The Fiat Yamaha rider won his sixth race of the 2010 campaign at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix after Dani Pedrosa crashed out when leading. Second place for Casey Stoner marked his best result of the season so far, whilst Valentino Rossi finished an admirable third.

PICKERINGTON, Ohio -- The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is pleased to announce the 2010 AMA Voter Guide, a comprehensive online voter guide designed to educate AMA members on how their elected officials acted upon and voted on motorcycle-relevant issues.

MORRISON, Colo. (July 25, 2010) – Screamin’ Eagle®/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines claimed his second NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle event victory of the season, riding a Harley-Davidson V-Rod® to a final-round win over Geico Suzuki rider Karen Stoffer at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway. With the win, Hines moves into second place in Pro Stock Motorcycle season points.

Although Suzuki only won a single race with its TL1000R racebike in 1998 before returning to the GSX-R750, little did it know it created an instant cult-classic. The 1000cc monster was as unpredictable as it was fierce with a widow maker stigma that followed. As a result, sales numbers never flourished. But that didn't stop many riders like Jamie Howser from deeming the TLR one of their all-time favorites.

On the street or off the road, Alpinestars has not only got your back, but your arms and chest too with the CE certified elbow protectors and a chest plate included in the Bionic 2 Protection Jacket. Technical stretch mesh lining completes the jacket making safety and protection as easy as literally slipping on a jacket. The Bionic 2 line is available in different models to fit the needs of every rider out there; from the ladies to the pro's, right down to the kids. No matter what occasion calls you to your bike, the Bionic 2 Protection Jacket is worth a Second Look.

The Red Bull USGP at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, round nine of the FIM MotoGP World Championship, brings to an end a run of five races in just six weekends and marks the midpoint in the 2010 season.

Speed and Strength Fame and Fortune helmet
Tested by: Zamora
Miles used: 200
Price: $169.95
Contact: ssgear.com

Cypress Calif., July 22, 2010 – Monster Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP rider Colin Edwards took a little time out of his busy MotoGP schedule prior to the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to visit the Los Alamitos Army Airfield, Joint Forces Training Base. This is where the “Longknives” of the 1st Battalion, 140th Aviation (Air Assault) are getting prepared to leave for duty overseas. The California Army National Guard organization will use their 30 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to transport personnel and equipment in support of US military forces.

Racelogic Performance Box
Tested by: Justin
Miles used: 500
Price: $499
Contact: www.vboxusa.com

Sartso "Illusion" jeans
Tested by: Dave
Miles used: 2000 (plus nightlife)
Price: $135
Contact: sartso.com

Ogio offers a bag that not only makes a bold fashion statement but also has all the bells and whistles you could ever need. The 15-pound bag stands 34-inches tall, 16-inches wide and 14-inches deep, meaning you can fit all your necessities in there with room to spare. It features a magnetic, detachable carry-on bag with a shoulder strap so you won't need to tote an extra backpack along as a carry-on. Oversized off-road wheels offer stability when running over curbs and ill-mannered baggage attendants' feet.

Clean on the outside, cream on the inside," is the phrase made popular by rap artist Dorrough, and it's the perfect description for Pedro Nieves's first big build. With a GSX-R1000 selected as the base, Nieves started by leaving the "bolt-on manual" at home. Instead, he and designer James Callahan put pencil to paper to design custom wheels and a single-sided swingarm capable of holding a huge 360 rear tire.

Lucas Oil Roadracingworld.com RMR Suzuki's Elena Myers concluded the AMA Pro SuperSport West Region championship with a dramatic last-lap strike to take fourth position at Laguna Seca and secure the runner-up spot in the championship.

With three more race weekends and a total of six races left in the competition there is still a slew of championship points and podiums to be had and the two KTM RC8R riders are fresh and ready to go. In what has been so far a great year for the team, the bike and the riders, Martin has already won twice on the RC8R and Stefan has also been on the podium. Martin is third in the championship standings and Stefan is currently in fifth place in what has been a very competitive field. The riders, team and their many loyal KTM Racing fans all have good grounds to be optimistic and can hope for some more strong performances and good points in the second half of the season.

Team Latus Ducati Racing Steve Rapp breaks down the FMF involvment for himself and the team. Steve has had great success by jumping on the podium many times this year and FMF is pleased to have someone like Steve and the Latus Team aboard our brand. View more APEX images and videos at www.fmfracing.com. Bolt up the same Race system that Steve uses!

