Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200: The Wild One

The Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200 looks like huge amounts of fun, in this official promo video

With its 1.2-litre 90-degree liquid-cooled DOHC 8-valve V-twin, which pumps out 130 horsepower and 115Nm of torque, the Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200 is a wild Bronco, bucking and weaving and sliding with every twist of its throttle. The RSV4 Factory APRC SE is our no.1 favourite Aprilia, but the Dorsoduro 1200 definitely sits at no.2 – going by the video above, the bike certainly looks like it’s HUGE amounts of fun to ride… :-D

Apart from being a blast to ride, the Dorsoduro 1200 is also properly high-tech. It’s fitted with an integrated engine management system that includes ride-by-wire throttle management and three-mode (Sport, Touring and Rain) fuel-injection mapping. The 43mm Sachs USD fork at the front and hydraulic monoshock at the rear are fully adjustable, brakes are from Brembo and feature four-piston radial-mount callipers at the front, and there’s ABS and even traction control to make sure everything’s kept under control.

We’ve often said we don’t really ‘get’ supermotos, but the Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200 looks simply fabulous. The bike is expected to cost about US$12,000 ($2,000 more than the 750 version) when it goes on sale in the next 3 - 4 months, and we think it's well worth the money. In fact, we’d love to have one of these in our garage…

Renard GT: Estonian motorcycle brand rides again!

The Renard GT is fitted with an old Moto Guzzi engine that isn't particularly powerful or high-tech, but the bike's Kevlar-reinforced carbonfibre monocoque chassis makes up for that...

Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, situated in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, is probably the last country you’d associate with a high performance motorcycle. And yet, that’s exactly what we might see in the next few months.

Entrepreneur J. Laan set up a motorcycle manufacturing company – Renard – in the late-1930s in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The factory was destroyed in 1944, during the World War II, but a group of Estonian entrepreneurs, designers and engineers teamed up in 2008 to revive the Renard brand. And their first new motorcycle – the Renard GT – is expected to go into production by the end of this year.

Unveiled at the Hanover Technology Fair in April last year, the Renard Grand Tourer is fitted with a longitudinally-mounted 1151cc V-twin engine that’s been sourced from Moto Guzzi. The 8-valve fuel-injected engine produces 125 horsepower at 8,000rpm and 120Nm of torque at 6,000 revs – enough to propel the bike (which weighs 190 kilos dry) to a top speed of about 230km/h.

The Renard GT is, according to the company, a ‘sporty power cruiser,’ with best-in-class handling and build quality. And while the bike’s engine is a bit ordinary, its Kevlar-reinforced carbonfibre monocoque chassis is anything but. According to Renard, this chassis is resistant to impact and vibration, is very light and stiff and works perfectly with the bike’s fully adjustable suspension to provide quick and precise steering. This load-bearing chassis is also an integral part of the GT’s unique styling – we think the bike looks totally cool.

The Renard GT could go into production by the end of this year and if you always wanted a funky looking made-in-Estonia sports-tourer, this might be the answer to your dreams. For more details, visit the Renard website here

Royal Enfield: Handcrafted in Chennai

Royal Enfield Bullet. Built like a gun, goes like a bullet. And, yes, a factory in Chennai, in India, has kept this British motorcycle brand going for more than six decades...

From Redditch, Worcestershire, in the UK, to Chennai, in India, has been a long journey for Royal Enfield. And a very remarkable one. The company started making motorcycles in the UK at sometime in the late-1890s, did well for a few decades and then went into decline by the late-1960s. By 1971, it was all over for Royal Enfield in the UK.

However, Royal Enfield motorcycles have also been sold in India since 1949. ‘Enfield of India’ had started assembling Bullet motorcycles in India in 1956 (with most components being imported from the UK) and was manufacturing complete bikes by 1962. In the year 1995, Enfield of India also bought the right to the ‘Royal Enfield’ name, and the company is still building various versions of the Bullet 350 and the Bullet 500. In fact, Royal Enfield is now officially the oldest motorcycle brand in the world that’s still in production, and the Royal Enfield Bullet has the distinction of having the longest motorcycle production run of all time!

The Bullet has become something of a cult classic with fans of classic British motorcycles and the machine, which has been built in Chennai, in India, for more than the last six decades, is now exported to more than twenty countries worldwide. If Britain has adopted the chicken tikka masala as its national bird, India has returned the favour by adopting the Royal Enfield Bullet as its national motorcycle. That a part of the former British motorcycle industry lives on in a city in Southern India is a bit surprising, but for Royal Enfield, it’s a happy ending after all.

Some facts and figures quoted here are from Wikipedia

Ducati announce Rossi, Hayden replica Monsters

Hmmm... we think the Hayden-replica Monster looks best!

Ducati recently unveiled two new ‘Monster Art’ paintjobs, which are dedicated to Ducati’s MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. First introduced back in 2009, the Monster Art project offered an additional range of colours to the standard factory options with a collection called ‘Colour Therapy,’ and the ‘Logomania’ collection that was introduced in 2010 celebrated 50 years of historic Ducati logo styles.

With easy-to-make changes to the bikes’ tank panels, bikini fairing, single-seat cover and front mudguard, Monster Art kits are a quick way to personalise the Ducati Monster. According to Ducati, the latest kits that you see here have been inspired by the Desmosedici GP11 livery. Both colour schemes are available as accessories for the Monster 696, 796, 1100, 1100S and 1100EVO. At about £550 / US$885, we suppose this isn’t a bad way to add a bit of extra visual oomph to your Monster…

Kelly Brook gets on a bike for FHM

We'll take almost any excuse to put British hottie Kelly Brook's pics on Faster and Faster. And the pics above, where she's gotten on to a Harley-Davidson for the April 2011 issue of FHM magazine, are a particularly convenient excuse...   :-)



Via Celebutopia