Newfren is celebrating the end of the 2023 race season with six world title wins for its products, teams and riders, an Isle of Man win back in June 2023, four European titles, 25 Italian titles and 17 Regionals. Highlights included Jane Daniels in the women's World Enduro GP (Fantic Racing), Michael Dunlop in the Superbikes at the IOM (Moto Paton/SC Project), and Matt Green (Rigo Racing) in the Junior World Extreme Enduro.
Headed up by designer Alessandro Tartarini (whose father was the founder of Italjet), EICMA saw Velocifero - which is named after the popular 1990s retro-style Italjet scooter of the same name - show its range of electric vehicles. Among them its Race-X electric scrambler; the Tennis-E electric scooter; its off-road Jump Scrambler and the One-X - described as Velocifero's 'SUV' of electric scooters.
Cape Town, South Africa based protective apparel specialist Leatt's 2024 line includes its official entry into the Adventure market with its first range of CE AA class certified products for road and off-road use.
Ducati has concluded its first season as the sole supplier of the 'spec-bikes' for the FIM Enel MotoE World Championship. The series concluded the MotoE World Championship at The San Marino and Riviera di Rimini GP. Ducati says its V21L drew unanimous praise from riders. The series featured 16 races, which saw eight different winners with riders from seven out of the nine teams reaching the podium at least once. Upgraded from the World Cup that ran for three years, the first ever MotoE World Champion was Fantic Moto2 rider Mattia Casadei - the Italian riding for the Anglo/Spanish Pons Racing team.
Triumph's 2017 Moto2 engine supply contract came as a surprise to many, but the relationship with rights holder Dorna appears to have gone well, with a new deal signed for another five years. Used in its 765 Street Triple road bike range, Triumph will continue developing the engine with a new gearbox and other updates for 2024.
The BSA Gold Star 650 single-cylinder retro-roadster has won MCN's Best Retro Bike award for 2023.
Peugeot owned French electric motorcycle manufacturer DAB is partnering with Gates - future models will feature Gates' Moto X5 belt "allowing for quieter and more efficient performance". The partnership with Peugeot Motocycles will see DAB Motors going into serial production. "This collaboration will empower us to create electric two-wheelers that set new standards in performance. The advanced belt drive technology from Gates is a game-changer," says Simon Dabadie, founder and CEO of DAB Motors.
A member of the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC) since its inception in 2016, Ducati was involved in a September demonstration event at the Lausitzring, Germany, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the motorbike-car connectivity systems developed during this consortium's research cycle. The event saw Ducati involved in simulating three of the most common cases in which communication between motorcycle and car can help reduce the number and risk of accidents. The methodologies for applying vehicle communication (V2V) focused principally on IMA (Intersection Movement Assist) when a motorbike is approaching a reduced-visibility intersection at which a car is arriving at the same time from a secondary road; LTA (Left Turn Assist) and DNPW (Do Not Pass Warning).
Legendary Swiss chassis builder Fritz Egli has finally retired and closed down his Bettwil (near Zurich), Switzerland based Egli Motorradtechnik AG business. Egli passed control of the business to Alexander Frei in 2015 - with the brief of finding a buyer within five years. However, eight years later with no buyer having been found, the business has now closed. Among many specialties and inventions, Egli was noted for special centre-tube frames and tuning for Japanese motorcycles.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com