Chino, Calif. – July 28, 2010 – The BMW S1000RR has made a big splash in the world of Superbike racing thanks to the immense power of its engine. The engineers at Yoshimura R&D wasted no time in adapting their flagship R-77 pipe to fit this incredible machine, and now they've gone a step further and designed a titanium full-system to give S1000RR owners the ultimate in Yoshimura power.

As one of the last big weekends before Back to School, Aug 13-15, 2010, you can end your summer just right at VIRginia International Raceway during the Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro SuperBike Nationals presented by Foremost Insurance. With special advance 3-day weekend tickets still just $50 (order online at VIRnow.com with promo code AMASP10) until August 6th, this will be a family weekend that everyone won't soon forget!

(Lake Forest, CA July 29, 2010) Oh Canada? Scorpion is calling! Effective at the end of this month Motovan becomes the exclusive distributor for Scorpion helmets in Canada. This expansion plan north of the border should help expand Scorpion's reach significantly, but dealers will be the real winners with quicker product deliveries and even more added value benefits.

2010 Kawasaki ER-6n
John Zamora: Associate Editor
Miles Ridden: 1250
Mods: Slip-on exhaust, rearsets and a fender eliminator

Advance, North Carolina (July 27, 2010) - Top talent and industry insiders from the motorcycle world give their uncut opinions and race stories. Get your weekly motorcycle news live from Pit Pass Moto Weekly. Pit Pass Moto Weekly is now heard in over 50 countries around the world. 7 pm to 9 pm Central - Motorcycle Radio streaming individual interviews from www.pitpassradio.com, or download the program from our archives to your ipod or mp3 player anytime.

For folks in the armed services, being stuck overseas is all part of the deal. But SFC Andre Williams of the 101st Airborne found a useful way to spend with his spare time in Iraq.

2010 Ducati Streetfighter
Justin Fivella: Associate Editor
Miles Ridden: 4000
Mods: Tires, frame and axle sliders

Triumph North America is all about putting on a good show, and when it displays at various bike shows and events across the country it likes to have some eye candy to get owners excited. DuSold Designs hooked up a Speed Triple for the tour that not only got sportbikers talking, but chopper enthusiasts intrigued as well.

In 1996, sportbike sales were booming and Honda was determined to be known as producer of the greatest and fastest bikes of the day. In the big-displacement class, the title of the fastest production bike had been held by the Kawasaki ZX-11 since '90 and this didn't sit too well with Honda. Late that year, Honda announced a new model that was intended to sit on top of its sportbike lineup and-of course-dethrone the Kawasaki as the fastest production bike on the planet. The Kawasaki was running about 176 mph on radar guns and made around 132 rear-wheel horsepower; when rumors of the Honda's 160-plus horsepower and 180-plus mph hit the press, everyone got excited.

During World Ducati Week 2010, Troy Bayliss was on hand to greet fans and test the developmental 2011 Ducati 1198R Superbike. He also took this opportunity to solidify his future endeavors.

Sport Rider's Troy Siahaan was at the sixth edition of World Ducati Week, held this year at the Misano circuit in Italy. Look for the full report in the September, 2010 issue, which goes on sale August 17th.

Today I drove to work. To most people that's not such a big deal, but for me it's a goal I've been aiming toward for more than a year. For my first couple of weeks back I was driven by a transportation service, but now I've got my own car modified with hand controls and can ferry myself. Just like many other everyday tasks, simply driving somewhere now can be an ordeal: transfer into the car, take the wheelchair apart and bring that in, then the opposite at the other end. It's all straightforward enough, but can go horribly wrong when, for example, one of the wheelchair wheels goes rolling off on its own when you're leaning out the driver's door and trying to assemble the chair-as happened to me when I got home one day. Then what? That said, driving myself and other people around is a whole new level of independence, and I've gone through three tanks of gas in just a couple of weeks.

Last year's inaugural TTXGP ushered in the beginning of zero emissions motorcycle racing. Several teams from the world over scrambled to put together an electric motorcycle for one simple mission: to complete one lap of the nearly 38-mile Isle of Man mountain course faster than the rest. Though many failed, the race proved to be enough of a success that it will continue this year, though under a different promoter. When it came time for Azhar Hussein, founder of TTXGP, the original promoters of the event, to renew its contract with the Isle of Man for 2010, an unceremonious split occurred between him, officials from the Isle of Man and the FIM. Details regarding the reason for the split vary depending on which side you ask-the FIM claims Hussein rejected a financial support package and subsequently scheduled an event in Paris. Hussein denies these allegations and still remains bitter about the fallout, but he remains committed to racing and has started the rival eGrandPrix series to promote clean emissions racing on a national level in many regions around the world.

