The headbutting between Alpinestars and Dainese continues, with the former set to rival the latter in the autonomous airbag space with its Tech-Air 5 airbag vest going up against the Dainese Smart Jacket. The Tech-Air vest will reportedly be able to be worn under any suitably designed or equipped textile or leather riding jacket. Alpinestars says that the Tech-Air 5 vest "provides the most comprehensive coverage of any airbag currently available", covering the rider's shoulders, chest, ribs and back. The tech solutions developed include six sensors, three gyroscopes and three accelerometers.
Akrapovic won the Best Brand award in the exhaust systems category for motorcycles in PS Magazine's annual vote, giving the Slovenian exhaust specialist its thirteenth such honour in this annual German poll.
Ducati has signed a deal with MT Distribution that sees the third-party logistics provider become a licensee and commercial partner for a new line of folding e-bikes and electric scooters for urban mobility. The new range will consist of four electric scooters and three folding e-bikes under the Ducati, Ducati Corse and Ducati Scrambler brands. Design has been curated by the Ducati Design Centre in collaboration with Italdesign for the folding e-bikes. The scooters that come from the partnership between Ducati and MT Distribution have motors from 250W to 500W, while the e-bikes are equipped with 250W motors (the maximum value stipulated by law for this type of vehicle). The first two electric scooters to be presented on the market are called Cross-E and Pro II, which will launch respectively on June 20 and July 6, 2020.
Patented polyester filter technology specialist Sprint Filter has announced a partnership with Honda Racing as Official Technical Supplier of performance air filters for the Repsol Honda Team. Sprint Filter is on board the RCV213 bikes of reigning World Champion Marc Marquez and his team-mate Alex Marquez. Sprint joins the likes of Puig, SC-Project, Alpinestars, Yuasa, RK and NGK as HRC partners.
The Honda Racing RedMoto World Enduro Team and Scott Sports have signed a partnership until 2022, with impact protection company D3O coming on board, confirming and increasing support for the Italian team of Matteo Boffelli made up of Thomas Oldrati (CRF 250RX Enduro), Daniel McCanney (CRF 450RX Enduro) and Roni Kytonen (CRF 250RX Enduro Junior).
It has now been confirmed that Australian Jack Miller will move from the satellite Pramac Ducati team and join the factory Ducati Corse MotoGP team for the 2021 season - probably replacing Danilo Petrucci (rather than Andrea Dovizioso).
KRT has announced that Alex Lowes will remain with the official KRT FIM Superbike World Championship team for the 2021 season - the winner at the Phillip Island, Australia season opener on the Ninja ZX-10RR - where Lowes and teammate and reigning five time WSBK Champion Johnathan Rea took a win each.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, B&B, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MNW. electricmotorcycles.news
