KTM RC390

What’s the performance difference between this machine and the already existent duke?
How’s that the duke did not already finish the Ninja 300 reign if no more performance (which was already good to the duke if I’m not wrong) and probably the price of the racier version it’s higher.. And yes, this one has beak… and asymmetrical lights… (they are not the same, seems like one is for closer and one for farther lightning..) On other news, you keep pushing refresh on this page all day right? (just like me) Looks like the Kawasaki Ninja 300 is going to have a very short reign!

Ducati 899 Panigale

Despite not appearing that much smaller on paper, the 899 Panigale is considerably smaller when seated in the saddle compared to the outgoing 848. The reach to the handlebars isn’t nearly a stretch and the rider triangle is more neutral akin to that of a modern Japanese sportbike. It’s still plenty narrow due to its L-Twin engine configuration and doesn’t feel any heavier than the superbike version in spite of its modest weight increase.Having never ridden on rain tires or at Imola for that matter, we set off on the 899 in Wet mode. This electronically limits engine power and also modifies throttle response making it less sensitive when twisted. By default it also selects a wheel spin restrictive traction control setting, and more invasive anti-lock braking program. However each setting can be tuned via a switch on the left handlebar, but the motorcycle must be stopped to do so. Curiously, the menu system isn’t nearly as slick as the 1199’s and require some time and button fumbling to understand its controls. We’ve never been big fans of Ducati’s traction control, on dry tracks anyways, but in the rain its functionality was impeccable. It allowed for immediate bike control in foreign conditions without having to worry if the rear end was going to come around during acceleration. Of course, a very large sum of credit goes to Pirelli’s fantastic wet weather tires with their deep and abundant tread grooves, but the traction control setting in wet mode (DTC 7) gave us just the confidence to fully lean on it, pinning the throttle off corners.The 899 shares the forward portion of the Panigale’s monocoque-style aluminum frame in which the front and rear suspension are linked via the engine cases, though the 899’s steering head angle is 0.5-degree sharper (24 degrees) with 4mm less trail. At the rear it employs a conventional-looking double-sided swingarm fabricated from aluminum opposed to a single-sided piece. This was done to save cost and to distinguish it from the premium Ducati superbike. Wheelbase is listed at 56.14 in. (0.16 in. shorter than the 848 EVO). Other differences include the use of a steel subframe and the presence of Showa’s latest big piston fork design, contrary to the Marzocchi or Ohlins units used on the 1199 standard and S model. The wheels and tires are also different with 899 using less costly aluminum wheels shod with Pirelli’s Diablo Rosso Corsa sport rubber in sizes 120/70-17 front and 180/60-17 at the rear.
Like the standard 1199 the 899’s gas-charged shock is sourced from Sachs, but operates within a non-adjustable and street-riding friendly progressive-rate link. The fuel tank still gives 4.5-gallons of capacity but is made from steel instead of the 1199’s plastic fuel cell and the front braking calipers are Brembo’s lower-spec M4 calipers. It is important to note however that the M4’s are still machined from a solid piece of aluminum making them of higher quality than the two-piece calipers that the original generation 848 used. Lastly the 899 gets a slightly thicker rider seat and a more basic-looking, one-color instrument display. Although the 899 is approximately 10 pounds less than the machine it replaces it’s also around 11 pounds more than the standard 1199 at a claimed 426 pounds with fuel, ready to ride.