The 600cc sportbikes have always been the biggest sellers for the big four Japanese manufacturers. Not only are they less expensive than the larger displacement bikes, they are also cheaper to insure, maintain and even though they don't have the same horsepower or torque as the 750cc or 1000cc bikes, they are plenty fast. During the '90s, the 600s were cranking out 85-90 horsepower and running very low 11-second quarter mile times. With top speeds in the mid-150 mph range and a 0-60 mph time of 3.2 seconds, the Honda CBR600 was the dominant bike in the middleweight class. It is estimated that Honda sold over 50,000 600cc bikes from 1987-1993, making it the most popular-and arguably the most influential-600cc sportbike ever made.

Jim Allen doesn't like to lose. Over the course of a nearly 30-year career with Dunlop, he hasn't lost very often. Dunlop tires have been the dominant force in AMA roadracing ever since he's been involved. Under his reign, the tire manufacturer has won 120 championships, including nearly every AMA Superbike title since the class inception.

When you've commuted to work every day on a motorcycle for 32 years-with much of it on the same highways-you tend to notice people who traverse the same route. Especially on motorcycles; those who choose the two-wheeled form of transportation in the car-crazed society of America obviously tend to stand out from the crowd.

During the winter of '08-'09, there really wasn't much of a rainy season to speak of around our offices here in Southern California, so there wasn't a lot of opportunity to keep my wet-weather riding skills sharp. This year, however, has been a completely different story; numerous weather fronts during January and February proceeded to form a conga line and drench the area with some pretty heavy rain. Since commuting to and from work every day on a motorcycle has been a staple of my daily life for decades (even before I began working for the magazine), riding in the rain became a part of that ritual.

Early in the '09 season, following the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello where he denied Valentino Rossi a home victory, Ducati's Casey Stoner made a suggestion that would transform the Desmosedici GP09. "Completely my idea, completely mine how much we did it by. All the angles, everything was my idea and I was very proud of that." Though he had won in Italy, it was in the following race at Catalunya that Stoner realized he was right. Adjustments to roadracing motorcycles are generally done in millimeters-this was an inch and then some. After Mugello, then test rider (now team manager), Vito Guareschi, confirmed Stoner's fix during a follow-on test there.

The year 2009 will go down as the year that saw the demise of 250cc Grand Prix, one of motorcycle Grand Prix racing's core categories. For reasons that are as much political as anything else, the '09 Valencia GP hosted the last running of the quarter-liter two-strokes. The 250s consistently proved to be the most thrilling and hotly contested class in Grand Prix, where privateer teams actually stand a chance of beating the works riders-just look at Mattia Pasini's improbable victory in the '09 Italian GP, for example. As such, it's been a fruitful proving ground for successive generations of new talent since its inception in 1949.

Because of the strict licensing regulations in Japan back in the '80s and '90s that made it very difficult to legally ride a motorcycle over 400cc, the Japanese domestic market at that time was chock full of 400cc sportbikes. Although most were inline-fours, one particular V-twin made its debut in '98—the Suzuki SV400. Available in both naked and half-faired versions, the SV400 didn't really catch on in Japan—but it would provide the basis for one of Suzuki's most popular models worldwide the following year.

Long before we were spraying nitrous oxide into motorcycle engines for its power boosting characteristics, it had another life. In the late 1700s an English chemist named Joseph Priestly discovered the near odorless, colorless non-flammable gas; at that time it was originally intended to be a preservative for food. Then some years later fellow Englishman Humphrey Davy experimented with the physiological uses of nitrous oxide and its anesthetic and analgesic qualities. By 1840 it was used commonly in dentistry, childbirth, and even during heart attacks to relieve pain, and is still used today to a limited extent.

Dawn breaks slowly, emerging with a fitful reluctance. A light overcast hazes the sky, reflecting my mood, which is anything but ebullient. The thrumming in my head, the cottony numbness of my tongue, and the sandpaper which passes for my eyelids bear silent witness to too many beers and too little sleep.

Over the past several years we've seen a steady shift to spec racing pretty much the world over. The AMA Superbike series has moved to spec tires and fuel, MotoGP to spec tires, and the new Moto2 class to a spec engine as well as fuel and engine control units. Spec racing, where all the competitors are aboard either the same machine or equipment with many identical parts, is really an extension of the movement toward more production-based classes that has been going on over the last couple of decades. The benefits of the switch are many: the costs associated with running a team are reduced, the racing is closer, and more people can put a team together that is capable of winning races and championships. The results in the AMA series last year were almost immediately noticeable, with more race winners and closer finishes than in years previously.

