$60,000, 160bhp, 120lb/ft. Remember the Mission R? It’s now called the Mission RS and it has a headlight. There’s plans for a cheaper, $30,000 model to follow. Wired has the scoop.
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Isle of Man TT, FTW. The racing starts Saturday.
The post Here’s a picture of Guy Martin jumping a GSX-R appeared first on RideApart.
Here’s a nice little video profile of acclaimed custom bike builder Shinya Kimura. Directed by Danielle Levitt, it shows Shinya riding his local haunt — Glendora Ridge Road — and visits him in his Azusa, CA shop.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The post Shinya Kimura, Motorcycle Mechanic appeared first on RideApart.
The Department of Transport has this month just issued its latest findings on motorcycles deaths and related injuries in the U.S. and all in all it makes pretty depressing reading.
Figures and research come from the DoT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has been tracking this information since 1982 and its latest report for 2011 shows that 4,612 motorcyclists died that year in the U.S. This according to NHTSA is a 2% increase in rider fatalities over 2010.
That overall figure of 4,612 deaths also includes other types of bikes (scooters, three wheelers, mopeds, mini bikes, pocket bikes and off roaders) so the actual two-wheel motorcycle fatality number for 2011 is 4323.
What’s not clear in NHTSA’s findings is if the number of motorcycle riders actually grew too from 2010 to 2011. A total of 8,009,503 ‘motorcycles’ (including scooters, trikes etc) were registered in 2010 but this increased by nearly 5% in 2011 to 8,437,502.
The good news from the report, if you can call it that, was that injuries from crashes involving motorcycles were down in 2011 with 81,000 recorded compared to 82,000 the previous year.
Motorcycles apparently made up 3% of all registered road vehicles in the U.S. for 2011 with NHTSA including everything on two-wheels and three-wheels in this category. But 4,323 (94%) of 4,612 fatal bike crashes in 2011 were riders of two-wheeled motorcycles.
According to the findings 2,449 (49%) of all fatal motorcycle crashes were the result of a bike colliding with another vehicle. Only 6% of deaths in 2011 were due to a bike being hit from behind.
More than 42% (1,998) of motorcyclists in 2011 were killed in two vehicle accident and 38% (757) of these were the result of another vehicle turning left in front of the motorcycle that was either going straight, passing or overtaking another vehicle.
NHTSA claims that of all motorcycle deaths in 2011, 35% (1,614) were the direct result of the rider speeding. This according to its research and data is a substantially higher death toll than any other vehicle type on the roads – 22% for cars, 19 % for trucks and 8% for large trucks.
Plus, based upon the average number of miles traveled by every type of vehicle on the road, in 2011 as a rider you were 30 times more likely than a passenger car occupant to die in a motor vehicle traffic crash and five times more likely to be injured while out riding a motorcycle.
Riders of bikes with 501-1000cc engines accounted for 39% of all 2011 fatalities and also represented the highest increase of overall fatalities (25%) from when NHTSA first started recording this information in 2002.
Older motorcyclists (40 years and up) account for 75% of all motorcyclists’ deaths over this 10-year period with 42-years-old now the average age of a motorcycle rider killed on the U.S. roads in a traffic crash.
However, 22% of riders involved in fatal crashes in 2011 did not have a valid motorcycle license and were 1.4 times more likely than a car driver to have a previous license suspension or revocation.
The really scary part of all these statistics is that 42% of motorcycle riders who died in single vehicle crashes in the U.S. in 2011 had blood alcohol levels (BAC) of 0.8g/dL or higher. The 40-44 year-old age group accounted for 38% of these deaths, while the 45-49 and 35-39 age groups were each at 37%.
NHTSA figures also show that in 2011, motorcycles riders killed at night were nearly three times more likely to have BAC levels of 0.8 g/dL or higher than riders who were kill during the day.
Across the U.S. in 2011, Texas had the most motorcycle fatalities with 441 riders killed and 37% of these had 0.8g/Dl BAC readings or higher. Florida was second with 426 riders killed and 34% impaired by drinking and riding and California third with 386 of which 22% of riders who died were under the influence of alcohol.
Mississippi and Ohio may have had fewer rider deaths in 2011 at 53 and 157 respectively, but both states had the national highest percentage of alcohol-impaired deaths at 40% of all motorcycle fatalities. (Vermont was actually higher at 63% but with only eight riders killed in 2011).
NHTSA’s figures also show that in 2011 of the 4000 plus motorcycle riders killed on the roads in the U.S. 40% were not wearing a helmet. And based upon all 2011 motorcycle crash information NHTSA estimates that 1,617 lives of riders were saved by wearing a helmet and a further 703 may have survived if they had been wearing a helmet. This data makes no distinction between types of helmets (full or open face).
