2009 Yamaha R6 on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Top Motorcycle News of 2009

The year is coming to a close so let’s take a look back at the top stories of 2009 in the world of motorcycles after the jump. Buell Motorcycles Shut Down Harley-Davidson made the shocking announcement Oct. 15 it would discontinue Buell Motorcycles.

Yamaha FZ-07 Available Stateside In July

Hot on the heels of the stellar FZ-09 comes its smaller displacement counterpart, the FZ-07. Priced at $6990, the new twin-cylinder FZ is set to hit dealer showroom floors this July as a 2015 model. Already available in foreign markets (our Canadian correspondent, Costa Mouzouris, reviewed the FZ-07 here) we’ve been awaiting word from Yamaha of US-bound FZ-07s with bated breath.

Rainy BSB tests are nothing new

THE combination of bad weather in the UK and a European testing ban means that most BSB teams will now start the season with very little track time. This sounds like a disaster for the top teams but history has proved this isn’t necessarily true and it sometimes doesn’t matter how much pre season preparation has taken place.  Back in 2002 Sean Emmett won on the IFC Ducati at the opening Silverstone round after first riding it in unofficial practice the same weekend. Steve Hislop took the other win on Pauls Bird’s well sorted Ducati. More recently in 2009, Leon Camier took an untested new model R1 Yamaha to victory at the Brands Hatch opener after GSE took delivery of the bike just the week before. Sylvain Guintoli won the other race on a well developed, well tested Crescent Suzuki. You could argue if no one has had testing then it is a level playing field but you have to feel for riders moving up to the superbike class in the world’s toughest national series.  Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobson is one such rider but having spent some time with him over the past few weeks he seems to be taking it all in his stride. It may be the confidence of youth or maybe the fact he has won in every other class he has entered in his short BSB career, but I suspect he fancies at least standing on the Superbike podium at Brands (He also does a bit of ice racing which is not dissimilar to the this year’s UK testing).  The testing ban was implemented with all the best cost cutting intentions and if it had been any other year in the past decade all would be well. The teams may be feeling frustrated but the fans should be excited. With so many unknowns, the 2013 BSB opener at Brands Hatch could be the best ever!