Conquer miles with the finest of Hinckley’s fun tourers
Source: MotorCyclistOnline.com
“The dream finally comes true. With this evening we give the official start to the season that will see us protagonists alongside MV Agusta. After years of work we are witnessing this evening the realization of a dream, mine and all those who believed in it from the beginning. This year we will have the opportunity to work with Italian excellence and with great professionals. We are enthusiastic about the news announced, especially for the new Title Sponsor, Idea Lavoro, in the person of Dr. Scavone, who deserves our biggest thanks. We are aware of the responsibilities that await us, but at the same time proud and confident in the season to come. Thanks to all those who have made it possible.
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Most motorists hate covert speed detection by police, yet they seem to be finding more and more sneaky ways to cover themselves while operation radar units and speed cameras.
Gold Coast rider Gary Lynn confronted the cop photographed in the bushes above on the Nerang-Murwillumbah Rd last Sunday.
“Don’t they realise their presence on the roads will do more than hiding in bushes?” he asks.
“It’s blatant revenue-raising at its finest.”
Both sentiments are shared by many motorcyclists and drivers in multiple opinion polls.
Even the Queensland Police Union says unmarked and covert speed cameras should be banned as they do nothing more than raise government revenue.
We ask: “How would the officer in the bushes feel if he clocked a speeding rider on his hand-held TruCAM laser digital camera and the rider crashed and died further down he road?”
And how would the rider’s widow feel when she received the offence notice in the post a few days later knowing a police officer could have pulled over her speeding husband and saved his life?
Gary posted his photographs on his GC Hinterland and Northern NSW Road Conditions (motorcyclists) Facebook page to make others aware of covert police activity in the region.
It was followed by another post showing what a rider thought was a car parked in a private property with the boot up and a speed camera located inside. It could not be verified as a covert police camera.
Well, yes and no. It depends on the state and how the speed detection equipment is deployed.
We asked police in every state for their policies on covert speed detection and most replied.
Victoria Police say mobile speed cameras are “not deployed in a concealed way”, but didn’t answer questions about handheld devices and cops hiding in bushes.
South Australia Police say they make “no apologies about using covert, camouflaged cameras to detect dangerous road behaviour”.
WA Police basically told us it was none of our business: “We use various tools to assist in our traffic enforcement capabilities. We will not be providing details of specific tools or methodologies.”
NSW Police say they “use a range of enforcement strategies to assist in reducing road trauma”. But, like the WA cops, they say it’s none of our business.
“For operational reasons it would be inappropriate to discuss the guidelines surrounding these strategies. If riders and drivers observe the speed limits then they have nothing to be concerned about,” they say.
Queensland Police are a little vague, telling us the Queensland Camera Detected Offence Program “utilises an evidence based mixture of covert and marked camera operations”.
Yet the Queensland police website clearly states: “It is not the policy of the Queensland Police Service to deliberately conceal speed cameras.”
It’s not just motorists who don’t like covert speed detection devices.
Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers says these “sneaky” devices do not reduce the road toll nor stop motorists from speeding.
“Getting a ticket in the mail up to a month after speeding when you can barely remember even where you were back then, has no effect and is quite rightly cynically viewed as revenue raising,” he said.
RACQ technical and safety policy spokesman Steve Spalding says they also prefer a visible police presence.
“Our members have repeatedly told us that over the years, they much prefer to see a police officer use a marked vehicle, not just for speeding, but for all of the other problem behaviours that we see on the road,” he says.
However, motorists, police unions and motoring groups are fighting a losing battle against covert speed detection.
Politicians and police typically cite a Monash University academic and an Auditor General’s report that back covert speed cameras as more effective at reducing general speeding than high-visibility cameras.
Monash University Accident Research Centre professor Max Cameron says high-visibility speed cameras are only good for reducing speed at a black spot.
Mobile speed cameras were originally introduced to reduce speed at black spots. NSW still has very prominently signed fixed and mobile speed cameras, Western Australia is now trialling more visible speed cameras and England is going all-out to make the cameras much more visible.
However, Queensland has removed the signs warning of mobile speed cameras and a report by Queensland’s auditor-general found they are not always deployed at the right time, in the right location, or in the “right mode” (not covert enough).
