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As India Yamaha Motors gears up to enter the country’s lucrative scooter market, the company announced that it has signed Deepika Padukone to promote their scooters in India.

Roping Bollywood divas has been a common trend in this segment, as Mahindra scooters are endorsed by Kareena Kapoor and TVS Scooty by Anushka Sharma. While Deepika will endorse the scooters, John Abraham will continue to be the brand ambassador of the company’s bikes.

Yamaha’s début scooter for India, Ray, targeted at young female customers, will be launched in September 2012 to cash on the festive season. The company will be introducing more scooters in the coming months, which will be aimed purely at city commuters.

 

The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment in Christopher Nolan’s superlative trilogy of the caped crusader, hits theaters today.

And going by the hype and the anticipation of fans who have waited for the movie with bated breath, it promises to be surefire blockbuster. Like its predecessor, the movie also has plenty to offer for us bikers, as the famous Batpod will again make an appearance, albeit with Anne Hathaway (as Catwoman/Selina Kyle) piloting it instead of Batman himself.

The origins of the Batpod has all been accredited to Christopher Nolan, and rightly so, but it actually came to life in the hands of production designer, Nathan Crowley, who was also the designer for the Tumbler. Well since we are clearly interested in two wheels, let’s get on to some technical specifications of the Batpod. The bike has 20 inch front and rear tyres (which is also the Tumbler’s left tyres) and is powered by a high-performance, water-cooled, single-cylinder engine, which has been geared low for faster acceleration. And oh, it has no exhaust pipes whatsoever. Weirder even, the Batpod is steered by the shoulders instead of hands, and the rider’s arms are protected by shields. The two foot pegs are set 3½ feet apart on either side of the tank, which the rider lies upon, belly down. And as befitting its crime-busting task, the bike is also armed with grappling hooks, cannons, and machine guns galore.

In anticipation of some inevitable crashes during filming, six models of the Batpod were constructed in all. It would have been easier if they had just retooled some existing bad-ass bike like the Yamaha V-Max or the Ducati Diavel, but hey, would those be as exciting to watch as this sinister machine designed from the ground-up to strike fear into the minds of criminals? Besides, we know Mr. Nolan is a perfectionist who abhors newfangled VFX for old-school, and, ultimately, more realistic, film-making, so more power to his ilk. Now, if only we could take it out for a ‘road test.’

Formula 1 and McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button splashed out a whooping amount of £23,750 for the Panigale S Tricolore and £17,250 for the Multistrada earlier this month.

Both Ducatis are currently being shipped from the UK to his residence in Monaco. The British racing champ has always been known as an avid collector of both two and four wheels, including a custom Harley Davidson, a blood red Ferrari Enzo supercar and a Nissan GT-R. Which is hardly surprising considering that the former world champion is on a mind boggling five year £60 million contract with his team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

Guess we can now say where Mr. Button is investing all that moolah. Jessica Michibata you are one lucky girl.

James Bond, the fictional British superspy with a ‘license to kill’, has always been noted for his fascination for gorgeous women, hi-tech gadgets and exotic cars.

Now, the grapevine has it that the next installment of James Bond movies, named Skyfall and staring Daniel Craig, will also be featuring a bike prominently in many scenes. The 44 year old British actor’s two wheel companion is a Honda CRF250R motorcycle which has been specially modified for the action sequences in the movie.

Speaking to reporters, Fiona Cole, Corporate communications manager at Honda states, “We like to try and do things differently at Honda, including finding innovative, yet relevant ways to showcase our diverse products, whilst also really engaging with our customers and It’s great to not only have Honda machines chosen as the choice of James Bond, but also to be working with such a longstanding film franchise.”

Skyfall is stated to hit theaters on the 2nd of November in India.

The cat is out of the bag.

A source close to the company has confirmed that Bajaj Auto is opening bookings of the new 2012 Ninja 650R on July 15^th and deliveries will commence on July 20^th pan India. The delay in the launch was due to the fluctuating US dollar to Rupee exchange rate. Seems like Bajaj now has that covered as the new edition is priced at Rs 5.80 lakh, a hike of Rs 80,000 over the previous 650R.

The major difference between the outgoing model and the 2012 Ninja 650R is mainly superficial. This model comes with wider front fairing, new fuel tank and tail end, and a redesigned seat. It also gets more rigid twin-spar perimeter frame which will improve handling. The liquid-cooled 650cc twin cylinder engine is carried over from the older model, with power output of 72 PS @8500 rpm and maximum torque of 66 Nm @7000 rpm. We are certain that the bike will be tuned to offer better low-end and mid range power.

Bajaj will be accepting bookings in a phased manner with roughly five bikes per Probiking showroom. So, if you have been saving up for the Ninja, then you better rush.