Suzuki Hayabusa

The FZ09 is ugly, the Busa I'd call borderline queer, style-wise...but it's something of the Ferrari of motorcycles in the sense that you see one and you know it's fast. It undoubtedly gets respect among the sportbike crowd, at least and it's not a bad touring bike either. Hard to put an exact simile here, most Ferraris are not as bad-looking for a car as the Busa is for a bike but in no way would I call it a Lotus or Jaguar of motorcyling. But I can think of no car equivalent of borderline-ugly styling, slow handling and outright speed...the ZX-14 is similar, but with better handling and not quite so outrageous styling. And a scraped-up sportbike is kind of par for the course, but a scraped-up Busa is just sad. Sign of a rider clearly in over their head, on a bike that doesn't deserve to be abused & neglected like that." just install different handle bars, footrest and a seat to make the bike more comfortable and controllable, then see how much enjoyment you can get from riding rather than complaining" absolutely it would be a better all-around bike (that can still do 175+ and 10sec quarters) but it's never going to handle like a literbike or even a 14R. That's the yin and yang of it. It's like comparing a Barracuda with modern disc brakes to your average Japanese coupe with a 200hp turbo 4-cylinder engine. The Busa can accelerate and stop with the best of them, you can manhandle it through the turns like a big cat but it just will not, cannot turn with the lighter, smaller bikes. Of course often you don't need it to, but still you'd better keep that in mind before you need it to do that just to stay on the road. Cause it ain't gonna happen.178 hp is pretty passe these days" yeah I've heard this complaint now and then. The kind of logic that has a team kicking a field goal from the 2 yard line when down by 5 with 2 minutes left in the game. Yep, 170hp from the stock engine with 80ft-lb of torque available over 90% of the RPM band, that's "passe" all right. It'll "passe" right by you on your CBR as it struggles to get up to 12k. Oh wait: your bike weighs 100lbs less. So what? It's still slower. Yet you are right in one sense that a bike that can do 10sec quarters is not a whole lot faster than an 11 or 12sec bike w hen it comes down to it, same with 150mph or even 130mph at the top end. And you're right there are a LOT of bikes like that. Heck you might as well just buy a Ninja 300. PS you can change the bars & pegs along with the gearing, the ECU, the exhaust, etc. Its seem like every sport bike has the same complaint (people feel too bunched up on them) now, you are offer a sport touring bike that provides the the ability to stretch out and people complains about it? Why not, instead of installing power adder, just install different handle bars, footrest and a seat to make the bike more comfortable and controllable, then see how much enjoyment you can get from riding rather than complaining. AT 6' 2" 230 it fits me great and I use it for sport touring.The new brakes and ABS are nice but the bike just needs higher bars to really find its own niche going forward. It's just too slow-handling to really be considered a "sportbike", and the bars are way too far forward and low for it to really be a "sport-tourer". Suzuki just needs to bite the bullet, copy the pullback bars on the 14R and market the Busa as a Super-VFR750. What the FJ1200 should be. The current bars just don't make sense unless you seriously intend to buy that bike and ride it 100mph+ on the street. But I like the mirrors. Like 'em more if they weren't so wide end to end. The stability is nice on most roads and the engine delivers nice, smooth linear power in abundance without the big midrange kick of the 14R which is a bit too much. Overall a nice bike with a bit too much emphasis on going 185mph on straight roads. I can't imagine riding that bike over 80mph on the average two-lane as the handling is just so slow, and the bars sheesh I might be able to ride it for an hour once or twice a day even then I'd have to lay on the tank half the time.

Harley-Davidson Touring

I haven't ridden a Rushmore edition so I can't comment on how much better the sound system is on it. However I have ridden Street Glides and Road Glides and prefer the Sena Bluetooth setup in my helmet coupled with the my iphone over a motorcycle equipped sound system. The Sena speakers are right next to your ears and you have a mic. With the Mapquest app on my iphone. I can plan a route on my computer and send it to my iphone. The Sena allows me to listen to music with excellent sound, use my GPS, make and receive phone calls and have a conversation with my passenger. It is incredible and to me makes the motorcycle equipped sound systems obsolete. (unless your objective is to make sure all around you are listening to your music as well). But then again, its like the worlds most interesting man's remark "I don't always listen to Lynard Skynard, but when I do, so do my neighbors"Just bought one of these. In fact the red color you see above. I owned a 2010 Limited and traded it in for this one. I ride about 30,000 miles a year and I can tell you, the difference in the two bikes is monumental. First and foremost is the heat. Here in Southern Cal, we ofter have 95/100 degree summer days... The heat off of my 2010 at times was unbearable...After riding the 2014 Limited in this heat, the difference of the heat hitting the rider is major...Yes, it is warm but not boiling...Big difference. The other thing is the brakes. Much better and the Bat Wing is markedly improved...The new sealed bearings in the steering neck are a big improvement also...No more mess from the grease gun..The one touch opening of the bags is really nice...The computer, which is about 100 times faster than previous models allows you to put slip on pipes without remapping. The computer makes all the adjustments for you...Truly amazing.. And the cam really makes a big difference in low end torque..I could go on about the entertainment center on the dash but I really didn't care about that...Technically this is a much improved motorcycle and certainly the most comfortable I have ever ridden...It is always beautifully styled and of course Harley's paint is impeccable. Durability is what I want to see. My 2010 gave me an array of problems, from tranny main bearing, to leaks everywhere, to swing arm bushings. The biggest problem on the 2010 was the throttle sensor..This has been corrected on the 2014 with a better housing to keep the heat from messing up the wires.. The Bat Wing is modular so it comes off in one piece instead of having to take it apart before getting to the handlebars.. Also, the LED lighting front and rear is bright and very visible. All in all, this bike is a major improvement over the previous Limited. In fact, its not even close. Welcome to the 21st Century Harley. I have ridden these bikes since the 80's...They have come a long way since then...I will keep you informed of how reliable this bike is along the way...The new system is very much like what you're using with your phone and Sena headset, except its all integral to the bike now. Next to the infotainment system is a compartment that has USB access already wired. It's got a foam base and a slot to hold your phone/ipod from rattling around. The headset that comes with the Ultras can be used for the same voice commands and music/advisory listening you are doing now. Haven't played with the nav much but you will be able to plan routes. It's a very comprehensive system.

