Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo testing at Brno

While Honda and Suzuki were testing at Motegi, Yamaha’s MotoGP riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were at Brno also testing.

Strangely enough Yamaha has not released any information regarding the two-day test, and whether they finally debuted the seamless transmission, what other things they were also testing, and also how Lorenzo is feeling after his two collarbone surgeries after his crashes at Assen and Sachsenring.

The two riders just tweeted banalities when they were at Brno:

My Yamaha M1,some Bridgestone tyres,my team,the circuit of Brno and 32 degrees wrote Valentino Rossi, while Jorge Lorenzo tweeted “First morning in Brno with plenty to test” and photos of his helmets and one of a fawn (that Lorenzo called Bambi) crossing the track.

While fans of the two riders were able to get into the Brno circuit and post videos on YouTube of the test, that supposedly was supposed to be behind closed doors.

However, rumors from around the web reported that both Rossi and Lorenzo, were able to complete around sixty laps each on Tuesday - the Italian also suffered a harmless crash - and they did test the seamless transmission, that gave both riders an initial and positive feedback.

There was also speculation that Yamaha had also brought the 2014 version of the M1, but no one was able to prove if it was true.

via TWOWHEELSBLOG

SBK Silverstone: here come the Paddock Girls

At the end of the last round of the World Superbike Championship in Silverstone, there were happy faces and there sad faces. Among the happy people there were winners of the two races, Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Pata) and Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team), both of whom clinched their first victory of the season, poleman Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing), who scored ​​the first WSBK Superpole of his career and, on Sunday, ended up on the podium tweice, and Fixi Crescent Suzuki’s duo, Leon Camier and Jules Cluzel, who couls jump on the podium for the first time in 2013 (with the English rider also celebrated his birthday).

Despite his shoulder injury, championship leader Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing) saw his lead in the standings increasing from 4 to 13 points over his closest rival, Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), who lost the Superpole because od a mild shower on Saturday and was unable to be really competitive on the slippery asphalt on Sunday. Sykes was arguably the most disappointed rider of the weekend, followed by Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK), who finished ninth on both races, and his teammate Chaz Davies, who suffered an engine failure in Race-2 when he was clarly fighting for the win. The Ducati boys surely did not enjoy that much of the Silverston races either, though Carlos Cehca managed to get an encouraging second place in qualifying.

As usual, the lovely paddock girls had some work to do to cheer up these guys and their fans, but we are pretty sure that these alluring smiles did help to alleviate all the disappointment. The ‘English Roses’ did not fail to enchant, we’ll see if the girls of the Nurbugring will do the same in the next round, scheduled on September, the 1st.

via TWOWHEELSBLOG

HARLEY XL883R BY SHAW SPEED

Like Gulf Oil, Martini is a brand inextricably associated with speed. The blue and red stripes are one of the most distinctive liveries in motorsport, and forever associated with the Martini Racing Porsches from the 1970s.

Martini hits its 150th anniversary in 2013, and the English shop Shaw Speed & Custom has joined the celebrations by creating a pair of hot-rodded Harley Sportster XL883Rs—one in white, and one in silver, as shown here.

Each bike has a rebuilt motor with a tuned Screamin’ Eagle 1200 conversion, race-spec heads and pistons, and a custom-fabbed exhaust system. The forks have been fitted with Öhlins internals and finished in gold to match the rear shocks.

A lean Roland Sands Design gas tank and RSD bars add a little attitude, and the stock XL883R brake rotors have been replaced with larger versions fore and aft, beefing up stopping power.

The original fender rails have gone, with the frames modified to accept kicked-up rear fenders. The wheels are also custom built, with modified Dyna rims taking 180mm tires at the rear.

Head over to the Shaw Speed & Custom site for more images of both Martini bikes, and a thorough rundown on the technical details.

from BIKEEXIF

Extreme wheelie challenge with Ducati Hypermotards

Take two professional stunt riders of the caliber of Luke Emmons and Aaron Twite, give them a pair of 2013 Ducati Hypermotards and have them challenge each other in a series of riding skills and call it the ‘Game of Hype’.

This is just one of series of five videos for the “Game of Hype” series presented by Cycle World and this shows how extreme that the two can get while doing wheelies, and all for hamburger.

Do we really have to say that trying to wheelie a 97.7° isn’t for everyone, unless you would like to spend some quality time with a cast on or picking up pieces of your bike.

from Twoowhelsblog