for the visit to Australia in October.
“Phillip Island is a very
demanding circuit, especially on the left side of the tyres, and we are thinking about modifying the specifications just for
that race, for stability on the left side,” said Bridgestone’s Tohru Ubukata. “That’s why we have
brought new specification here (for the Barcelona test), to try and find the direction for our development. We have provided
this new experimental tyre for all the riders and most of them tried this new specification.”
“The track and ambient temperatures between here and Phillip Island are very different but the
tyre temperature itself is very similar, so we believe this was a good circuit to test for the Australia specification,”
Mr Ubukata added.
Mr Ubukata who is Bridgestone’s Motorcycle Race Tyre
Development Manager, was also pleased by the performance of the special tyres his firm provided at round six for the GP weekend
itself, adding “As we expected our asymmetric tyre worked quite well here in Barcelona and actually this is not the
first time for us to use this type of specification.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Short test time proves to be productive for Casey Stoner Australian Casey Stoner was the fifth fastest rider at the post race Barcelona test on Monday, Stoner was working in small
doses on development of the Ducati Desmosedici GP9 after an exhausting Sunday race in which he was visible suffering after
the race. The Australian posted a fastest lap of 1’42.763, slightly quicker than his best race lap, as he performed
a reduced testing schedule.
“I had a bit of work on my arms
and legs when I got out of bed this morning, because I was cramping up,” said Casey Stoner, who was suffering
from illness all weekend before the tough podium fight. “We seem to be able to do a couple of laps on the bike
at least, so we could get a few things done.”
The Ducati Marlboro rider
left the majority of the extensive work to his new teammate Nicky Hayden, but still used the test constructively to confirm
settings and further examine the usage of a carbon swingarm.
“We’ve
been trying the carbon swingarm again with a few more settings, and we found a few positive things. We haven’t done
a lot of laps today, but the bike was feeling good. We still need to improve the rear traction. We worked a little on the
new engine management system to try to find out how to make it work a little better. Everything seems to be working well,
but today was just to make sure that everything was ok. I cut the test short because I was still sore and too tired after
a couple of laps,” added the 2007 World Champion, Stoner then went on to explain the differences between the carbon
fibre version and its aluminium equivalent.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Road Rider website The publishers of the respected Road Rider’s Cruiser & Trike and Road Rider have launched the roadrider.com.au website, This is a new website for the entire motorcycle
community.
The road rider website will provide information
on topics such as
•
Blogs for people who just can’t get enough of The Bear’s adventures and keep wanting more.
•Motorcycle
news from around the globe.
• There will
also be referencing of key travel, gear and bike stories for enthusiasts to read
Peter Thoeming the editor said “Road Rider readers are
used to getting quality information about motorcycles, travel and gear from our magazines, but the website allows us to venture
into news,” he also added “The news plus the interactive features are genuine points of difference in the market.”
So the question is Why a website?
“Put
simply, there are mag people and there are web people,” said Associate Publisher Janice Williams. “The
website gives us an opportunity to make sure we are reaching people who are in the web habit, plus also offer a better
service to those who are mag people but are currently going elsewhere for news.
To read more click here
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Dainese Airbag motorcycle gear Dainese introduce airbag
system for riders
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Dani Pedrosa is curious to test out injury Dani Pedrosa is getting ready to ride this weekend at his home Grand Prix with a number of painkillers in an effort
to overcome his hip injury and not disappoint his home crowd.
For Dani Pedrosa the winner of the 2008 Catalunya
race and the home crowd favourite, it requires a tough character who knows how to get results when riding at less than 100%
fitness, Pedrosa will be required to use all his resilience this weekend as the Spaniard attempts to keep the fans happy at
Montmeló despite his hip injury.
The Repsol Honda rider explained his
current situation leading up to the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya on Thursday having suffered a small fracture to his right
femur, the injury is where the bone and hip muscles join, Pedrosa sustained this in practice at Mugello, where he later crashed
out of the race.
“The pain really just depends on the moment and the movement,” added the Catalan
star. “Where I have the fracture, where the gluteus muscle connects with the bone, it hurts when I use that
muscle. When I had the painkilling injections at Mugello they didn’t help so I am really interested to see
if the more powerful injection I’ll have on Friday will do the job and help to calm the inflammation.”
