Triumph unveiled its new 250 cc motocross bike to the public for the first time at the SuperMotocross World Championship Final on September 23rd, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, California. Two of the new MX-ers made a grand arena entrance to fireworks and fanfare. The production-spec bike was ridden by Jeff 'Six Time' Stanton, a former winner at the LA Coliseum. He currently serves as the manager of Triumph's Adventure Experience in the U.S. Joining him was Ricky Carmichael, also known as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), whose bike featured his own graphics and non-standard specification components. The full U.S. unveiling is scheduled for November 28.
Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica has announced further expansion of its growing international dealer network. Its new dealer in Ireland is 'Sprocket & Hubs Motorcycle Emporium' of Limerick, a sub dealer of English Electric Motor Co (EEMC). Alec Sharp, owner of EEMC, said: "Ireland is an emerging market and this will enable demos to be held within an accessible distance of potential customers in Ireland." In advance of banning the sale of conventionally fuelled new Internal Combustion Engined (ICE) vehicles by 2035, the European Commission aims to have 30 million EVs on the road by 2030 and estimates that three million public chargers will be needed to support them. Ireland would need 100,000 public chargers, with all new installations being fast chargers. Electric Vehicles market unit sales in Ireland are expected to reach some 50,000 units annually by 2028, with revenue showing an annual growth rate of +15.19%, resulting in a projected market volume of € 2,793.00m by 2028.
MEGA ChinaMotor reports China Chamber of Commerce for Motorcycle (CCCM) motorcycle production and sales data showing month-on-month and year-on-year increases in August. In August, fuel motorcycle production and sales were 1.2947m and 1.2835m units, a month-on-month increase of 0.73% and 1.27%, and a year-on-year increase of 22.74% and 14.29%. Electric motorcycle production and sales were 438,500m and 43.7m units, output increased by 10.66% and 17.5% month-on-month and decreased by 41.92% and 43.88% year-on-year. The entire industry produced and sold a total of 1.7332m and 1.7204m motorcycles in August, a month-on-month increase of 3.07% and 4.95%, and a year-on-year decrease of 4.23% and 9.53%. From January to August, fuel motorcycle production and sales were 9.5162m and 9.5399m units, a year-on-year increase of 2.53% and 1.18%. Electric motorcycle production and sales were 3.8448m and 3.4588m units, a year-on-year decrease of 26.83% and 34.62%. From January to August, the entire industry produced and sold a total of 13.361m and 12.9987m motorcycles, down 8.08% and 11.68% year-on-year. Among them, the production and sales of two-wheeled motorcycles were 11.8261m and 11.4586m, down 9.3% and 13.22% year-on-year. The production and sales of large-displacement recreational motorcycles (displacement >250 cc) were 351,900 and 358,400, down 7.47% and 8.31% year-on-year, respectively. The production and sales of three-wheeled motorcycles were 1.5349m and 1.5401m units, a year-on-year increase of 2.49% and 1.7%.
BDN reports that the UK government has performed an embarrassing U-turn on its proposed replacement for the widely accepted CE consumer and safety product approval scheme. The UKCA (United Kingdom Conformity Assessed) mark was intended to offer a non-European way for manufacturers to show that their products complied with safety and performance rules. In an August 2023 announcement, the UK government has said that CE approval will be accepted in Britain indefinitely.
Yamaha Motor Europe has announced that Dominique Aegerter will remain with Yamaha in the FIM Superbike World Championship until the end of the 2024 season, after agreeing terms with the 32-year-old Swiss rider to extend the existing contract for an additional year. At the end of this season, Jonathen Rae will leave Kawasaki to join Yamaha's WSBK efforts.
Yamaha is mourning the loss of GRT Yamaha's Mirko Giansanti who has passed away after a long battle with a serious illness. Giansanti's career saw him make the move from racer to team owner as the founder and Sporting Director of the Giansanti Racing Team.
Silicon Valley, California based Sibros Technologies, Inc. has been selected by Pierer Mobility to power a Connected Vehicle Ecosystem for its motorcycles - deploying Sibros' 'Deep Connected Platform', a holistic suite of "safe and secure in-vehicle and cloud applications, purpose-built for managing software and data across the full mobility product lifecycle". The platform will allow Pierer to collect live microcontroller and sensor data, deploy over-the-air updates (OTA) of mixed criticality, and dispatch remote diagnostic and end-user commands.
Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) in Sakura, Japan, and Honda Performance Development (HPD) in Santa Clarita, CA, have announced that HPD will formally become Honda Racing Corporation USA (HRC US) starting with the 2024 motorsports season. With this change, HRC US will play an integral role in Honda's global motorsports activities, which includes contributing to the company's Formula One (F1) programme. HRC was established in Japan in 1982 as Honda's motorcycle racing arm, and is recognised for more than 40 years of championship racing heritage in pinnacle global racing categories such as WGP/MotoGP, Superbike, Motocross, World Trial and the Paris Dakar Rally. In 2022, HRC added auto racing, including Honda's F1 programme to its responsibilities, with the Sakura Centre dedicated to auto racing and Asaka Centre focused on motorcycle racing. HPD was established by American Honda Motor Co., Inc. in 1993, as a separate racing arm to compete in the IndyCar series.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com
