ALL New Motor Cycle

Motorcycle-USA’s Ken Hutchison is at the Tokyo Motor Show this week, and he’s got a round-up of the show at MC-USA;s web site. You can read it here. I have. What a bore-fest this thing sounds like.

Kawasaki’s not even there. Harley-Davidson is there, but Buell Motorcycles make up a big part of their display, which makes them look sort of stupid. Again. I’m surprised they didn’t force Erik to go, and just stand there weeping publicly, while Harley executives bashed a couple of 1125Rs with sledgehammers.

Other than that, it sounds like everybody was showing off “Green power, maaaan!” and “Save the planet, maaaan!” technology.

Over at Yamaha the big presentation featured the ‘Art of Engineering’. In this philosophy the hot topics were the Smart Power scooter and bicycle-styled experimental vehicles on display in front of the true core of Yamaha’s business: The V-Max R1, Road Star cruiser, new YZ450F and, of course, the world-conquering YZR-M1 MotoGP machine.

Apparently everybody there was really agog over this:

Wow. I just keep looking at it, because I keep trying to think of something I hate more. And I can’t.

I have no doubt the Japanese love it, though. They probably think it’d be a really fun way to wind down after finishing their latest rape comic. Or maybe an easy way to zip home instead of being packed into the subway like sardines during their commute. Just a silent, environmentally-friendly way to get home, followed by watching a TV game show that involves contestants sitting in freezing water while their testicles are crushed in an electric vice.

Yeah, the Japanese enjoy a lot of weird crap, so I bet they adore this monstrosity.

Buell Motorcycles may be gone, but their influence lives on in this new cruiser from CR&S, which will available in limited numbers–and only in Europe, alas–for 2010.

Notice, if you will, the underslung exhaust and odd side pods, so reminiscent of the Buell 1125R. It even has a V-Twin powerplant. Air cooled. With push rods.

The similarity ends there, however. The engine isn’t a re-engineered Evo, but a massive 1,916cc v-twin motor. The side pods house the headlights, rather than air scoops for the (non-existent) radiator.

The company showed this off as a concept bike in August, but apparently it was a pretty concrete concept. It had to be if they’re ready to produce it now.

They haven’t released any figures on weight or horsepower/torque, but it certainly looks beefy with that huge engine filling up the space under the tank.

At €20,000 (about $35,000 at today’s rate of exchange), it certainly is a pricey beast, but since they’ll be making about…oh, let’s say 50 or so of these bikes over the next year, I’m sure they’ll find the buyers they need to take it off the factory’s hands.

By far the most popular search that leads people to this site, is a search for the rumored variants of the BMW R1200RT for 2010, such as “R1300RT”, or R1250RT”. Everyone seems to want to know what the 2010 version of the BMW R-bikes are going to be.

Well, now we know. It’s the R1200RT, and R1200GS.

BMW announced today that the 2010 R-Series bikes will all sport a DOHC Boxer motor derived from the Hp2 Sport. Unlike the HP2 Sport, however, the R Engine will rev lower, and put out less horsepower.

So, the horsepower figure for the R-series Boxer will remain unchanged at 110HP, but torque will increase by 3lb-ft to 88lb-ft at an unchanged 6,000RPM, for faster acceleration. The redline will increase to 8,500 RPM from the current 8,000rpm.

The R1200RT will receive an updated fairing and windscreen, designed to offer better wind protection. The instrument panel has also been updated, with redesigned instruments and a visor to help keeps the sun’s glare off a bit better. Also updated are the handlebar controls, with the old-style paddle turn signals on each side being replaced by standard turn signals. An additional control is a rotary thumbwheel on the left handgrip to allow the rider to cycle through all the stereo options without taking his hand off the grip. The stereo itself gets rid of BMW’s CD player, although a jack is provided for external audio sources.

TheR1200GS is visually unchanged from the previous year’s model, except for the cylider covers, which have two bolts, instead of four. The new engine, on the other hand also gets the 110HP output, and increase of 5 horsies over last year’s. There’s also an accessory LED headlight for a few extra bucks.

Overall, the change to the DOHC engine doesn’t provide as much oomph as I would have expected, considering that the HP2 engine actually puts out 130HP in the HP2. I would’ve thought that BMW would have added more ponies to the R-series boxer, rather than upping the torque a bit.

I’m also a little disappointed in the new styling for the R1200RT. I think last year’s version looked better, and came in better colors than white, beige and two-tone gray and white. Overall, I suspect that GS afficionados will be a bit more pleased with the 2010 update than their RT brethren.