The report says only 16.3% of mobile deployment hours is covert because police want to avoid perceptions of revenue-raising.
It recommends that a high percentage of covert deployment would prompt a general deterrence to speeding.
Professor Cameron agrees: ”… if you’re trying to affect speeding all the time then the best idea is to make sure the cameras aren’t predictable or apparent and to operate them covertly,” the professor says. “The idea of being conspicuous is really in the wrong direction.”
Source: MotorbikeWriter.com
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing contender earns third main event victory.
Image: Supplied.
Cooper Webb says he has to pinch himself over the improvements he’s made this season, advancing as a title contender in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship following two lacklustre years in the premier class.
Webb stormed his third victory of the year on Saturday night at Minneapolis, making him the most winningest rider in the first six rounds of the series.
The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider has labelled the feat as ‘spectacular’, although he’s acknowledged he still has more to learn in his pursuit for a maiden 450SX crown.
“To get three wins this year is pretty spectacular,” Webb expressed. “Especially bouncing back from last week – having that bad race in the mud – but I never lost belief, never lost faith and knew I was still good. I felt good all day today and to be able to apply it in the heat race, win that, and then win the main was pretty special.
“It’s cool, I have to pinch myself because I’ve come such a long way in a short amount of time. It’s crazy what a year or half a year will do to you. The last two years this place ended my season, so it’s pretty cool to bounce back from that and never give up, never doubt myself, make a change and stick to it.
“I want to keep doing well and doing what I’m doing. I definitely feel like I have a lot to improve on and a lot to learn but we’ll see if we can keep going.”
Webb sits second in the championship standings, one point behind Ken Roczen (Team Honda HRC) while being just one marker ahead of Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Kawasaki) and Marvin Musquin (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing).
Source: MotoOnline.com.au
Former champion seventh at the sixth round of supercross.
Image: Supplied.
Two-time champion Chad Reed has labelled his performance at Minneapolis’ sixth round of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship as his best of the season.
The JGRMX Yoshmiura Suzuki Factory Racing rider put in a spirited ride that saw him wind up seventh in the classification, and despite not being his best finish on paper, the Australian fan-favourite is content with what he delivered out on track.
“We made some great progress with the fork settings this past week,” Reed explained. “That carried over into the weekend, and helped contribute to my best qualifying result of the year. My speed and fitness are good, but I am frustrated with my starts.
“I’m not giving myself a fighting chance with track position being so important. It was a hard-fought seventh place. Honestly, it was my best ride of the season. I’ll continue to work on my starts and fork settings so that I get to that next level out of myself.”
Reed sits eighth in the championship standings as the series heads to Arlington in Texas this weekend. The 450SX points lead is currently controlled by Ken Roczen (Team Honda HRC), while the top four riders are separated by two points.
Source: MotoOnline.com.au
News 12 Feb 2019
Slovenian runner-up in Italian motocross championship.
Image: Supplied.
Former premier class world champion Tim Gajser believes he’s made step by step improvements throughout the 2019 Internazionali D’Italia, assisting in his pre-season progress as he plots his attack on the MXGP World Championship.
The Honda HRC talent rose through the standings in the three-round Italian championship that attracted fellow world champions Antonio Cairoli (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and Romain Febvre (Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing), securing runner-up honours in the Superfinal classification after earning a fourth place result at Mantova last weekend.
“Overall I’m quite happy with how these first few races of the year turned out,” said Gajser. “Riola was okay, Ottobiano was better and then Mantova was even better than that, so it was good to see step by step improvements each race.
“I was feeling better each time I rode my Honda CRF450RW and that is important and it makes me look forward even more to Argentina, to start finally start the season. I am ready to give my best!”
Cairoli captured his 11th premier class Italan motocross title at the weekend after dominating the series. The opening round of the MXGP World Championship will take place on 3 March at Neuquen in Patagonia Argentina.
Source: MotoOnline.com.au
By Mark Bracks
There will be plenty written about Oli Bayliss this year as he debuts in the 600cc Supersport Championship. As reported in our extensive Supersport wrap, at the end of the recent ASBK two-day test young Bayliss was third fastest. A remarkable effort considering his tender years.
