Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

It was the talk of last week’s 2022 EICMA Show: MV Agusta, Italy’s most prestigious and historic manufacturer, winner to date of 270 Grand Prix races, 38 World Riders’ Championships, and 37 World Constructors’ Championships, had supposedly been acquired by KTM. Stefan Pierer, the most powerful man in European motorcycling, had captured his most iconic trophy brand yet, to add to his roster of Euro-marques including KTM, Husqvarna and GasGas. Indeed, according to one supposedly authoritative source, he’d be sealing the takeover deal with MV’s current owner, Russian entrepreneur Timur Sardarov, on the Thursday before the Valencia GP, November 3. This would permit him to announce at the final race of the 2022 season that MV Agusta would be returning to MotoGP racing in 2023 – albeit as a KTM subsidiary.

Only one thing was wrong: it wasn’t true. What was announced on November 3 was that MV Agusta and Stefan Pierer’s private holding company, Pierer Mobility, had reached an agreement on future strategic cooperation, as a consequence of which KTM AG would acquire a 25.1% stake in MV Agusta Motor S.p.A. According to the press release announcing this acquisition, “Within the framework of this strategic partnership between the two European motorcycle manufacturers, KTM AG, a company of Pierer Mobility, will provide MV Agusta with supply chain support and take over the purchasing. Furthermore, in the course of this cooperation, MV Agusta will partly distribute its product range via Pierer Mobility’s worldwide distribution network.”

MV Agusta has been entirely Russian-owned since Timur Sardarov, now 40, completed his family’s acquisition of the historic Italian brand in September 2019, with a further injection of cash sufficient to give it 100% ownership of the company. Up to that point he was believed to have invested almost 100 million euro in acquiring full control of MV, most of which had been devoted to recapitalising the company after three decades of its ownership, flipping between the Castiglioni family and various outside interests: Proton, Gevi Bank, Harley-Davidson, and AMGhad all taken turns since the late Claudio Castiglioni acquired MV from the Agusta family in 1991.

Moscow-born Sardarov moved to England in 2003, and with two daughters born there, made London his home until 2019, when as a mark of his commitment to MV Agusta, he moved to Italy. His oligarch father Roman is one of the 500 richest men in Russia, his fortune deriving from the Comstar Energy Group, one of the country’s largest oil and natural gas companies. Timur Sardarov founded a UK-based private jet airline in 2005, but he sold this in 2013 to concentrate on his capital venture business Black Ocean Investment, which he’d established in 2006 in conjunction with British partner Oliver Ripley. In 2016 he met Giovanni Castiglioni, as an MV Agusta owner already, with a Dragster RR amongst his various bikes, which then included three Harleys (a Sportster, a Softail, and a Fat Boy), and a Ducati Diavel. Sardarov and Castiglioni hit it off, so Black Ocean essentially financed the restructuring of MV Agusta after its then-latest bout of serial financial uncertainty. Sardarov assumed a hands-on role at MV’s lakeside Varese factory in June 2017, and since 2019 has been the outright owner of the prestigious manufacturer – which he acquired just in time to have to grapple with the effects of the COVID pandemic. Having survived that with ‘only’ a four-week shutdown at MV Agusta’s Varese plant, the next hurdle he faced was the supply chain crisis which has hit manufacturers in the process of regrouping, in all countries, and of all sizes, on two wheels and four. And then Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, with consequences we’re still grappling with globally today.

Now that the old Evo Sportster is well and truly almost completely dead, it’s probably time for us to show it a little respect. Really I suppose we always respected America’s best-selling motorcycle, it’s just that we usually didn’t like riding most of the gruff old things all that much. We’re contrarian that way. This Seventy-Two, though, in Hard Candy Big Red Flake and whitewalls, was pretty hep ten years ago – maybe even more now. Admit it.

Let the record show that, despite my best efforts, Yamaha’s MT-10 was not included in either the street or track portions of our mega seven-way open-class naked bike shootouts last year. I fought for its inclusion but was ultimately denied by the Bossman who wrote it off by saying our field was big enough and it wasn’t going to win anyway. That and we also knew a new one was already on the way.

