2012 Yamaha Super Ténéré on 2040-motos

Moto blog

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!

Official: Rossi Leaving Ducati for Yamaha Return

In a pair of carefully-timed press releases, Ducati announced it will part ways with MotoGP star Valentino Rossi at the end of the season and Yamaha announced it has signed Rossi to a two-year contract. The arrangement had been in the works for some time now and the two manufacturers had reportedly wanted to wait until Aug. 15 to make their announcements.

Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ Finally Coming to US for 2024

Sport-tourer equipped with radar-based adaptive cruise control Last November, Yamaha Motor Europe revealed a new Tracer 9 GT+ at EICMA, a new version of its Triple-powered sport tourer equipped with a 7-inch TFT display, adaptive cruise control, and a radar-linked unified braking system. Yamaha Motor USA, however, remained quiet about it, and we later learned the Tracer 9 GT+ was not coming to the States for 2023. In fact, even the less techy regular Tracer 9 was left out of Yamaha Motor USA’s returning model announcements.