So how did those close to him reckon he went? We spoke to his famous father Troy, and also his new Crew Chief, mentor and as he says ‘new Dad’, the vastly experienced Glen Richards.
Richards has been around race tracks and paddocks for decades and brings a wealth of experience with him as a rider, mechanic, crew chief, rider advisor and mentor.
MCNews: How do you rate Oli’s first days on the bike.
Troy: Ollie has now had six days on the bikes and he’s been impressive, getting better and better, and he hasn’t scathed one yet. He’s absolutely loving it, so I’m sure he’s going to learn a lot come the first race. No one wants to show him anything on track, he’s done it all by himself.
“The only time he’s been with anyone was with me, at Morgan Park to do a few laps. But that’s it, you don’t believe what anyone here in this paddock tells you… You do not. Unless you’re talking to me, I’ll tell you the truth. You have to work it out for yourself, and he’s going to have to work a lot of things out when it comes to the first race. But he’s having a great time, we’re looking forward to seeing how the season goes.”
MCNews: And Glen can you explain your role with Oli and how it came to be?
Glen Richards: “I’m the new dad now, aren’t I, I’m Oli’s dad! I’m doing quite a few jobs really. I’m looking after Oli, as in a crew chief role, obviously in a small team it’s a hand on job, compared to where I was a crew chief in BSB in the last few years. I’ve got one extra set of hands in Jonno at the track, so there’s two of us. I enjoy that side, I like being hands on, I’m just trying to do the best job I can, in giving Oli as much experience from my point of view, which is obviously always going to be a little bit different to his dad’s.
“Ben [Henry] back at the workshop has done a fantastic job and got the engines working well, Troy has been flat out helping me build the bikes, we only started building the bikes less than a month ago. We’ve done quite a bit of testing now and Oli has done 37s first time – he did 37.4s and last time he was racing he was doing 49s on the a 300, so he’s having a massive steep learning curve. All credit to him, he’s chipped away at it, bit by bit, got faster and faster, as the testing has gone on, so I’m well impressed with his attitude and his ability to work through a little program of testing. At 15 years of age I think it’s amazing really.
“I helped Alex Lowes with many things, I did three years in WorldSBK and at that stage I had retired from racing, but was still riding the Suzuki as a test rider, and helping Alex at race meetings. After three years of that it was one of those things, he was sort of moving forward with his career, and I wanted to be a bit more hands on, on the bikes, so I became a crew chief in the BSB, where I was working purely on the motorbike with Jake Dixon. Again that was a little team and I really enjoyed that but now I’m back in Australia and I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I spoke to Troy about helping out with Ollie and so far what we’ve done the last month has been a massive job to build two bikes and test, you know in a month, but we’ve done it. Like I said there’s a very good base, with Cube Racing, and the help that Troy has around him, an easy thing to do, to set the 600 team up really.”
| Supersport Combined Practice Times |
| 2019 ASBK PI Test |
Source: MCNews.com.au
A court in Munich, Germany has ruled that Alpinestars has infringed upon a Dainese patent. Below is Alpinestars’ response. It should be kept in mind that the legal proceedings are still, in fact, on-going, and the final say on the matter have not arrived yet.
Further, the press release states the infringement is “concerning the general installation of an inflatable air bladder construction within a ‘pocket’ of a garment, featuring elastic panels…” This leads one to wonder whether other companies producing airbag systems – whether electronically operated or otherwise – could also be in violation of the German patent. This saga is far from over, and we’ll post more information as we get it.
Begin press release:
Statement regarding Patent Infringement Decision: Higher Regional Court of Munich
On February 7, 2019 the Higher Regional Court of Munich issued judgment upholding the claim that Alpinestars’ Tech-Air® vest infringes upon patent EP 2 412 257 B1 held by Dainese S.p.A.
Alpinestars wants to clarify that this action never involved the core of Alpinestars Tech-Air® technology; at no point, either past or present, has any action or patent infringement involved the electronic management, algorithm, or deployment mechanism, or any other part employed within Alpinestars entirely unique and advanced Tech-Air® technology.