There can be no doubting the depth of NHTSA’s 2011 research on motorcycle deaths and injuries. Some of it can be a little confusing and there are a lot of numbers and percentages to wade through but if you are prepared to read through it you can eventually work out the most dangerous day to be riding a motorcycle in any state in the U.S.
However, the staggering number in all of NHTSA’s research is that of the 4,323 motorcyclists killed in 2011, 33% (1426) of the riders were under the influence of alcohol. That’s almost 1 in 3 fatal motorcycle accidents attributed to drinking and riding.
Ride safe people.
The post What the latest NHTSA fatality statistics reveal about motorcycle safety appeared first on RideApart.
The first photo of the 2013 MotoCzysz E1pc has been revealed on Twitter. Gone are last year’s zany wings in favor of an expanded battery pack. The bike should be turning wheels on the Isle of Man this week.
This image of the 2012 MotoCzysz E1pc shows those winglets and bizarre tail section that were said to better re-attach airflow, enhancing aerodynamic efficiency:
While the 2013 ditches those winglets in favor of a much-simplified tail section, it also appears to include a large box under the seat, where fuel is now stored on GP bikes. This likely makes room for additional battery capacity.
The new tail also appears to bring some functionality back from the 2011 MotoCzysz E1pc, which made room for a second “seat” at the rearmost portion of bike, allowing the rider to scoot very far to the rear to minimize drag on the Isle of Man’s long straights, then slide forward into a conventional riding position to control the bike in corners. The rest of the bike appears similar, at least in this photo, to last year’s machine with upgrades likely coming in both the battery and motor departments rather than in the chassis or overall platform.
MotoCzysz is fielding a four bike team at the TT Zero this year: Michael Rutter, Mark Miller, TTXGP star Shane Turpin and even MotoGP wildcard Steve Rapp.
“I’ve raced everything from Singles to Superbikes, but nothing as special as the MotoCzysz e1pc,” says Turpin.
“With two wins under my belt, I’d like to go for the hat-trick this year and with Team MotoCzysz providing the equipment, I think we can get it done,” states Rutter.
Absent from the race this year, however, will be Michael Czysz himself. He’s remaining in America to receive treatment for an unnamed medical ailment.
The post 2013 MotoCzysz E1pc revealed appeared first on RideApart.
Rumors of a naked version of the BMW S1000RR have been swirling since the superbike’s debut in 2008. Now, the bike has been captured undergoing validation testing.
These photos and this video come from a reader of Motociclismo.it, who spotted the bike while out riding his scooter in Trento. While the bike’s time on screen is incredibly short, it does reveal some intriguing details.
First among those is this headlight/bikini fairing arrangement. In profile, that tiny screen appears to adopt a floating arrangement, leaving the exposed headlight binnacles to define the bike’s look.
From the front, those headlights appear to adopt a similar asymmetric arrangement to the S1000RR.
Much speculation exists around the final spec of the bike. Conventional wisdom suggests that BMW will follow established naked bike practice and re-tune the motor to move its power and torque peaks lower down the rev range, also reducing the engine’s outright performance in the process.
Looking at these photos, the bike seen here appears to adopt the same USD forks as the S1000RR and even the silver Brembo Monobloc calipers of the HP4. The base S1000RR uses gold non-Monobloc radial Brembos. This, plus word of a previous sighting of an S1000S fitted with an Akrapovic exhaust canister leads Motociclismo to speculate that the bike could be available in two spec levels or simply feature a nice list of optional extras.
As for the name? Well “F” model BMW’s use parallel-twins (ie F800GS), “R” models use boxers (ie R1200GS), less outright sport-focussed inline-fours use a “K” monicker (ie K1300S), leaving the S1000RR as the only bike with an “S” first. That’s led most to speculate that it will kick off a new family of “S” BMWs made up of out-and-out sport bikes. The S1000S will compete with bikes like the Aprilia Tuono V4 and upcoming KTM 1290 Super Duke.
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Motorcycle-USA just answered that question by putting the new, 636cc 2013 Kawasaki ZX-6R on the dyno next to the old, 599cc 2012 Kawasaki ZX-6R. The improvement is actually fairly impressive, and that’s before you factor in ABS and traction control.
As you can see, the differences don’t just come in marginal increases to peak torque and power, but throughout the engine’s mid-range, beginning at 6,000rpm. It’s between that and 12 or 13,000rpm where most riders will spend most of their time, even while going fast. Fatter curves there equal an easier time, less throttle lag and potentially even fewer shifts. Nicely done.
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