Yamaha FZ Motorcycles in North Mankato, page #22

Moto blog

NZ Superbike Series Points Leader Is A Grandfather Of Three!

Dennis Charlett is stamping his authority on the New Zealand Superbike championship. The 45 year-old father of five and grandfather of three (no, those aren’t typos) won the first three races of the season during the series opener in Christchurch, placing him firmly at the top of the points standings heading into round two at Levels Raceway, near Timaru. The championship favorite certainly got the wake-up call as Taupo’s Suzuki rider Scott Moir raced to a convincing win in Saturday’s Superbike race, while Charlett was forced to settle for fourth place.

Day 9 Dakar 2014: Coma Wins, Increases Overall Lead

The ninth stage took the field to the northernmost point of this year’s Dakar. The riders descended from yesterday’s plateau through the Atacama desert towards the Pacific Ocean. Sand and dunes challenged the athletes especially in the final third of the stage, demanding excellent navigation skills.

Josh Hayes To Wear RS Taichi In 2014

Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha rider Josh Hayes will be sporting a new look this upcoming racing season. The three-time AMA Pro Racing SuperBike Champion will be protected by RS Taichi racing leathers and gloves while aboard his Yamaha YZF-R1 SuperBike. After a long-standing relationship with Teknic, his previous protective gear provider who ceased operation last year, Josh had an opportunity to go in a new direction.

Day 7 Dakar 2014: Barreda Wins Another

After a day of rest, Sunday’s stage seven was characterized by rain during the night and a new Dakar country – Bolivia. After an early start at 4:30 in the morning, the first 62 miles of the special stage into Bolivia had to be shortened due to rain and poor visibility, low-hanging clouds that prevented the helicopters from taking off creating security issues. The route led across the Andes and towards the Bolivian border.

2014 AMA Supercross – Phoenix Results

Kawasaki‘s Ryan Villopoto nabbed a hard-earned first victory of the 2014 AMA Supercross season, overcoming a poor start that saw him ninth after the first lap for the win. The three-time reigning champion found himself well back after the first corner as Yoshimura Suzuki‘s Jake Moss took the holeshot ahead of Yamaha‘s Justin Brayton and the KTM‘s Ryan Dungey. Brayton took over the lead by the second corner and would stay in front for the first 13 laps.

Day 6 Dakar 2014: Duclos Wins Stage, Palante Found Dead

Sherco rider Alain Duclos took today’s stage, eight years after his first win in Bamako. With three top five finishes this year Duclos has proven his own increased competitiveness as well as that of the Sherco 450 Rally bike he’s aboard. In more tragic news, the body of Belgian rider, Eric Palante was found Friday morning on a part of the fifth stage route that riders completed on Thursday.

2014 Yamaha Super Ténéré ES Announced

Yamaha has tweaked its adventure-touring entry to keep pace with new and improved entries from its competition. The 2014 Super Tens receive a modest boost in power, new LCD instrumentation, the latest D-MODE switchable mapping “for refined town and sport settings,” LED turnsignals, a tapered aluminum handlebar and standard cruise control. The Super Ténéré ES is a new range-topping version.

Day 5 Dakar 2014: Coma Wins Stage, Moves Into Overall Lead

Red Bull KTM factory rider and three-time Dakar winner Marc Coma won stage five today followed by his teammate Jordi Viladoms and KTM supported rider Kuba Przygonski allowing KTM to scoop the top three places. Today´s stage five from Chilecito to Tucuman was characterized by hot temperatures, lots of sand and navigation in dry vegetation. Organizers decided to cancel the second part of the special for safety reasons and also because heavy thunderstorms threatened the area.

Day 4 Dakar 2014: Juan Pedrero Wins Stage Aboard Sherco

Stage 4 of the 2014 Dakar saw Juan Pedrero take his maiden victory aboard a Sherco SR 450 Rally. Although not in contention for the overall, Pedrero showed he has outgrown his previous role as Marc Coma’s lieutenant at KTM by bringing his Sherco across the finish line 3:10 faster than third place Coma and 29 seconds faster than second place finisher Francisco Lopez. Coma’s performance in today’s stage moved him to only 3:10 behind overall leader Joan Barreda.

Kevin Ash, one year on

I’ve lost dozens of friends in bike racing over the years, and while each death was a shock and incredibly sad, I’ve always had some kind of internal coping mechanism that allowed me to carry on relatively unaffected.  Maybe it’s because I was always extremely passionate and committed when taking part in my dangerous sport so was also prepared to pay the ultimate price should things go wrong.  Rightly or wrongly I’ve taken comfort from the fact that these unfortunate racers have checked out while doing something they love.   I’ve also lost a few journalist friends in bike accidents over the years but for some reason these have hit me harder.  The worst and possibly as it is the most recent is Kevin Ash who was killed last January while on a BMW launch in South Africa.  Starting in 2001, over a period of ten years, I was in Kevin’s company on countless new bike launches in pretty much every corner of the world.  At times he was cocky and occasionally irritating but always entertaining with a wicked sense of humour.  He was many things but no one can deny he was a brilliant journalist and his technical knowledge was second to none.  I always appreciated his complete enthusiasm to all things biking as he would ride through any weather on a daily basis to jobs or airports and seemed to always be tinkering with winter projects (mainly Ducatis) at home.  I also admired how much work he got through as he had columns in more than one weekly publication plus all his launch and web work. He was a competent safe rider who was certainly quick enough to evaluate any new bike thrown his way.  Kevin also drove a Porsche but then none of us are perfect!   I looked to Kevin as a wise Owl so not long after I started working with TWO/ Visordown, I asked him on an R1 launch in Australia he thought the motorcycle industry was currently in a good place.  His reply was, ‘we’ve just been flown here business class, been taken by speed boat to our five star hotel under Sydney Harbour Bridge, Yamaha have wined and dined us and furnished us with expensive gifts each day, what do you think Niall?  How times have changed.  On the subject on air travel he once told me, ‘when travelling business or first class it’s not about the pampering, comfy beds or fine dining, the important part is looking smug as you walk straight past all the people lining up at the cattle class check in! On more than one occasion I had food or drink spurt out when Kevin would deliver unexpected one line funnies at the dinner table.