Dani Pedrosa also commented on his plan as to how to approach the weekend he said,
“My aim is to go out and see how it feels. I mean, in Mugello I was able to ride with this injury, so even though things
didn’t go well there I hope to do better this time. We will have to get on with the job here with the painkillers. I
am riding injured like in Qatar but I want to do much better than there because the result wasn’t good. I have lots
of fans here and I don’t want to let them down.”
Dani Pedrosa also
talked about the new chassis and that he prefers to examine the new chassis during practice on Friday and Saturday, rather
than wait for Monday’s scheduled MotoGP test.
“I think it’s
better to try the new chassis during the weekend because I’ll be riding with painkillers and I might not be
in the best shape to test on Monday,” he said.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Dani Pedrosa has been cleared for Catalunya Grand Prix The team Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa of Spain has confirmed he will be startng at the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya,
this announcement comes less than two weeks after suffering a minor fracture to his right femur in an incident at Mugello.
Dani Pedrosa had to undertake a final medical check a the Barcelona Dexeus facility on Tuesday, with Doctors Xavier Mir and
Manel Ribas giving him the good news that it was all clear to ride.
The participation
of the 2008 race winner was never in serious doubt, if you look back at his history with riding whilst injured he was always
going to be home in Spain ready to race, the small gap in the title chase in front of Pedrosa and the sheer fact that the
weekend’s race is one of his best chances of taking his first victory of the season. Dani Pedrosa said in a statement
that the desire to ride in front of his home legion of fans as a key motivational factor.
“I
didn’t want to miss this important date for anything in the world,” he said. “On the one hand I
wanted to ride because missing this race would mean losing too much ground in the standings, and also because I wanted
to race in front of my fans, friends and family.” Pedrosa added. To read more click here
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Suzuki not sure about race day engine The Rizla Suzuki team have been fighting against a lack of top end speed since the season began, with the cavalry of a new
engine promised in time for this weekend’s race in Spain to make up the deficit. The long straight at Catalunya is one
at which any discrepancies in power soon get found out, but the Suzuki team may postpone their use of the upgraded motor until
the permitted Monday test session, which happens to be following the race. “We are hoping
that the upgrades from Suzuki this weekend will work as well on the bike as they have in the factory, we're not
sure if we'll use them in the race or hang on for the test day, we'll just have to wait and see,” said
Australian rider Chris Vermeulen.
Italian teammate Loris Capirossi almost got on the podium last time out in Mugello, and it would appear he is determined
to run the new engine at the upcoming round.
Capirossi was the unofficial holder of the MotoGP top speed
record with a 990cc Ducati at the Circuit de Catalunya before the last event where Dani Pedrosa’s phenomenal burst of
speed.
Loris Capirossi had this to say
“We know we will have to work hard on the long straight at Barcelona, but we learnt a lot from the last race and hopefully
that will help us this weekend. We have got some new parts coming from Japan which should make a difference to the performance
of the GSV-R so we are all quite excited about that.”
Monday, June 8, 2009
An odd couple Vanity Fair and Harley-Davidson Harley-Davidson
and Vanity Fair share in promoting motorcycles for females and men.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Honda Gresini rider with a point to prove After a tough opening start to the 2009 season at Honda Gresini Toni Elías has a point to prove.
The next round of the 2009 MotoGP World Championship is set to be a special one for several
participants in the three Grand Prix categories, with San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Toni Elías amongst a
group of riders who are on home ground in Catalunya.
Looking ahead to the
sixth round of the season this week at the official presentation of the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya Toni Elìas
acknowledged his modest start to the year on his return to Fausto Gresini’s team and the rider cited that the
Barcelona visit as the chance to kick-start his campaign.
Although
the Spaniards best finish to date thus far has been ninth place, last week he finished in a disappointing 14th place at Mugello,
Toni Elías believes the competitiveness of his Honda RC212V package is at a decent level as he comes home to Barcelona.
