Coming off its first season of competition in the 2021 British Supersport Championship, the Triumph Street Triple RS won on its American race debut - winning no less than the Daytona 200. The winning motorcycle was ridden by defending champion Brandon Paasch, who used his experience gained in the 2021 season with the Triumph Street Triple RS and his past success at the 200 to make the most of the 765 triple's power around Daytona's banking - taking the win by 0.007 of a second. Teammate Danny Eslick took 6th.
The electric bicycle represented more than half of the total Dutch bicycle market for the first time last year (Pedelecs/E-assist models). Although sales of e-bikes decreased by -12.5% to 478,000 units in 2021, the market share of e-bikes increased to 51.8% of sales. More than three quarters (76%) of the turnover from bicycle sales in the Netherlands is now accounted for by the electric bicycle - with an average price in 2021 of almost € 2,400 (+6%).
It will soon be a decade since BMW flipped Husqvarna Motorcycles to KTM owner PIERER Mobility AG in 2013, BMW itself only acquiring 'Husky' from MV Agusta in 2008 (it had initially been bought by Cagiva in 1987). But after three owners in not much more than five years, Husqvarna has entered its most successful era in nearly 120 years of motorcycle production - selling 60,801 units in 2021.
Is the Gilera name about to become the latest 'legacy' brand to make a return to the streets? Piaggio partner Zongshen has an Aprilia-derived 896 cc 90-degree V-twin 'on the bench' that is slated to be used in the Zongshen RA9. Presently used in the Aprilia Shiver naked bike, a recent V-twin patent filing for a version of the engine was made with Gilera branding - as pimped at the 2021 CIMA expo.
The much rumoured 1,082 cc parallel-twin powered Honda Hawk11 finally got a showing in March on home ground at the Osaka Motorcycle Show, for an initial home market only launch. It is a Roadster meets retro superbike styled 'parts bin' bike based on the Africa Twin chassis with components from the NT1100 tourer.
For the seventh season running, Brembo will be supplying all MotoGP riders with braking systems in 2022 and this year's season they will be individually customisable - for all 24 riders. Brembo parts will include GP4 brake calipers, a choice of 12 carbon disc options, brake master cylinders, clutch pumps and pads. Brembo says that more than one-third of MotoGP riders regularly use the thumb master cylinder, first seen in the 1990s for Mick Doohan. For the 2022 season, there are two variants. The most commonly used is a closed circuit system with a thumb master cylinder and pedal, using a rear two-piston caliper; the second has two discrete circuits - each acting on two or four pistons within the rear caliper. In the former, one system excludes the other; in the latter, they can operate simultaneously. Eight out of 12 teams will use forged magnesium wheels by Brembo owned Marchesini.
In a surprise move, KTM has brought back the 790 Duke - the original 'Scalpel' brings "all-new colourways and a renewed rebellious streak to the world of midweight naked machinery". First seen in 2017, the 790 sold over 29,000 units before being followed by the 890 Duke R - the so-called 'Super Scalpel'. In early 2021, the KTM 790 Duke was upgraded to the KTM 890 Duke, with more power and improved electronics. "The 2022 KTM 790 Duke is the continuation of the story that introduced the world to the power and agility of the KTM LC8c parallel-twin platform".
Two years ago, Triumph announced that it would move the bulk of its production for all markets to Thailand, with arising lay-offs at its Hinkley, UK factory (with still further subsequent pandemic- triggered UK job losses in June 2020). Triumph now appears set to respond what it says is a big rise in UK and European sales by increasing target UK production to 20,000 or more bikes a year (from approx. 4,500 largely specials at present) and hiring 100 new production staff to build them! CCO Paul Stroud says: "Sales were just over 81,500 motorcycles in 2021, 29% growth on the previous year."
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com
