Latest Bike News

Victory motorcycles, the niche cruiser manufacturer has just upped the ante and announced its new range of 15 picture perfect motorcycles.The Cross Country bike gets a bigger sibling named Cross Country Tour and there’s also a new limited edition bike, the Cross Roads Classic LE, while the Victory Vision 8-ball will no longer be available.

Victory motorcycles are known to mass produce choppers that look like custom-made-bad-boy-bikes. It also has a range of bikes for the really long cruises which feature extended wind protection and enough luggage space to store the bodies of two policemen.

Victory motorcycles have already made up their mind to wreak havoc in the sparsely competitive market of upmarket cruisers in India. It will be up against its true blue American adversary, the mighty Harley Davidson. Since they are also developing a 500cc V-Twin engine for India, we expect neither side to go down without a fight.

We wish both of them luck. May the most hardcore criminal ride free.

Spy picture and all we know about the next generation Duke

Ducati is developing their next generation superbike and it is already rolling on the road! Successor of the 1198, the bike is rumoured to be named ‘1199’, slated for a launch at the EICMA motorshow in Milan at the end of this year.

Ducati has given its traditional trellis frame and under seat exhausts the boot to create the most radically designed motorcycle the Italian firm has ever come up with. At heart the bike will still be a Ducati, with an all new V-twin engine producing a power output of around 200PS! As seen in the pictures, the bike is very small in size but has a reasonably sized fairing. The shark inspired nose has LED strip headlamps while the tail piece follows Japanese idealogy of sleek and short ends. The bike has a horizontally mounted monoshock rear suspension connected at a right angle to the single sided swing-arm while the stubby exhaust sticks out from under the belly. The biggest difference however, is the stressed-airbox monocoque chassis as seen in their MotoGP machine. The Desmocedici has a carbon fibre monocoque where the engine is a stressed member of the chassis, the sub-frame, front fork mount and the swing-arm all bolted on to it. The road bike will most probably have an aluminium alloy semi-monocoque.

 

The bike is being developed with inputs from Valentino Rossi and his MotoGP race engineer Jeremy Burgess while Ducati’s ex-WSBK rider Troy Baylis recently concluded a three day test of the bike at the Mugello circuit in Italy.

Benelli, one of the oldest motorcycles in the world, recently turned 100. To celebrate this very special occasion, the Italian manufacturer launched two special edition machines – the TNT 899 Century Racer and TNT 1130 Century Racer – both fitted with Benelli’s trademark three-cylinder engine.

The difference is that while the former churns out 122PS at 9,500 rpm, the latter makes an even more powerful 131PS at 8,500 rpm. Both bikes are equipped with a six-speed gearbox, high-spec suspension components from Marzocchi and Sachs at the front and rear respectively, Brembo brakes with radial-mount callipers and special touches like Alcantara seats and a special paint job inspired by Renzo Pasolini’s Benelli race bikes of the 1970s. In addition to these two anniversary editions, Benelli also released a high-performance version called the TNT 160R.  The 160R churns out a heady 162 PS, making it the most powerful TNT ever. It also gets a dry slipper, in place of the wet clutch in the older models, along with a much higher compression ratio. With these high-performance limited edition machines, the Qianjiang-owned Italian manufacturer hopes for a renewed interest from moneyed fans willing to shell out money for what might truly become a collector’s item in the future.