Rossi gagne en Australie

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) a signé une victoire historique au Grand Prix Tissot d’Australie en s’imposant à Phillip Island pour la sixième fois de sa carrière dans la catégorie reine suite à sa série de cinq victoires datant de la période 2001-2005. 

Brillant dans son duel pour la seconde position face à son coéquipier Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), le nonuple Champion du Monde a reçu un petit coup de pouce du destin en héritant de la première place suite à la chute de Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda). Une semaine après son second sacre en MotoGP™, ce dernier menait avec une très confortable avance sur Rossi et Lorenzo mais est tombé juste avant le dernier quart de la course et n’a pas pu repartir. 

Distancé par Rossi, Lorenzo, visiblement en difficulté en fin de course, a été rattrapé par Cal Crutchlow (Ducati). Une fois passé en deuxième position, le Britannique semblait parti pour décrocher un second podium avec Ducati suite à celui qu’il avait obtenu sous la pluie en Aragón mais est tombé dans le dernier tour, permettant à Lorenzo et à Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) de finir aux deuxième et troisième places. 

Grâce à Rossi, Lorenzo et Smith, Yamaha s’accaparait les trois marches du podium pour la première fois depuis Le Mans 2008 (Rossi, Lorenzo et Colin Edwards). 

Le team Movistar Yamaha MotoGP revenait quant à lui à 40 points de Repsol Honda, qui n’aura marqué aucun point en Australie suite à un double abandon. Percuté à l’arrière suite à la chute d’Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) dans le sixième tour, Dani Pedrosa avait été contraint à finir sa course aux stands en raison des dommages encaissés par son RC213V.

Smith, lui, avait été engagé dans une superbe bataille pour la cinquième place avec son coéquipier Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda), Aleix Espargaró (NGM Forward Racing) et Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati). De ces cinq pilotes, seuls Smith, sur le podium pour la première fois en MotoGP™, et Dovizioso, quatrième, ont rallié l’arrivée puisque Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) est tombé dans le dix-neuvième tour, percutant la moto d’Aleix Espargaró et provoquant l’abandon de ce dernier. Son frère cadet Pol a quant à lui chuté à quelques tours de l’arrivée, alors qu’il revenait sur la troisième position de Lorenzo. 

Héctor Barberá (Avintia Blusens) s’est de son côté imposé sur Álvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) et Scott Redding (GO&FUN Honda Gresini), battus de quelques millièmes de seconde, pour décrocher la cinquième place tandis que Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar), Alex de Angelis (NGM Forward Racing) et Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar) complétaient le Top 10. 

En remportant sa seconde victoire de l'année, Rossi a pris l'avantage sur Lorenzo et Pedrosa dans la lutte pour le titre de vice-Champion et compte respectivement 8 et 25 points d'avance sur les deux Espagnols. 

Mike di Meglio (Avintia Blusens) a pour sa part pris le point de la quinzième place. 

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Jericho

Jericho from Jericho on Vimeo.

DANNER x WEST AMERICA

DANNER x WEST AMERICA from Kamp Grizzly on Vimeo.

‘65 Harley Ironhead – Hazan Motorworks

“Art” is a word thrown around in the presence of many a creative human endeavour. Which is all good and well if your area of interest is music, painting and the like. And that’s because those particular means of expression require you to start with nothing before you have something. But when it comes to custom motorcycles, this is all flipped on its head. Why, you ask? It’s because 99% of all custom bike builds start with a factory-finished product that is subtracted from and tweaked until what’s left is deemed “finished.” But not this bike. This bike has been hewn from raw materials the way an alchemist might create precious metals from base elements. This is the latest bike from Los Angeles’ Hazan Motorworks. This is art.

For those of you unlucky enough to have never crossed paths with a Hazan Motoworks bike before, a little research will shed some light on the unique way that Max, the shop’s owner and sole fabricator, likes to work. Put simply, Max builds ground up and from the engine outwards. “I started this bike in the same way that I started my last few major projects. The idea was to build the most amazing bike that I could possibly imagine around an interesting engine and to make absolutely no compromises in the design and fabrication process that I used to get there.”

