Ohio based Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, the parent company of 130-year-old British tyre manufacturer Avon, has been acquired by Akron, Ohio based Goodyear Tire & Rubber in a shares and cash deal that prices Cooper at an enterprise value of around $2.5bn. Based at Melksham, England, Avon was acquired by Cooper (founded in 1914) in 1997. Some 300 Avon staff were 'let go' by Cooper in 2018; around 400 still work at what is a relatively small and by far the oldest motorcycle tyre manufacturing facility in the world. The combined Goodyear/Cooper business will have around $17.5bn in sales worldwide.
Piaggio has been in Nepal with Vespa since 2015, but has now broadened its range of high-end products in the country by launching the Aprilia brand. The first model to go on sale is the SXR 160, with ABS and 12-inch, 5-spoke alloy wheel rims in 125 and 160 cc configurations with Bharat Stage VI emissions standard compliant 3V Tech FI engine technology.
Polaris Inc. and Optimus Ride, a Boston, USA based leading autonomous mobility service provider, are partnering to bring fully autonomous GEM vehicles to market. Under this joint development agreement, an exclusive line of Polaris GEM electric low-speed vehicles (LSVs) will be manufactured to fully integrate Optimus Ride's autonomous software and hardware suite direct from the factory for deployment nationwide on streets in residential communities, corporate and academic campuses, and other localised environments. The partnership builds upon an investment Polaris made in Optimus Ride last year.
The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride celebrates 10 years of "riding dapper for men's health" this year and is calling on riders worldwide to join in its fundraising efforts on Sunday, 23rd of May, 2021. This is its first year running on the new annual date in May. Since 2012, the event has connected hundreds of thousands of classic and vintage style motorcyclists from over 100 countries around the world and to-date has raised US$27.45m for men's health. It plans to organise COVID-safe events where possible, and those who can't engage physically can do so virtually at www.gentlemansride.com.
Dutch Transport Industry Association (RAI) commission consumer research found that motorcycles "appear to be the ideal means of transport to completely empty your head and relax". Almost half of respondents (46%) indicated that they "have a greater need to drive a motorbike since the corona crisis than before." To inspire (future) motorcyclists to "throw a leg", the RAI Association badged March as 'MotorMonth'.
The Moody's credit ratings agency Investors Service has raised its assessment of the outlook for the Piaggio Group (PIA.MI) to stable from negative. Its analysts said, "the stabilisation of the outlook reflects Moody's expectation that sales and earnings recovery during 2021 will support a sequential improvement in the company's profitability and gross leverage to a level commensurate with its [improved] Ba3 credit rating." Moody's also noted that Piaggio has seen a "lower than anticipated of the coronavirus pandemic on Piaggio's financial performance in 2020, as evidenced by the progressive rebound in sales and EBITDA in the second half of the year."
Computer giant Lenovo has signed a multi-year deal to be Title Partner of the Ducati MotoGP Team. As an official technology partner since 2018, "Lenovo has enabled Ducati engineers' and designers' rapid adoption of algorithms and racing bike technology for both race and road bikes. Lenovo and Ducati are committed to enabling ever smarter remote collaboration and performance workspaces focused on speed, flexibility and mobility".
According to a recent patent filing, Honda is developing a bike-mounted drone - a drone with four rotors that sits in a housing in the extended tail of a motorcycle. The idea is that it's a completely autonomous flying machine that can be released on command and return automatically to the bike when needing a recharge.
BMW has announced that the BMW Group Classic and its Grand Hotel Villa D'Este collaborator have decided to postpone the 2021 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este (again!) from the initially planned end of May 2021 date to the weekend of 1 to 3 October 2021.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com
