Honda Sport Touring Motorcycles, page #43

Moto blog

Honda Opens Technical Center in India, Will Introduce New Models Every Quarter

Honda‘s subsidiary in India is opening a new technical center to develop new models for that market. The new research and development center is the first for Honda to focus only two-wheeled vehicles, and the first in all of India to feature an advanced wind tunnel to test vehicle aerodynamics. The goal, for Honda Motorcycle and  Scooter India (HMSI) is to eventually introduce a new model to India every quarter.

2013 Repsol Honda Team Livery Revealed

Repsol Honda revealed the livery off its RC213V racebikes and leathers of riders Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez for the 2013 MotoGP season. The livery is again dominated by the colors of the team’s top sponsor, Spanish oil giant Repsol, but with more white and less black, particularly along the bottom of the fairing. The Repsol logos on the sides now slope downward toward the swingarm whereas the previous design had them rising up toward the seat.

New kit: Davida Jet helmet

The Davida Jet helmet is a quality piece of kit, made here in dear Old Blighty. I got my hands on one just a few days before I went on the CB1100 launch last week and I thought it suited Honda's big retro perfectly. The lining and finish is superb, with high gloss paint and a padded/quilted leather interior.

2013 AMA Supercross Anaheim 2 Race Report

Ryan Villopoto claimed his first win of the 2013 AMA Supercross season and his first since the knee injury at last year’s Seattle round that kept him out of the 2012 AMA Motocross championship. The victory in front of 37,789 fans at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., made up for his disappointing 16th place finish two weeks earlier at the same site. His Monster Energy Kawasaki teammate Jake Weimer held the early advantage in the main event, taking the holeshot ahead of the Honda Muscle Milk duo of Justin Barcia and Trey Canard.

Voluntary Recall for Continental ContiMotion Sport-Touring Tires

Continental Tire announced a voluntary recall campaign for certain ContiMotion sport-touring tires. According to Continental, market feedback has shown some tires may experience uneven wear from the 180/60R16 74H ContiMotion rear tires. Tires may develop groove cracking and, in some cases, belt lift, conditions which can lead to a loss of tire inflation pressure and a potential for loss of control.

2013 Dakar Rally Results

Cyril Despres won his fifth career Dakar Rally while helping KTM win for the 12th consecutive time, in taking the motorcycle class in the 2013 edition of the famed off-road race. KTM was again the dominant manufacturer with the top five finishers in the motorcycle class riding motorcycles from the Austrian manufacturer. Despres finished with an overall time of 43:24:22 for the win, including a 15-minute penalty for swapping an engine after the one he was using in his KTM 450 Rallye failed.

2013 Honda CRF250M Launched in Thailand – The Supermoto Version of the CRF250L

Honda has revealed a new supermoto version of the new CRF250L in Thailand dubbed the CRF250M. Like the L, the CRF250M uses re-tuned version of the CBR250R‘s engine, a liquid-cooled fuel-injected 249cc Single. When we dyno’ed the CRF250L in our recent 2013 250cc class dual-sport shootout, we measured a peak of 20.3 hp at 8700 rpm and 14.0 ft-lb.

More Pictures of the 2013 Honda MSX125

Last week, Honda revealed the modern successor to the Z50 “Monkey” bike in the new MSX125. While it’s not clear if the Honda MSX125 will be offered in North America, our original post drew a lot of positive comments from our readers so let’s hope American Honda is paying attention. The 2013 Honda MSX125 will be available in Europe however, and Honda’s European arm has released more photographs of the new model.

2013 AMA Supercross Phoenix Race Report

Justin Barcia led all 20 laps to earn his first career victory in the 450cc class of the AMA Supercross Championship. The Team Honda Muscle Milk rider took the holeshot and never looked back to take his maiden win in front of 50,109 fans at Chase Field in Phoenix, Ariz. “I can’t tell you how excited I am right now,” says Barcia.

Awesome Anaheim Supercross

The highlight of this winter has to be my visit to last week’s Anaheim Californian Supercross.  I’ve followed this spectacular series on Motors TV but the atmosphere while watching the action live is something else. Forty five Yankee dollars gets you a good seat high in the stadium, with practice starting at 12.30pm and the main event kicking off at 7.30pm. If you are making a day of it however, I’d recommend buying a pit pass then you can get in full anorak mode to hassle the teams and riders for autographs and photos.  We conveniently made some new friends allowing us to do some pre event ‘tail gating’, a great concept which is basically barbecuing and downing beer around your vehicle in the surrounding car parks.  The evening race schedule is four hours of nonstop action starting with the capacity crowd standing for the American national anthem sung by a stunning blonde with a huge voice.