Editor Score: 83.5%

While I agree that the MT-10 wasn’t going to win against such steep competition, I also thought it would surprise a few people with its combination of performance and price. Alas, I had to concede. But maybe its exclusion was a blessing in disguise. Since we’ll never know how the bike would have stacked up, I can play the ignorance card and say it would have done well – but not as well as Yamaha’s better version, the 2022 MT-10 that John reviewed back in August. And it really wouldn’t have done as well as the bike you see here; Yamaha’s new MT flagship – the MT-10 SP. 

Of course, imagining all these hypotheticals is an exercise in futility. Instead, let’s just take a moment to appreciate the bike in front of us. Which, as it turns out, is really just an MT-10 with Öhlins electronic suspension and steel-braided brake lines. Mechanically speaking, anyway. You’ve also got a polished aluminum swingarm, a color-matched lower fairing, and an exclusive paint scheme: Liquid Metal/Raven. 

Although the word “iconic” is tossed around in marketing materials far too frequently, very few means of motorized transport find themselves deserving of the term. Vespa is one of those marques. Much like Xerox was, at one point, what all means of photocopying were called, there was an era in which all scooters were generically referred to as Vespas. While the market has advanced beyond that point, Vespa has had the foresight to retain its ties to the machines that first turned the world’s eyes. Case-in-point, the 2023 Vespa GTS 300 has a profile that is immediately recognizable as an heir to the Italian name. 



Editor Score: 81.75%

For the 2023 model year, Vespa’s focus was on refinement – with a dash of technology thrown in for flavor. After all, four years is a long time between updates. When looking at the menu, we’ll see a selection of comfort and safety features along with some tasty technological bits added to this well-appointed classic. 

Was there anything wrong with the Continental RoadAttack 3? No, not really. Lead engineer Raphael Michels (who finished 3rd in the German supermotard series this season) sounds as if he was reluctant to attempt to improve upon it. But it’s been five years, and engineering is what engineers do. Continental was already billing the 3 as a real high-performance street tire; now they’re calling the new 4 a Hyper-Touring one. It fell upon me to travel to the BMW Performance Driving Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to get to the bottom of it all. 

Conti’s HQ is in nearby Charlotte, and the two companies share a very close relationship: Continental is the leading supplier of OEM tires for BMW automobiles and quite a few motorcycles as well, and so we rolled out the performance center’s entire BMW test fleet.

What’s new?

Everything, of course, including a new compound with higher silica content for even better grip when it’s wet and cold, with no negative impact on mileage, says Conti. New resins in the mix also make the tire even more sticky as well as more flexible for more grip when it’s chilly. That greater flexibility means the new tire works better with lean-sensitive ABS systems.

The creeps that steal motorcycles count on one thing when they are attempting to rip you off: They want to go unnoticed. Getting even the slightest glance from a passerby might be enough to stop them in their tracks and move on to an easier target. Back when I was a daily commuter with unsecured parking, I carried locks (front and rear) to protect my bike. After all, it was more than just my sole means of transportation; it was my pride and joy. When I received this Zovii Alarmed Grip Lock from the good folks at Aerostich, it made me reminisce about my misspent youth on motorcycles and some of the dicey places I occasionally parked my bike. 

The Zovii Alarmed Grip Lock is made of sturdy plastic, which means that it won’t stymie the most determined thieves. That, however, is not its purpose. Instead, while providing some extra security by rendering the throttle and front brake inoperable, it serves as an attention-getting device by triggering a 120-db alarm when the bike is jostled. This is perhaps even more important than a lock on the wheels, because a couple of strong guys can easily lift a bike that is not chained down into a van in seconds – regardless of how many wheels are locked. An alarm in this situation can attract the attention of potential witnesses, which thieves clearly do not want. 