There’s tons of detail available from BMW about the new models in PDF format, which you can acquire here for the GS, and here for the RT.

The new bikes are now being officially unveiled at the EICMA show in Milan, and it’s a nice crop so far. Ducati and MV Agusta have made the big splashes today, with MV showing off the 2010 F4, and Ducati releasing the long-awaited Multistrada, as well as the Hypermotard 1100 EVO.

Click on any of the pics below to enlarge.

Let’s start with the 2010 MV Agusta F4. MV Agusta says that they’ve updated the Tamburini design to a more modern look. If by modern, you mean “acutely angled and sort of ugly”, well, I guess they did. There’s lots of improvements under the fairing though, getting an additional 3 HP out of a 3cc smaller 998cc engine, and shedding 22lbs of dead weight. It also comes with a 8-level traction control system, a new chassis, swingarm, and 4-1 exhaust system.

The 2010 Ducati Multistrada has a new 150HP engine pushing 417lbs down the road. The new powerplant is called the Testastretta 11° engine, and comes with a nice slipper clutch, because while a slipper clutch might not be a usual requirement for an on-road enduro bike, it should be for a Ducati.

There will be three variants of the Multistrada:

• The 1200 base model with ABS brakes,
• The 1200S with the new Ducati Electronic Suspension (DES) system and Öhlins suspension components,
• And, the 1200S Touring with all the above and hard bags.

“Hypermotard” always seems like some sort of non-PC epithet you’d call a developmentally disabled dirt-biker, But the Europeans seem to disagree, so we’ll use their unflattering word for the Ducati Hypermotard 1100 EVO. It’s got 95HP and weighs 379lbs, which is 15.5 less than last year. There’s also an EVO SP model. It’s got an upgraded suspension, with an Öhlins setup in back and Marzocchi forks up front.

Finally, Ducati released a poor man’s 848, called the 848 Dark. It should retail for about $1,000 less than the base model of the 848. Nobody seems sure yet how they’ve downgraded it from the “base” model. But if you want a cheap, black Ducati 848, here you go.

oto Guzzi has announced the newest generation of their Norge sport-tourer, the Norge 8V. New for 2010 is a new 1200cc L-twin with 4 valves per cylinder, as well as a redesigned fairing for better heat management and weather protection, and some more comfort features.

For the 2010 model year, KTM announced a while ago that they would undertake a “strategic price realignment” to make their bikes more competitive in the US marketplace. That’s probably a wise move, considering that KTMs, while nice bikes, have always been very pricey. But the announcement didn’t give us much of an idea of what “strategic price realignment” meant to the Austrians. Now we know.

First up is theKTM RC8, the base-model superbike with the 1190cc V-Twin engine. The price for this bike has been slashed by $3,000, with a new MSRP of $16,498.

The RC8’s 1148cc V-Twin mill pumps out 155HP at 10,000RPM and 88.5 lb-ft of torque at 8,000RPM. Without fuel, the ready-to-race weight is 405 lbs.

But, maybe you’re one of those lusty, gusty fellows who needs a bit more power. If so, the RC8 R, with it’s 170HP , 1195cc V-Twin, and upgraded components, has also been priced significantly lower, at 19,998. They’ve got red Bull and Akraprovic special edition models, at slightly north of $23k, but the R model is now superbike ready, at a bit less of a superbike price.

All of the other KTM models, including the popular–but agonizingly ugly–990 Adventure also see similar price cuts.

Aaaaaugh! My eyes! My eyes! The pain!

I’m sure uglier motorcycles have been seen out on the road. But not by reliable observers.

I hear it’s quite popular among the well-to-do adventure biker set, though.

BMW introduced an inline six-cylinder café racer concept at the 2009 EICMA show in Milan, Italy.

Inline-six engines have a staple in BMW’s automobiles for decades and the German manufacturer’s motorcycle division took on the challenge of adapting the straight-six to a bike without making it too long or too wide. The result is the BMW Motorrad Concept 6, and an evolution BMW says “will further expand the K-Series in the foreseeable future”.

The Concept 6’s engine is about four inches slimmer than BMW’s production inline-six engines, making it just a bit wider than a large-capacity four. To keep the width down, the engine has a relatively long stroke with very small gaps between cylinders. Electrical ancillaries and their drive components are positioned behind the crankshaft and above the transmission to further minimize engine width.