MV Agusta F4 and F4RR

Hey xFactory, I did not record my lap times nor did the MV guys when I asked them. But next time I will bring along a lap timer just for good measure because I am curious now too. My good pal and ripper Jeremy Toye was doing 1'25-26s on that motorcycle which is pretty good for a bone stock street bike. I assume I was probably four or five seconds off of him. I wasn't really pushing that hard for an entire lap. Instead I was just giving er' some heat it in certain segments of the track to see how the bike reacted. I will try and record and post lap times next time. Thanks for your input. Adam 25 to 26's to be honest is a bit disappointing to me. I'm sure the bike makes more than 109hp at the wheel. I was at Willow 2 years ago watching 2 kids (16years old) run their R6's there for the very first time on the bike track and both ran mid 1:24's. I was hoping that 1000 especially with Toye on it run quicker that a near stock R6. Maybe next time out it'll be different. I think posting times going forward would be good for us hard core ol farts. Cheers Xfactory.he message here is that there are so MANY variables that it's pointless to talk about the laptimes. I wonder if the new electronics hardware can be installed on the old bikes? What, nothing whatsoever to make all this new gear backwards-compatible with the older $26K bikes? I read this and I say the same thing that I said about the S1000RR. This is not a good thing. This just gives the rider more settings to play with and more settings to be disappointed with and complain about instead of simply riding the bike. Rather than having 50000 settings in the electronics it needs maybe two settings, at most, that are user-tunable. I'm not even sure it makes sense to have 22 different settings for damping adjustments. You spend more time tweaking the bike than riding it, then conditions change and all your adjustments need to be tweaked again....the thing that has always intrigued me about motorcycles, combined with the concept of track-testing...how easy it is to destroy a motorcycle just by running off-road combined with the price of a bike...that requires a new term other than "astronomically nonsensical". Running a car off-track can easily result in its destruction as well. But bikes...ah...it's like letting a bull loose in a china shop. So let's talk about lap-times...what else is the Internet good for? LOL "His test was brought to a premature end when he suffered a relatively minor crash. Reports say that the bike was damaged too badly to be repaired at the track. That phrase is usually something of a euphemism: in this case, it means the bike caught fire and burned itself to a crisp."

1290 SuperDuke R

This offering to the Motorcycling Gods by KTM is indeed a thing of bone, muscle and menace. The feeling I used to get before a speedway race – excitement / want to / serious sh!t’s about to happen, this bike would do it to me every time I walked to it.There is no antidote for a severe dose of LUST – wants one – real bad.KTM is going for the masculine, rough, unfinished looked (like the 5 o’clock shadow on a macho man) blended in with hints of futurism along with industrial and aerodynamic cues. An interesting mix, but in this an Italian would not have helped. Italians are not known for the overly masculine, rough, unfinished, industrial look. The more mechanical Germans are to an extent though.Nope, Italians, along with the French, are known more for the speedo look – not the look KTM was shooting for. I think the KTM looks meaner than anything out of Italy. Perhaps not prettier, but meaner. This bike was made to put foot to arse, and I think the designers nailed the style. It works for me.Oh, and one other thing. For the love of all that is good and holy, two things must now happen:1. Norm G. and mickey both have to buy one of these Teutonic space shuttles (mickey’s being the traditional KTM orange model shown above, while Norm G. gets that wild red, white and blue “Captain America” version we saw a couple of months ago), along with a pair of Go-Pro units.
2. After attaching the Go-Pros to their faux mohawk-bedecked Rossi “Mugello” Replica AGV lids, they must then film their very own version of the Big Sur TT…and none of this mamby-pamby time-trials wussification stuff, either. Nope, Our Heroes will set out together from the parking lot of Hearst Castle, banging bars all the way up Hwy 1 to Bixby Bridge. The winner won’t receive anything as crass as money, oh no. Nope, instead, he will receive spiritual enlightenment, for starters, plus his pick of his favorite Monster umbrella girl for a weekend bacchanal in the otter tank at the Monterey Aquarium.
This may be the first full-zoot, no apologies, no “tuned for midrange” (meaning: detuned) naked superbike to come down the pike. The Tuono comes close. The B-King wasn’t really a sportbike. Buell? Ummm…no. The naked version of BMW’s S1000RR hasn’t arrived yet, and we don’t know whether it too will receive the usual neutering during its transformation from Godzilla to Rodan.
I always expected hp-monger Kawasaki to be the first major manufacturer to do it, and if not Team Green then perhaps the Boys from Bologna, but nope, it looks like KTM beat everyone to the punch.
Kudos to those psychotic Austrians and their massive “melons” for stepping up and producing this bike. – Tom Sykes
Looking at that enormous text-based information cluster, though, one question does spring to mind…
I’m all in. Many of us looked in the mirror this morning after years of sun and wind pulverizing our faces as we rode into the sunset and asked ourselves the same thing! It actually looks a bit like a hawk racing down to sink its talons into its prey! Arrrgh! This would draw a crowd even in the Harley parking lot! This thing is so hot, you’d stop at a light, raise your visor and the beautiful lady in the car next to you would give you the “Meow!” Look. To which you, with that idle rumbling would reply, “Oh Behave!”