So, what is the Zovii Alarmed Grip Lock like in daily use? It’s quite convenient, actually. While it’s too big to fit in most jacket pockets, a backpack or tank bag will suffice. To arm it, simply close the lock over the throttle and brake lever and depress the locking tumbler into position. You don’t even need to use the key. A quick beep tells you the alarm is armed. (Two beeps let you know it is off when you unlock it.) Then if the bike is jiggled, the alarm gives warning beeps at a loud, annoying level for about 15 seconds. Jostle it again, and the alarm cycle repeats. When it’s time to get on your bike, simply use the key. 

Now it’s the Triumph Street Scrambler, but 10 years ago it was the Triumph only Scrambler, and it was time to open fire with the Steve McQueen marketing machine. Seems to have worked, really, and Triumph has seen fit since then to update the base Scrambler with a bigger new liquid-cooled Twin that still looks vintage. And its pair of bigger Scrambler 1200s, XE and XC, are truly sublime motorcycles we’d ride anywhere. You?

SW Motech has released its latest iteration of the Sysbag lineup, which is now 100% waterproof and has a host of new features and updated styling. Despite the bag’s somewhat adventure-focused look and design, we opted to test the medium Sysbag with the Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE. With the Scrambler, SW Motech offers only a single-sided setup due to the bike’s high scrambler-style pipes. To make up for the single sided setup, SW Motech also sent us its magnetic Daypack PRO tankbag.

As I already mentioned, the new design is fully waterproof featuring a roll-top drybag-style design with a TPU base and EVA parts that are thermo-welded to ensure water tightness. The roll-top itself is made from 210 Ripstop TPU. Inside the bag is a light gray (which helps ensure you don’t lose things in the abyss) liner with handles that can be easily pulled out to carry items away from the bike. This liner also comes with Velcro partitions to give the user the option to segment the liner’s interior if necessary. The overlapping lid has a waterproof zippered pocket on the underside as well. MOLLE style webbing is included on the front which will allow you to strap whatever other tacticool stuff you might have lying around the bunker to your new Sysbag. 

Installation

Installation took about 30 minutes and was completely straightforward. There are detailed instructions for each portion of the install (the side rack, and adapter plate in my case) but they’re hardly even needed. The rack mounts up easily to the Triumph’s subframe and rear rack with two provided bolts (which replace the OE ones). 

It all began when our old friend Ken Vreeke returned from a six-day ride in Spain, name-dropping and in love with the BMW S1000XR he’d ridden there. Actually, he rented a GS1250, but also got some time on the XR: Problem is with the ADV bikes, Vreeke complains, even with good tires you run off the edges long before you get any real lean angle. My tires on the rented GS were new, and the front was bald on both sides after a week in Spain. Chasing EB, I kept running out of tire at the precise moment he was grabbing a big mittful of gas and launching away. When I finally got on the XR on the last day, I was shocked at how much throttle you could feed in leaned waaaaay over. I’ve only ridden one modern Superbike – that Kawasaki H2 you brought around – so the XR blew my mind. It was soooooo stuck to the road. 

The EB the Vreekster was chasing was Eric Bostrom, so you can surmise the pace was relatively spirited. It’s generally accepted that ADV bikes with 19-inch front tires are going to be better off pavement, and ones with 17-inch fronts will be better on it. But we’ve never really broken that down before? How much better?

Adventure riding, being able to turn down dirt roads, has become a big thing. But a lot of us of a certain age grew up separating dirt riding from road riding, one at a time. And we still want to burn down the pavement occasionally, no compromises, without having to assume the sportbike position. Ken, who already has a KTM Adventure bike and a bad back (and front, and sides), is a prime example: I’m not looking for an ADV bike. Love my 1290 Super Adventure and plan to keep it. What I need is a streetbike with 17s that can take real tires, so I don’t have to slither around all day, with ADV-type ergos. And so I can do the occasional track day on slicks. 

Well, ahhh, near as we can tell, there are but two motorcycles that fit that description: the BMW S1000XR, and the Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak. (Wait: The Kawasaki Versys 1000 SE LT also belongs!) We lined up the BMW and the Duc for a nice little comparison test. But, when everybody’s schedule got complicated and Vreeke couldn’t ride with us on the appointed day, we decided to eliminate as many other variables as we could, except wheel size, by comparing Ducati’s 19-inch front-wheeled Multistrada V4S, with the Bolognese 17-in. tired Multistrada Pikes Peak. The BMW, we’ll save for another test. 

