How about another footnote to history? This one concerns a machine called “Linto,” a 500cc Twin that was created by engineer Lino Tonti in 1967-68.

It consisted of two 250cc top ends from the Aermacchi horizontal single-pushrod DS racer, combined as a parallel-Twin on a newly designed common crankcase. A jackshaft took power from the crank to a dry clutch. The Aermacchi was known in the U.S. as “Sprint” during the time Harley and that brand were allied (1960-’78).  The 250cc Single had been developed steadily and, despite the extra moving mass of its rattling pushrods and slender and no doubt vigorously deflecting Z-shaped rocker arms, had reached 33-35 hp and an acceptable level of reliability in racing. In its early days, rider Alberto Pagani had in 1960 brought one home fifth in the Belgian GP, one place down from Mike Hailwood on the Ducati 250cc Twin. Not bad for pushrods!

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Photos by Lanny Thompson

I never thought that when I took delivery this May of the 2010 Can-Am Spyder RT-S for its CW long-term test that I’d discover a completely unlooked-for artifact of riding it: improved fitness. See, on the night of my 56th birthday, back in May, 2004, I got much too up close and personal with the sheetmetal of a 1995 Chevy. Ever since I was able to get out of my wheelchair three years ago, I’ve been going to the local gym to get the musculoskeletal system back up to some kind of speed. 

As my aging bod sweated its way through each session at the gym, though, I chafed to be outside again, on my bikes—that is, my motorcycle and my bicycle. Not gonna happen, cowboy. Fractured pelvis sheared some nerves that never got repaired, so key muscles in the left leg just don’t work. With a full leg brace and a cane, I can stump around, but the ambulation I use is called “hip-hiking,” which makes you look like a drunken sailor with a peg leg, but it gets the job done when walking a short distance is needed.

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Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike pilot Cal Crutchlow rode a Yamaha YZR-M1 for the first time at Yamaha’s test track in Fukuroi, Japan, this past week.

“There is a lot of power, but it feels very usable,” said Crutchlow, fifth overall and Rookie of the Year in WSB. “It felt very different to a production-based machine in terms of its delivery.

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Work hard, do the right thing, be the GOAT–and maybe someday your digs might also be featured in Architectural Digest.

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/homes/homes/2010/11/ricky_carmichael_article?currentPage=1

YouTube is quickly spreading what is being called a Kawasaki Europe “official video” about its replacement for the retro W650, the W800. Obvious styling changes are the polished alloy barrels, new paintwork on the gas tank and replacement of the word “Kawasaki” on the tank badge with a big “W.” The new seat is lowered by 0.4 inch, and the bike’s wheelbase has grown to 57.7 inches, up 0.4 inch, though it’s now 0.4 inch shorter overall. The W800 also is 46.3 pounds heavier than the W650, a 10 percent change.

We can hope the displacement increase from 675cc to 773cc, via a 5mm-larger bore with the same stroke, along with the change from carburetors to fuel injection, will give the W a nicely improved punch when the throttle is opened. Considering that Big K also saw fit to drop fuel-tank capacity from 3.9 gallons to 3.7 gallons, we can also hope fuel economy is improved. Compression ratio is dropped slightly, from 8.6:1 to 8.4:1.

Apart from the possibility that we Yanks might also be getting the W800 in the future, what’s interesting in the re-release of the W is the implicit rocker-culture style of the rider and co-rider in the video, which suggests that somebody at Kawasaki or its ad agencies believes that the whole Moto-Retro craze of the 1990s wasn’t just a faddish craze after all, but a semi-permanent part of motorcycling—the Britbike version of the Harley resurgence, which has put Hogs everywhere there are roads. Could they be right? Stay tuned.

Seven-time Grand National Champion and fastest man to ever ride a motorcycle–367.382 mph–watched me unload the semi-official Cycle World Honda CRF450R from the van at Yavapai Downs Fair Grounds, a beautiful mile-long dirt track near Prescott, Arizona, where I was about to try to qualify for my first AMA Pro-Singles mile dirt-track race ever. Not to mention ride my first mile ever…

“You’re not racing with that stock pipe,” CC flatly stated.

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 I joined 30 motojournalists from around the globe at Magny-Cours, France, on the Monday following the final round of the 2010 World Superbike Championship with the intention of riding all of the factory Superbikes. Heavy rain throughout much of the day cast a dark cloud over the media event. The Provec Racing Team was the only squad willing to risk a bike in the slick conditions. A few of us were brave enough to toe the waters and got brief three-lap stints in the saddle of Provec’s Kawasaki Motocard.com ZX-6R World Supersport racer.

While it would have been better to have ridden the seven different brands of factory racers as planned, I was grateful to throw a leg over the Kawasaki and have a look around the spectacular circuit. It took serious restraint, however, to pull in as directed on my third lap. I was just getting familiar with the track’s layout and gaining trust in the Pirellis’ grip.  Sometimes, though, a taste is all you get. 

