2011 Yamaha Zuma 125 (chippewa Falls) on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Last Year’s Surprise Podium Finisher Katsuyuki Nakasuga to Wild Card at Japanese GP

Katsuyuki Nakasuga, the surprise podium finisher at last year’s MotoGP finale in Valencia, will have the chance to catch lightning in a bottle once again, after being granted a wild card entry to the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. Nakasuga shocked the racing world with a second-place finish at the Valencian Grand Prix last November as an injury replacement for then-Yamaha factory rider Ben Spies. Nakasuga made the cagey decision to run slick tires in the wet race.

Teaser: 2012 Japanese Literbike Shootout – Video

The last time we assembled the superbike offerings from the Big Four Japanese manufacturers to determine the alpha male model was 2009. The CBR won that confrontation, but a lot’s changed since then. For 2012 Honda revamped the CBR1000RR, Yamaha added traction control to the R1, the GSX-R1000 lost a muffler and last year Kawasaki introduced an all-new ZX-10R.

Yamaha will give a third wheel to its scooter

The Japanese did not have enough unusual Niken bikes so they patented the design of a new 3-wheeler scooter. The device will probably be called the Tricity 300 and will presumably be powered by a 292cc engine from the 28hp XMax 300 maxi-scooter. We're looking forward to the debut of the production version at the end of the year at EICMA.