Initially, Max planned for a bike that was going to be a simple, streamlined, black steel creation based around a 1949 BSA 500 that he had purchased. But once he saw how the Indy car tires he chose for the bike’s rubber dwarfed it, he went shopping for a larger engine. “Then I found the ‘65 XLH you see here. I cut off the transmission, welded the rest to my build table and went about drawing the bike I saw in my head at full-scale behind it. Surprisingly, what came out was an 8.5ft long sports bike.”

“The goal was to make a bike for myself exactly the way that I wanted it.”

“Almost every piece of the bike was made from scratch; from the rear sprocket to the front hub, this bike started off as sheets, tubes and metal billet. The goal was to make a bike for myself exactly the way that I wanted it. And that meant making everything myself.”

The first thing on the bike that draws your eye is the moon-like front drum break. Although it appears somewhat proportionate in the photos, Max notes that at 16 inches across, it is pretty damn big in person. It started out as a 400 pound block of aluminum that he planned to machine himself. “Then, after about 30 seconds of thinking the idea through, I decided to have my friends at Emory Motorsports take care of it on their CNC machine.” The results of the outsourcing decision quite clearly speak for themselves.

And the front end that holds the drum is another first for Max; he concocted a bespoke, 4-link, girder-style suspension set-up that uses a fully adjustable air shock. Despite it maybe looking a little delicate, the main structural elements use steel with a 1/4″ wall thickness to keep things on the straight and narrow.

“…and before anyone asks, no, the seat is not comfortable.”

“The rear suspension uses a Buell shock and a fully adjustable swing arm linkage that eliminates the need for wheel adjustment at the rear axle as the arm can be made longer or shorter at the pivot point. All of the bodywork is aluminium and the gas tank is also housing the oil tank between the frame tubes. And before anyone asks, no, the seat is not comfortable.”

It’s not like any red-blooded builder would need their arm twisted to put a blower on a bike, but remarkably the decision to add the supercharger was based as much on Max’s concerns regarding the large space between the two wheels as it was on getting some more horsepowers out of a pretty tame engine. The numbers are not staggering by any modern standards, but Max says it puts out between 80-90hp (up from about 50) and weighs about 385lbs dry. The engine uses stock cams that Max rearranged to run on two front cylinder heads, along with some fairly conservative 8.5:1 ratio pistons to accommodate the new-found boost.

“The supercharger was a true $200.00 eBay find and I have no idea what it originally came from; it needed a custom drive but it works very nicely. It’s overdriven to make about 6psi and it’s fed from an old S&S L-Body carb with big jets. I used a modern six speed right drive transmission and made my own clutch to keep the bike slim.”

Max and the bike in its early stages

“This bike is something that I built for myself to enjoy and – like my other builds – it was made to be 100% rideable, reliable and functional but obviously not practical. It is not very comfortable and there are much easier bikes to operate, but this is easily the most exciting bike to ride that I have built so far. I hope you like it”

[Photos by Shaik Rizdwan from TheMightyMotor.com]

via PIPEBURN

Toyota 'Xtreme' Range

Al Futtaim Motors in collaboration with Arctic Trucks introduced during the 2012 Dubai Motor Show the all new Xtreme product range which includes the Land Cruiser, FJ Cruiser, & Hilux. Above is a video that was shot at the Arctic trucks facility in Dubai, and the Sharjah desert that shows the modifications done on the Xtreme vehicles and their amazing off-road capabilities.

TEASER. ‘Adrenaline’, a film on BMW touring cars

Stereoscreen Production presents the trailer for ‘Adrenaline’, a celebratory film on both BMW and touring car racing across the ages.

Touring car fans amongst you probably won’t need much selling on this one: a feature film, celebrating the charismatic drivers, the iconic vehicles and the on-track success of BMW’s tin top legacy.

In this upcoming film from Stereoscreen Production – entitled ‘Adrenaline’ – stars from eras both past and present talk of their experiences with the Bavarian giant, from the DTM to the always popular and frenetic British Touring Car Championship. Notable personalities include former BTCC champion (1993) and Grand Prix driver Joachim Winkelhock, three-time World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx (’05-’07), inaugural WTCC champion Roberto Ravaglia (1987), all-round Mr Nice Guy Alex Zanardi, and ’12 DTM champion Bruno Spengler.

Source – STEREOSCREEN

Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in Rome

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MGA Cafe Racer "Girls Road Trip"

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