When Toni Elías was asked for his thoughts ahead of his most important GP of the year he added,
“I think we are ready. We come here having found some improvements but without having shown it on track in terms of
results.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Honda celebrates 50 years since first Isle of Man TT It has been 50 years since Mr Soichiro Honda first took his motorcycles to a little island in the Irish sea, with his mind
intent on making his childhood dream of racing glory a reality. In an effort to celebrate and commemorate 50 years of
Honda racing heritage, Honda has produced a website which is now dedicated to their history,The website features never before
seen rare footage both in photos and videos as well as detailing the history of Honda's racing efforts.
It was back in 1954 when Mr Soichiro Honda came across the relisation of what racing success at the
Isle of Man TT could possibly do for his company. Mr issued a passionate statement to all his workers that read "We
can win on the tracks, and I will not rest until we do. Everything is in place, and the time has come to challenge the West"
Mr Soichiro Honda also went on to say "I hereby avow my definite intention to participate
in the TT races, and I proclaim with my fellow employees that I will pour in all of my energy and creative powers
to win.” To read more click here
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Dovizioso encouraged by Mugello result After leading early on at Mugello and then narrowly missing the podium Andrea Dovizioso was in good spirits after
his home race.
Even though he missed the podium by a minimal margin for
the second MotoGP round in a row Andrea Dovizioso was not disappointed after the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice,
instead taking motivation from fighting at the front and running in the lead in the early stages. At
the chequered flag, the Italian Dovizioso was just 2.129s behind the race winner Australian Casey Stoner and followed ‘the
king of Mugello’ Valentino Rossi over the line by the smallest of margins. Earlier in the race the Italian rider had
made the best of his wet set-up, running in second place in the initial laps, but he dropped back to third before taking the
lead for the first time on lap four. After the race Andrea Dovizioso said “The
sensation of being in the lead in the race was really good, here in Mugello with so many fans it was so nice. Our strategy
was perfect but we couldn’t fight for the victory because we weren’t fast enough. Anyway we were very close so
this is important.” he also added “With three laps to go I tried to keep in contact with the others and when Rossi
overtook me, I managed to stay with him. Then I tried to slipstream him out of the last corner but I couldn’t make it.
Anyway, all in all it was an exciting race and a positive result.” Talking about
his overall performance levels during the race Andrea Dovizioso added, “We are getting closer, but still not close enough
to win. We need to keep on working because we are still not as competitive as the fastest riders, especially in dry conditions.
I want to say thanks to the team because they did a great job today, and we’ll use this result to give us extra motivation.” To read more click here
Monday, June 1, 2009
Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade wins again In 2008 Honda’s Championship winning CBR1000RR Fireblade took home just about every prestigious award in the country,
so how abut 2009 a new year against new bikes, Well the CBR1000RR Fireblade still keeps winning with accolade after accolade
for this wonderful machine. Honda
has now defeated six of the world’s most brilliant Superbikes to yet again take out the prestigious Australia’s
Ultimate Sportsbike Test (AUSTest)and Australian Motorcycle News Magazine’s (AMCN) for the second year in a
row. The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade motorcycle once again came in with first
place at the country’s most esteemed test after being pitted against four all-new bikes to the category, this indicated
what many believe to be the sheer perfection of Honda’s current model. To even the
stakes, AMCN incorporated control tyres (Bridgestone BT-003 Racing Street) as well as dyno testing to compare engine
characteristics. But in regard to the Fireblade’s overall performance, the judges
agreed and had this to say abut this lovely motorcycle “Remaining the same as last year’s bike, the Blade continues
to excel as an overall package and topped the rider survey in the gearbox operation, clutch actuation, fork, turn-in, mid-corner
and comfort sectors, on its way to topping the survey overall.” “Handling
is undoubtedly the CBR1000RR’s strong point, with riders throughout the survey raving about the bike’s
turning characteristics and its drive off the corners.” “We said
it last year and will repeat it again – the Fireblade has redefined the superbike class on the racetrack, but it is
just as good in the high-paced company of its peers in the real world, proving easy to ride but outright quickest when the
stopwatch is ticking.” they added.
The Honda Fireblade motorcycle also holds
the current trophy for AMCN’s Superbike and Motorcycle of the Year, as well as the Reader’s Choice award,
the Two Wheels Magazine’s Bike of the Year award, International Bike of the Year and Rapid magazine’s
Ultimate Sportsbike Shootout. To read more click here
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