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The leakage continues concerning Ducati’s new power cruiser, this image appearing today on the company’s Facebook site. While some Ducatisti cry foul over the bike’s fat (supposedly 240-section) rear tire, we Americans have never been ones to shy away from a nice, firm badonkadonk–especially when there’s room in the trunk to store a cheese sandwich or two…

Motegi changed everything. Casey Stoner, who is leaving Ducati for Honda, won over Andrea Dovizioso on a Honda. The two of them pulled away from the previously ascendant Yamahas of Valentino Rossi, who is leaving for Ducati, and Jorge Lorenzo, who is heading for a world championship this year.

Might this put an end to Honda’s long years “in the wilderness” of having more horsepower than technology for applying and using it? Remember, Honda has won only one championship since 2003. In this view, when HRC manager Shuhei Nakamoto said a year ago, “Next year, new concept,” he was talking about Honda’s development of its own new electronic systems and software. As part of this technology push, Honda hired software-writer Andrea Zugna and two others away from Yamaha. In just the last few races this year, the Honda has begun to look more stable and manageable, and Dani Pedrosa has looked less like an action hero hanging on by his teeth. Now that Pedrosa is out with a broken collarbone, Dovizioso has shown that whatever is different now about the Honda also works well enough for him to hold off the Yamahas.

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WIRED magazine just ran a short piece about vehicles for a post-apocalyptic world (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/09/pl_motor_apocalypse/) that listed a 1990 Suzuki DR650 as number four on the hit parade. That DR is a pretty good choice because, as WIRED notes, it’s got a kickstarter and “batteries might be hard to come by day after tomorrow.” WIRED being a zine with a distinctly sci-fi bent, no doubt the post-apocalyptic scenarios they’ve in mind are along the lines of the near-destruction of the human race by various means (city-sized asteroids impacting Earth, nuclear war, plagues, famines and so forth).

Taking WIRED seriously for a moment, the two-wheel-drive, flotation-tired Rokon Trailbreaker comes to my mind as a better machine than the DR650 for this sort of duty, though the Rokon still has to use gasoline, which, without refineries working and delivering fuel, would be very hard to come by in a real everything-kaput world. Likewise, if the worst-case scenario with a nuke’s airburst at the optimum altitude happens, an electromagnetic pulse might fry the Rokon’s solid-state ignition as easily as it would any other modern, integrated-circuit ignition system. The best protection against such an EMP being a Faraday cage, it’s unlikely that an EMP attack would leave anything but pre-integrated-circuit electronics working—unless you’re a real survivalist type—so even the Rokon is only good for circumstances in which the consumables and electronics are working.

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Kawasaki kicked off the 2011 selling season this past Tuesday in Las Vegas with a big bash for more than 800 dealers. Sales and marketing heads Bill Jenkins and Chris Brull tag-teamed on the large x-shaped stage to deliver an upbeat message of renewed commitment backed by bright lights, thumping music and, more than once, smoking rubber.

Addressing the crowd, Hiroshi Takata, president, consumer products and machinery, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, said, “The last two years have been extremely challenging. This ‘new normal’ has demanded focus and strategic action. Other manufacturers have shifted focus to emerging markets. I believe this is a mistake. The U.S. is an important market.”

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German accessory company Wunderlich showed a trio of heavily tricked out bikes at this year’s Intermot show. Our favorite is its BMW S1000RR “Poisoned Arrow” painted in the legendary Gulf racing colors. The bike features a long list of the company’s components including the PowerSportErgo handlebar conversion, VarioLever hand levers (adjustable), ActiveComfort SportErgo seat, DoubleBubble sports screen, tail piece conversion, aluminum license-plate mount and turn indicators with built-in rear/brake light functions, crash protectors, locking oil plug with cable-fastening fixture, “race” front turn indicator conversion, titanium SBK sports exhaust system and ECU Performance Controller.

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2011 Kawasaki Ninja 1000

2011 Kawasaki Ninja 1000

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Like a lot of lifetime riders who nearly buy the farm while riding or racing, and who emerge from hospitals and rehab centers disabled in some physical way, as soon as I was fit enough to figure out how to climb aboard something with handlebars, I wanted to do it. In my case, the best fit for my disability so far has been the Can-Am Spyder, and I’m currently doing a long-term test of the 2010 RT-S for CW.

Turns out, to nobody’s surprise, the Spyder is a conversation starter. Every time I stop long enough to take off my helmet, and sometimes even when I just stop for gas, somebody comes up and wants to ask questions about the thing. Seems like about half of the people who do that are folks (men and women, young and old) who need a ride to deal with a disability of some kind—failing knees, diabetes, amputation (and too many of that category have been fellow veterans, but guys from the Southwest Asia theater), and other ailments, including just wearing out the bod.

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