Honda Silver Wing™ Motorcycles, page #33

Moto blog

Pata Honda Replica Onesies for Leon Haslam’s and Jonathan Rea’s New Babies

World Superbike teammates Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea and their wives are expecting babies with their respective wives in the next few weeks, so the Pata Honda team presented its riders with a special gift: onesies replicating the team’s racing leathers. Tatia and Jonathan Rea are expecting their first child in September while Olivia and Leon Haslam are expecting their second child any day now. Rea’s baby will have a replica of daddy’s Alpinestars racing suit with all of his sponsors and his butt patch.

Honda Reports Q1 2013-2014 Results

Honda reported sales of 4.05 million motorcycles over its first quarter ended June 30, 2013, a 3.7% increase from the 3.91 million motorcycles sold in the same period last year. The increase in motorcycle sales resulted in 396.8 billion yen (US$4.04 billion) in sales revenue, a 14.4% increase on 346.6 billion yen in revenue reported in the same quarter the previous fiscal year. Overall, Honda‘s reported a combined revenue of 2.83 trillion yen from all its operations, a 398.1 billion yen improvement from last year.

2013 Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance World Championship Results

The Musashi HARC-Pro Honda team of Leon Haslam, Michael van der Mark and Takumi Takahashi captured the 2013 Suzuka 8 Hours race. The Musashi team was joined on the podium by the Yoshimura Suzuki team of Takuya Tsuda, Nobuatsu Aoki and Josh Brookes and the Kagayama Suzuki team of Yukio Kagayama, Noriyuki Haga and Kevin Schwantz. The Musashi team completed 214 laps to win the endurance race.

New MotoGP Rules for ECU and Factory Status for 2014

The Grand Prix Commission released new rules for the 2014 MotoGP season regarding the standard electronic control unit and what constitutes “factory status” for manufacturers. Starting in 2014, the official MotoGP ECU including internal datalogger from Magneti Marelli will become mandatory. Factory teams will be allowed to program their own ECU software while privateers will be required to run the standard software.

Nissin ABS Modulator Recall Explained in NHTSA Documents

Earlier this month, we published news about an issue with certain Nissin anti-lock brake system modulators that have been connected to recalls in Canada and Japan from Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki, with the possibility of it expanding to further models and manufacturers using the same component. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has now released documents from American Honda’s recall of ABS-equipped CTX700 and CTX700N that shed some more light into the issue. According to the documentation, a manufacturing error may have resulted in Nissin ABS modulators being contaminated with aluminum chips.

2013 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show Report

The 22nd edition of the annual LA Calendar Motorcycle Show marked its return to the Queen Mary Seawalk Village in Long Beach, California with hometown boy Sam Baldi taking the Bike Building Championship’s Best of Show trophy with a Jimmy Todorovith/Profile Cycles built Big Twin custom named “Lost Angel.” This year’s Calendar Show showcased not only top builders but selected vendors and exhibitors, and of course the Calendar Girl Music live performances. And as always, this year’s show celebrated the world premiere of the 2014 FastDates.com Motorcycle PinUp Calendars, featuring the world’s top SBK World Superbikes, sport and cafe bikes, and custom motorcycles with the beautiful Calendar Kittens. On hand throughout the day to meet with fans and pose for pictures were Calendar Kittens Apple Price, together with official SBK World Superbike grid girls Jessica Harbour and singer/songwriter Sarah Horvath.

WSBK 2013: Moscow Race Report

Marco Melandri captured his third win of the season, the Ducati 1199 Panigale scored its first podium while Sylvain Guintoli regained the championship lead despite dislocating his collarbone days before the race. But the big news at Moscow Raceway of course was the tragic death of Andrea Antonelli in the World Supersport race. The opening-lap crash in severely wet conditions naturally led to the cancellation of the rest of the events as the World Superbike community mourns the loss of the 25-year-old Antonelli.

Casey Stoner To Test Factory Honda At Motegi

British publication MotorcycleNews.com is reporting that 2007 and 2011 MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner will test a factory Honda RC213V at the Twin Ring Motegi, Honda’s test track, August 6-7. Stoner’s shock retirement from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season was met with skepticism in some circles, as many believed (and still do) that the 27 year-old, current Australian V8 Supercar driver would eventually make a comeback to two wheels. As it stands, HRC has no plans to enter Stoner as a wildcard entry at Phillip Island or Motegi MotoGP rounds, and insists the former champion’s services are being used strictly to help develop next year’s RC213V and the 1000cc production racer Honda plans to introduce next year.

Andrea Antonelli Dies After Moscow World Supersport Crash

Italian racer Andrea Antonelli succombed to injuries suffered in a crash during the World Supersport race at Moscow Raceway in Russia. The Go Eleven Kawasaki racer crashed on the final corner of the opening lap in very wet conditions, and was struck by Pata Honda racer Lorenzo Zanetti. The race was immediately red-flagged and Antonelli was taken away by ambulance while medical staff attempted to resuscitate him, but the 25-year-old was pronounced dead at 2:10 pm local time.

Nissin ABS Modulator Recall Affects Honda CTX700, Suzuki Hayabusa, Kawasaki Ninja 250R and Possibly More

Last week, we wrote about a recall in Canada for the ABS system on the 2014 Honda CTX700N and the CTX700T (known everywhere else as simply the CTX700), affecting 13 units north of the border. We can now confirm that the recall also affects U.S. models as well as models from other manufacturers using the same components from Nissin.