Alpinestars Anniversary

Alpinestars celebrates 50 years
of motorsport success

Company founder Sante Mazzarolo (left),
Kenny Roberts (centre) and
present company CEO
Gabriele Mazzarolo

ALPINESTARS marked its 50th anniversary on the night of Sunday 8th September with a star-studded party in Milan. 
During the evening guest stars from the world of motorsports, racers past and present and notable industry personalities, as well as a host of TV celebrities and fashion writers joined company founder Sante Mazzarolo and current CEO Gabriele Mazzarolo to celebrate.

Amongst the many former luminaries in attendance were legendary multiple World Motocross Champion Roger DeCoster, three-times Grand Prix Motorcycling World Champion Kenny Roberts, fivetimes Grand Prix Motorcycling World Champion Mick Doohan, multiple Grand Prix winner Randy Mamola and the multidiscipline star Jean-Michel Bayle.
Many current racing stars were also present, including reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, his rival Dani Pedrosa, Dakar Rally legends Marc Coma and Nani Roma, Superbike riders Carlos Checa, Chaz Davies and Eugene Laverty, and Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness.
Guests were treated to a specially commissioned museum visit, charting the company’s 50 years of innovation and product development, as well as a Hall of Fame display of Championship winning products, used by many of the stars in attendance. Alpinestars also launched a commemorative book describing its story in the world of motorsports, motorcycling, cycling and action sports.
Presiding over the unique mix of personalities on the guest list, Sante Mazzarolo, who founded Alpinestars half a century ago, together with his son, Gabriele, who is steering the brand into its next 50 years, also enjoyed the gathering of family, friends and associates who came from all parts of the globe to mark a unique heritage and look forward to a continuing legacy.
www.alpinestars.com

Shark WSBK replica helmet

Sykes Rides to WSBK Championship with Shark

French helmet manufacturer Shark has been quick-off-the-mark with a replica helmet to celebrate sponsored Kawasaki rider Tom Sykes' 2013 World Superbike Championship win at Jerez, Spain in October.
The SPPED-R Sykes Replica is based on the Race-R Pro helmet worn by Sykes this season. Made from "the latest generation composite fibre" it is said to weigh just 1450g, have a new glove-friendly sunvisor mechanism, and is available with PinLock Maxvision.
Having missed out on the 2012 title by just half a point, the 28 year old follows Carl Fogarty, Neil Hodgson and James Toseland as the fourth British rider to win the series since it was first staged in 1988.
Riding a Ninja ZX-10R he has given Kawasaki its first ever factory win in the series, and the only second ever Kawasaki series win -  the only other time the World Superbike series was won on a Kawasaki was when American Scott Russell won in 1993 on the Team Muzzy Kawasaki ZX-7RR

www.shark-helmets.com

Eric Buell Racing's new streetbike

Buell launches 1190RX sportbike

LESS than four years after Harley-Davidson closed its Buell Motorcycles subsidiary, Erik Buell is finally back in the production streetbike market.
His Erik Buell Racing (EBR) business used the occasion of the first AIMExpo at Orlando, Florida, in October to unveil the successor to their race bred limited edition 1190RS Super Bike – the 1190RX street legal sportbike.
Based on its ET-V2 1190 cc liquid cooled v-twin engine, the 1190RX weighs in at just 419 pounds, and delivers 185bhp, and an almost unprecedented 102 ft.lbs of torque – said to be one of the highest levels of peak torque even seen on a street legal production sportbike.
With 21 traction control settings and broad torque band, the engine is said to deliver a combined

highway/city fuel economy of over 40 mpg and hydrocarbon and nitrous oxide exhaust emissions that are said to be less than 25 percent of those allowed by the US Environmental Protection Agency standards (carbon monoxide emissions are said to be just 6 percent of the level allowed by US federal regulations).
With what is quite rightly being described by the company as a “breakthrough engine design”, race inspired handling features, all-new styling and scientifically-derived aerodynamics, EBR is claiming that the 1190RX rivals “the performance and driveablilty of any superbike produced by any manufacturer in the world.”
The EBR 1190RX is completely assembled at the East Troy, Wisconsin, facility with full scale production scheduled to begin in December 2013 at a remarkable domestic US MSRP of $18,995.
In a comprehensive approach to the launch, EBR has announced representation on the European market with an import organization being headed by Dutchman Edwin Belonje – Managing Director of Erik Buell Racing LLC.
Formerly managing director for Zero Motorcycles in Europe, and the international Sales and Marketing Manager for Triumph Motorcycles in Europe and Asia, Belonje said that “it is a great challenge for me to build and expand the famous Erik Buell Racing brand in Europe. I am convinced that with the innovative capabilities of EBT Motoryclces, the products will be distinctive in the market place. “My first task I to set up a European distribution network, and while the EBR 1990RX is impressive, I believe there is much more to come.”

ERIK BUELL RACING
East Troy, Wisconsin, USA
info@erikbuellracing.com
www.erikbuellracing.com

MAGURA R1200 GS Upgrade Kit

MAGURA R1200 GS Upgrade Kit

This year sees the 90th anniversary of BMW’s entry into the motorcycle market, and there is at least one parts manufacturer who is therefore able to celebrate the 90th anniversary of their own relationship with BMW Motorrad.
In 1923, MAGURA founder Gustav Magenwirth began developing a throttle regulator lever for the BMW R32.
Since that time every BMW motorcycle has been MAGURA equipped in some form. The close connection with BMW Motorrad has grown over 90 years and to celebrate the event MAGURA have developed an exclusive Upgrade Parts kit for the new water cooled BMW R1200 GS and Adventure models.
The premium grade aluminium levers and reach adjusters are impact resistant, ensuring that the rider will be able to continue if the machine has been dropped. The kit is ABE approved and comes with a CNC-machined reservoir cover kit for the brake and clutch master cylinder, with integral sight-glass protector.
Also new for all BMW F800 models in MAGURA’s HYMEC brand clutch programme is a ‘one kit fits all’ plug-and-play hydraulic clutch conversion that is said to improve controllability and offer “a clear and stable pressure point while reducing the operating force for the clutch”.
The kit also fits the F650 and F700 GS (K70 two cylinder 800cc) models and the Husqvarna Nuda.