Furthermore, this judgment is limited to the territory of Germany only. It has no bearing on any other territories within Europe or the wider world market where Tech-Air® is available throughout Alpinestars’ Dealer network.
Originally Dainese alleged infringements based on three patents in Germany, none of them refer to Tech-Air® technology: one complaint was withdrawn by Dainese on 22nd December 2016, relating to patent EP 2 373 188, after this patent was revoked by the European Patent Office. The remaining two patents have been contested in Germany. The second, EP 2 373 190, concerning only some specific features of the air bladder used in the Tech-Air® vest, was wholly annulled by the German Federal Patent Court on 15 May 2018. Dainese appealed this decision.
The third, EP 2 412 257 B1, concerning the general installation of an inflatable air bladder construction within a ‘pocket’ of a garment, featuring elastic panels, is the point on which the patent infringement claim was upheld last week. As soon as the Court serves the written judgment, Alpinestars will study the details prior to taking any decision on its next steps.
Alpinestars needs to point out that it has an appeal pending on the validity of this patent (EP 2 412 257 B1) within the German Federal Court of Justice.
As consistently stated throughout this legal process, Alpinestars fully respects and honors third parties’ intellectual property rights and expects the same with respect to its own IP rights. Alpinestars’ highly innovative Tech-Air® products are based upon years of its in house research and development conducted by its own team of leading research and development staff.
Since the very beginning of the Tech-Air® project, which commenced in 2001, the freedom to ride with the most advanced innovations of performance protection has been the objective relentlessly pursued by Alpinestars and the result is uniquely advanced and capable technology. Tech-Air® is the world’s first airbag providing full upper torso protection in a transferable vest which incorporates a completely independent electronic management system, with no reliance on any external devices (sensors or GPS), to give accident detection and full airbag inflation before the first impact, dual charge for the track and off-road capability as demonstrated in the 2019 Dakar Rally.
Alpinestars’ Tech-Air® products represent an enormously innovative contribution to increased rider safety in motorcycling.
The post Alpinestars Responds To Airbag Patent Infringement Ruling In Germany appeared first on Motorcycle.com News.
Repsol Honda talent still easing back into riding following shoulder surgery.
Image: Supplied.
Reigning world champion Marc Marquez says his physical condition has improved after suffering from soreness in his shoulder on day two of MotoGP testing in Malaysia last week.
The Spaniard completed 37 laps on day two to preserve himself for the final day, ultimately waking up with a positive feeling that allowed him to continue carrying out testing, lodging 39 laps to wind up 11th on the timesheets during day three.
Easing back into riding after shoulder surgery, the Repsol Honda rider is satisfied with his progress so far as one more official test looms on 23-25 February at Losail International Circuit in Qatar.
“Day three was very positive, especially with my physical condition – I’m feeling much better,” Marquez admitted. “Yesterday I was a little worried about riding today, but I woke up and felt better. We were able to try many things for Honda today and I felt really good on the bike, comfortable and consistent.
“Everything we had planned to do this test, we have done. Of course I would have liked to ride more but we had to take it a bit easy. Even so, I’m happy because I was riding easy, not in my riding style but I was able to ride more. I didn’t crash and we tried the most important things for the Repsol Honda Team, I am happy because of this.”
The test was dominated by Ducati riders as Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) topped Pramac Racing duo Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller.
Source: CycleOnline.com.au
To put some fears to rest, the Lightning Strike will have a more relaxed riding position than the LS-218. We know this because Lightning sent us the following image:
The accompanying text read as follows:
Since Lightning’s initial announcement for the upcoming launch of Strike, one of the top questions from customers has been in regards to rider position. In response to this, we wanted to clearly demonstrate Strike’s rider position relative to the ultra performance focused Lightning LS-218 Superbike. Strike is a motorcycle engineered for the track, but designed for the street.
So we still don’t know much else about the Strike in regards to its aesthetics or its performance, but at least we know the riding position will be more relaxed. This is surely a good thing for a street-biased motorcycle. We’ll post more information as we get it, and of course, the Strike’s official unveiling is set for March 2019, at which point we’ll provide all the details we can.
The post Lightning Teases Riding Position For Its Newest Model, The Strike appeared first on Motorcycle.com News.