Two weeks ago, BMW announced updates to its R 1250 R roadster. It’s not a big surprise, then, that many of those same updates are coming to the R 1250 RS. And just like the roadster, the updated 2023 R 1250 RS remains at the same MSRP as 2022: $15,695.

Visually, the 2023 BMW R 1250 RS doesn’t look much different from last year’s model. Apart from the new color options, the most discernible difference is the 2023 model’s new LED turn indicators. The bodywork and the chassis are otherwise exactly the same.

The engine is also the same air and liquid-cooled 1,254 cc Boxer with ShiftCam variable intake timing and valve lift. BMW claims peak outputs of 136 hp at 7,750 rpm and 105 lb-ft. at 6,250 rpm for both the R and RS.

Just like the roadster, the faired RS will receive Dynamic Traction Control, BMW Motorrad ABS Pro, and Dynamic Brake Control as standard equipment instead of being optional add-ons.

The RS likewise gains a new ECO mode, joining the returning Ride and Rain modes. In ECO mode, the ShiftCam system optimizes fuel economy and range by adopting a soft throttle curve with moderate engine torque limitation.

OK, even in our hand-laid, calf-leather-clad, carbon fiber chairs, we’re getting pretty punchy here in the EICMA Coverage Center inside the spacious MO Tower on the West Coast VerticalScope Campus. Not even the staff sushi chef and bespoke MO coffee blend can get more than a raised eyebrow from us MOrons at this point, but after two days of sifting through trainloads of press releases for our reader base throughout the solar system, we think we have found a winner! What you have below is a press release that is so horrific that we actually took the time to talk about it. While a couple of Italian releases, with their floral English translations, came close to winning, the ratio of words to actual information of Aston Martin/Brough Superior AMB 001 Pro press release tipped the vacuum-sealed, vibration-isolated, laser-etched titanium scales that we use to consider these awards.

What put us over the top? How about the claiming a 997cc 225 hp engine that neglects to say that it is turbocharged while going on to wax poetic about the badge on the tank and fairing: “the chemical etched aluminium lacewing is a remarkable 99.4% lighter than the brand’s regular enamel badge, and at just 70 microns thick is 30% thinner than a human hair.” Or perhaps, it is this quote from the impressively-titled Marek Reichman, Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer of Aston Martin: “It’s a beautifully simple formula. Form plus technology equals performance. When you push something to the very edge of capacity, and do it seamlessly, the resulting experience can have you breathless. There is no separation between the advanced materials, design and technical capabilities of the bike. We’ve achieved this fluidity again with Brough Superior for those who desire a track superbike like none other. The rider is part of this moving sculpture and will literally feel as though they are part of the track when laying atop the AMB 001 Pro.”

We recognize that collaborations between motorcycle manufacturers and luxury car makers aren’t new, just look at Ducati’s relationship with Lamborghini or KTM’s with Brabus. However, their releases generally tend to give us real information about the motorcycles being announce and specifics about what makes these hyper-priced bikes worth their asking price of baubles destined for the storage facilities of the rich.

Drawing off a company’s past success is a popular starting point when it comes to future models, and MV Agusta is drawing off its success 50 years ago to guide a new category of motorcycle it hopes to bring to market in the coming years. What you see here is the 921 S concept.

The brainchild of MV Agusta’s Brian Gillen and Stephen Zache, the two looked at the 1973 MV Agusta 750S as the inspiration to build a new motorcycle for the future while still respecting tradition and history. Interestingly, MV’s press materials are quick to point out that the 921S is not intended to be a modern replica of the 750S, but rather a “tribute to that beguiling bike.”

From a design aspect, the horizontal lines mimic cafe racers of the era, while the proportions attempt to stay true to those bikes as well. What this means is a svelte package when viewed from the top. You won’t find much bodywork either, especially on the lower half, because MV wants to show off its brand-new inline-four-cylinder engine. As such, you can see the engine’s red valve cover, and the overall aesthetic of the block with its cooling fin motif is a definite throwback to air-cooled engines of the 60s and 70s.