MAGURA

Bad Urach, GERMANY
+49 (0)7125 153 262
mot@magura.de
www.magura.com

Dealer Expo 2014

AIMExpo success forces date and city change for Dealer Expo

The all new AIMExpo at Orlando, Florida took place to widespread acclaim (especially for a first year event) in Orlando, Florida in October.

With it, the latest turn in the never-ending cycle of change in the domestic US powersports industry expo scene has played out and further shaped the show landscape.

That is a landscape that was radically altered with the announcement of the new show project two years ago, an announcement that sent shockwaves and panic through Advanstar Inc, the company that has hitherto owned and operated the ‘Indy’ Dealer Expo – historically regarded as by far the leading mainstream motorcycle industry trade event in the United States.

That panic saw Advanstar respond with a confusing series of different announcements about how it would seek to protect its event from the impact that AIMExpo appeared likely to have, those announcements including radical revision of the event’s formula and changes in date as well, at one stage, as a plan to actually hold it twice in one year.

That plan for Dealer Expo (and other plans besides), have come to nothing and as their latest plans are to move Dealer Expo to the notoriously expensive, rigidly unionised and exhibitor-unfriendly embrace of Chicago’s McCormick Place exhibition centre.

What is more, having seen AIMExpo defy Advanstar’s historic insistence that ‘sun-belt’ venues and Fall/Autumn timings were death for the business-focus of trade shows, Advanstar have decided to move Dealer Expo from mid-February to early December each year, and take it to just about the coldest and least reliable major city expo environment of them all.

This first AIMExpo attracted some 400 plus exhibitors, including the first OEs and reports suggests that while the organisers would be well-advised to reconsider the five day duration of the event and will clearly need to embrace initiatives to boost both dealer and consumer attendance, the general reaction to the concept and the first year is positive, with the majority of exhibitors appearing to indicate that they will re-book for 2014.

Meanwhile, Dealer Expo, which is slated for December 5^th-7^th 2014 will have gone for nearly two years since the last and much criticised event in Indianapolis in 2013. With domestic US industry reaction to their plan being almost universally hostile so far, the widespread scuttlebutt is that if AIMExpo can show that it is building on its first year by October next year then the chances of dealer expo taking place at all must be in the balance. 

http://www.dealernews.com/sites/www.dealernews.com/libraries/dealerexpo/index.html

New multiMIGHTY battery

Ultrabatt multiMIGHTY battery

ULTRABATT has launched its new patented clickable lithium battery, the Ultrabatt multiMIGHTY, a breakthrough in battery technology. It is a battery designed to be extremely flexible and able to click to each other when more battery capacity is needed.
The multiMIGHTY can be mounted on any side and in any position, the plus and minus terminals are always positioned correctly. And when more battery capacity is needed it is simply a case of connecting more multiMIGHTY batteries to each other.
The multiMIGHTY measures just 114 x 30 x91mm, and at 430gram is said to be up to 80 percent lighter and more powerful than traditional lead-acid batteries.

ULTRABATT 
info@ultrabatt.com
www.ultrabatt.com

MIC stats

US motorcycle sales up in September

According to the Irvine, California based Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC), total motorcycle sales in the United States in September were up by 13.4 percent compared to September 2012 at 36,476 units. Within that figure on-highway motorcycles were up by 16.1 percent, at 26,110 units.

This has left the total motorcycle market up by 0.9 percent for the first nine months of 2013, at 385,256 units with an additional 164,321 ATV models also being sold (also +0.9 percent over the first nine months of 2012).
In year-to-date terms, the two best performing motorcycle sectors have been off-highway bikes (up 9.4 percent, at 55,802 units) and dual-sport models (+7.9 percent, at 25,409 units).
After several years of promising growth until the recession, the scooter market looks like it is going to remain the last and slowest of the domestic PTW sectors to return to growth, with sales off by -16.7 percent (at 29,467 units) for the first nine months of 2013.

Metisse Triumph CR900

Metisse Triumph CR900

In 2012, Metisse unveiled their first BMW based ‘Café Racer’ style model, following it up with their R1200 CR-T roadster version in the spring of 2013.
Designer and Metisse owner Horst Edler says that “both bikes impressed motorcycle enthusiasts all around the world, and sales started very well”.
He has now followed them up with a third member of his CR family, the Metisse Triumph CR900. Based on Triumph’s Thruxton/Bonneville/Scrambler range, Edler’s Metisse kits are available for all

models from 2001 up, or complete brand new TUV-approved bikes can be supplied worldwide by German Triumph dealer and Metisse partner ZTK.
Kits and bikes can be supplied with a range of optional Metisse accessories, from hardware makeovers and suspension units up to belt drive conversions.
The standard kit includes a polished aluminium tank with fitting for the original fuel pump, tank filler cap with lock, polished aluminium seat with chequered flag upholstery, seat brakets, LED tail light, licence plate and indicator bracket, decals

 

and a lowering kit for the instuments.
Kits can be ordered directly from Horst Edler at Metisse in Germany, but Horst says that he is also interested in hearing from potential import/distribution partners elsewhere in Europe and worldwide.

TEAM METISSE
Leiferde, GERMANY
+49 (0)5373 924 0780
info@metisse.de
www.metisse.de