Honda CB Motorcycles in Ballwin, page #47

Moto blog

Hopkins to Sit Out 2013 Racing Season to Recover from Injuries

American John Hopkins announced he is taking a sabbatical from racing for 2013 to recover from a number of significant injuries. Hopkins’ once very promising racing career has been hampered by both a series of bad luck and injury. It seems so long ago that Hopkins finished fourth overall in the 2007 MotoGP Championship with Suzuki.

US Motorcycle Thefts Down 6% in 2011

Americans reported 46,667 motorcycle thefts in 2011, a 6% decrease from 49,791 stolen motorcycles in 2010, reports the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Despite the drop in reported thefts, the non-profit organization representing nearly 1100 property and casualty insurance companies says the theft rate still averages out to one motorcycle stolen every 11 minutes in the U.S. The numbers were published in the NICB’s 2011 ForeCAST Report which examined theft reports as well as recoveries.

WSBK: 2012 Magny-Cours Results – Championship Decided by Half a Point

You would think carrying a 30.5 point lead into the final round of the 2012 World Superbike Championship would be a safe enough margin to win the title. Aprilia‘s Max Biaggi made it interesting, inexplicably crashing out of the first race at the finale in Magny-C0urs before scoring a fifth place finish in Race Two to give him a 0.5 point margin over Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes to win the title. The 358 to 357.5 point difference is the narrowest finish ever in WSBK.

2013 European Junior Cup to Use All-New Honda Sportbike

Honda announced it is replacing KTM as the spec-bike supplier for the 2013 European Junior Cup. The youth racing series will use an all-new Honda sportbike to be revealed at the 2012 EICMA show in November, expected to be the CBR500 captured in spy photos. The European Junior Cup is for young racers ages 14-19 and runs at select rounds of the World Superbike Championship.

Like Father Like Son

According to Honda's Australian YouTube channel the child riding the Honda CRF50F in this ad is following in his dad's footsteps, as he also rode a Funbike as a child. In the very same back yard that was used for the shoot. After seeing the film crew in action, the child's grandmother announced she had old Super8 footage from 30 years ago which was subsequently used for the opening scene.

Intermot 2012: Honda CB1100 Enters European Market

As we expected, Honda announced it will bring its retro-styled CB1100 to Europe at the 2012 Intermot show in Cologne, Germany. Previously only available in Japan and Australia, the CB1100 will be available in Europe for 2013, though there is still no sign it will ever be offered in North America. Though it sounds close in name to Honda‘s CB1000R, the two naked standards reflect two differing philosophies.

Intermot 2012: Honda CRF450 Rally Unveiled

Today at Intermot 2012, Honda unveiled the CRF450 Rally, the machine it plans to enter in the 2013 Dakar Rally, marking the manufacturer’s return to the race after more than two decades. Honda has competed nine times from 1981 in the forerunner of the present Dakar Rally, the Paris-Dakar Rally. Cyril Neveu of France took Honda to its first victory in 1982, the race’s fourth year, and from 1986 to 1989 Honda won four consecutive titles for an overall record of five victories in nine years. The CRF450 Rally is based on Honda’s commercial CRF450X enduro racing model, and features electronic fuel injection, auxiliary fuel tanks in the panniers and lower side fairings, and the requisite navigation equipment located behind the windscreen.

Joey Dunlop on a V4 Honda at the '83 TT

Onboard video footage doesn't get a lot better than this: Joey Dunlop during practice at the TT in 1983 onboard a factory Honda RS850R. An 859cc ultra-short stroke V4 Honda that Joey mastered around The Island, later winning the TT Formula 1. Although the 'production' race, the RS850R stretched that to the limit.

Honda NC700X Recall Expands to US

As we expected, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced a recall on the 2012 Honda NC700X. The recall announcement comes a week after the NC700X and the NC700S were recalled in Canada. As with the Transport Canada recall, the problem is a lack of proper heat treatment on the Honda NC700X’s  drive chain.

Magneti Marelli to Supply Electronics System to MotoGP Teams

It’s no secret that promoter Dorna Motorsports has been trying to push a standardized electronics control unit for teams in the MotoGP World Championship. The lack of a top-tier electronics package has been one of the biggest challenges faced by MotoGP’s claiming rule teams, and a spec ECU would narrow the gap between the CRT bikes and the factory prototypes. The manufacturers competing in the series, Honda, Ducati and Yamaha, understandably are resistant to the idea considering the effort they’ve put in to develop their electronics systems.