The 921cc Four is a fresh ground-up design that isn’t necessarily looking for outright performance as nice, useable power. Nonetheless, it still features MV’s radial valves. Other bits include forged pistons and connecting rods, forged and nitrated crankshaft, horizontal air intakes, an optimized cooling system, 39mm ride-by-wire throttle bodies, camshaft profiles for maximum torque over peak horsepower, and a secondary balance shaft. MV says it makes 115.5 horsepower at 10,000 rpm and 85.9 lb-ft of torque at 7,000 rpm.

Heading into EICMA, we were expecting Bimota to announce a new motorcycle based off an existing Kawasaki model. After all, that has been the pattern since Kawasaki acquired a stake in the Italian brand in 2019. Last year, we saw the debut of the Ninja 1000SX-based Bimota KB4 and KB4RC in Milan, and so this year, we expected another new mode.

What we didn’t expect was for the new model to be an enduro competition bike based on Kawasaki’s KX450 models, or more specifically, the KX450X, with its 18-inch rear wheel. Yes, Bimota debuted its first ever dirt bike at EICMA, called the BX450. The two bikes are very similar, with the same engine and frame. The engine casings, in fact, still say Kawasaki, so there’s no mistaking the BX450’s lineage. Even the bodywork is similar, with Kawasaki green swapped with Bimota graphics and the Italian Tricolore.



The Bimota BX450 gains a headlight, handguards, and a 2.8 gallon fuel tank – 1.2 gallons larger than the KX450X’s tank. The suspension and the brakes look to be the same as on the Kawasaki, but instead of Dunlop Geomaxes, the BX450 sports Metzeler 6 Days Extreme tires. Bimota also equipped the BX450 with a carbon-tipped Arrow exhaust and a ridged seat.

MV is leaning hard into its heritage with this, the Superveloce 1000 Serie Oro, the latest – and arguably most stunning – addition to the neo-retro family that started with the Superveloce 800. In typical MV fashion, the Superveloce 1000 lives up to the brand’s “Motorcycle Art” mantra, but does so with functional technical and stylistic solutions.

Based on the Brutale 1000 RR and retaining its frame, single-sided swingarm, and obviously its engine, MV’s design team then went to work wrapping it in all new skin that pays homage to the past while looking squarely at the future. Stylistically, the SV 1000 draws its inspiration from MV’s own 500cc Grand Prix bike of 1972, significant in the fact it was the first GP bike to sport front wings for downforce – long before the trend became popular in modern-day MotoGP.

On the SV 1000, the wings also feature a vertical bargeboard. Together, airflow along the bodywork provides both downforce and helps with cooling efficiency. More than a functional piece, MV designers made it a point to integrate the front wing design into the nose of the bike, where it integrates with the body panels, except for a small portion just underneath the headlight. This, MV says, makes the SV 1000 “stand out significantly from competitors, who adopt an approach essentially focused only on function, compromising stylistic development (form).”

Being a Superveloce, premium materials are a top priority. With the SV 1000, MV says it has pushed its technical limits further than it has before. Brian Gillen, MV’s R&D Director, explains:

Royal Enfield announced a new cruiser model featuring the 648cc Parallel-Twin engine that also powers the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650. The new Super Meteor 650, and the Super Meteor 650 Grand Tourer variant,

The air-cooled engine claims an output of 46.4 hp at 7,250 rpm and 38.6 lb-ft. at 5,650 rpm, which are about the same peak figures claimed by the other 650 models, but the Super Meteor gets there a little higher on rev range. We’d have to see a dyno chart to be sure, but we suspect the changes were made to create a broader torque curve.

The engine is mounted to a new steel tubular spine frame created by Harris Performance for a lower center of gravity and to optimize stability and handling. Up front, the Super Meteor 650 uses a 43mm inverted fork with 4.7 inches of travel, and at the back, it uses twin preload-adjustable shocks with 4.0 inches of travel, which is pretty good for a cruiser.