Dino Signori worked for a shoe company in the Italian region of Veneto, an area synonymous with quality footwear production, from the age of ten. At the end of his teenage years he was designing new models, and at 25 he applied his own innovations to ski and climbing boots. Unfortunately, his employer wasn't interested in producing ski boots, so Signori borrowed his sister's Vespa scooter and started showing his models to all the neighboring ski and outdoor shops.

For those who may be serious long-time readers of SR, the name Richard Sims surely rings a bell. Sims' handiwork has been featured numerous times over the years in this magazine, from some of the original UFO shootouts back in the '90s, to the middleweight UFO shootout we did back in April '01 ("600s Gone Wild"), to his custom-designed/fabricated supercharged Kawasaki ZRX1200 ("Blown Away", Feb '05). Sims has one of those engineering minds that loves to figure out an elegant solution to a problem-and luckily for us, one of his favorite problems to solve is how to generate more power and get that power to the ground in order to go quicker and faster than ever before.

He rode north through the gathering darkness, knowing now he would make it home and put a finish on this 800-mile day. He was only partially glad of that.

Well, we've made it to 2010 and tier 2 of the federal emissions standards. In '03, after more than 20 years with no updates to the emissions requirements for motorcycles, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) introduced the two-tier changes that brought the federal standards in-line with California's traditionally stricter CARB (California Air Resources Board) guidelines. This year marks the last of the updates, and in most respects a 49-state bike is now identical to a California model. The exception is evaporative emissions, which are still stricter here in California.

Pitpass
By the time MotoGP season kicked off under the lights in the desert outside the Qatari capital of Doha for the third year in a row, the novelty of racing at night had worn off. In its place were concerns about the nighttime humidity that slickened the track and caused a number of crashes in pre-season testing and prompted an extraordinary meeting with the riders about possibly changing race times. That was never going to happen (not with television satellite time booked), but it was important that the sport's management appeared to care. So with the MotoGP race certain to start at 11:00 p.m., everyone was left to consider just how silly it is to race 240-horsepower motorcycles at night in the desert-in April.

From Honda's 2010 VFR1200F press material

After all the drama in the past year surrounding the AMA Superbike series and the DMG (Daytona Motorsports Group) soap opera, I finally had a chance to go to a round of the series and see for myself what's going on. I missed all of last year being laid up in the hospital, but I'd heard all the stories and read the race reports. Last weekend, I went with my friend (and now SR contributor) Eric Nugent to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana for Saturday's races. In a lot of ways I was disappointed with what I saw, but in other ways I was happy to see things are not as bad as I had feared.

Tommy Hayden waited until the final race of the season to crash for the first and only time during '09. The spill came late in the second doubleheader race at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Sunday, when Hayden was chasing both Josh Hayes and the biggest payday of his career. His bonus for finishing second in the championship would dwarf anything he'd made to that point. But more important than the money was winning his first superbike race.

It wasn't all that long ago when simply adding an aftermarket exhaust and carburetor jet kit (remember those?) to your sportbike quickly and easily netted you five to 10-and sometimes even more-horsepower. The stock exhausts were so restrictive that any aftermarket exhaust immediately required changing fueling, otherwise the lean condition resulting from the increased airflow could cause engine damage. And the stock mild steel exhaust was usually pretty heavy, meaning a lot of weight could be lost in the transition as well, adding even more performance.

The inexorable march of technology has enabled sportbikes to progress farther and quicker in overall performance than anyone could have ever imagined. Unreal horsepower and torque, light weight (although that trend seems to be backtracking somewhat lately), suspension that would be competitive in the racing arena only five or so years ago, chassis that are competitive in the racing crucible, and now electronic rider aids such as traction control and electronically adjustable suspension.

Bill Warner's day job is being a marine biologist raising tropical fish in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area-not the type of person you'd expect to set a land speed record. But Warner has been land speed racing since '06 and is best known among that crowd for removing the fairing from his Hayabusa at a Texas Mile land speed meet and setting the "naked" bike speed record at 255 mph.

The MotoGP Championship returns to the World Famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway August 27 - 29, 2010 for the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix and Ducati Island will be there! Come cheer on Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner as they fight to get ahead of the competition at the U.S. 2nd round of MotoGP.

1. Downshifting smoothly on a sportbike, especially while braking hard from high speed, requires a definite measure of skill and dexterity. In order to avoid upsetting the bike, the engine rpm must be matched to road speed when the clutch is fully disengaged, otherwise the rear tire will momentarily "chatter" and upset the bike as the engine is forced to match road speed involuntarily. This means that the rider must "blip" the throttle to raise the engine rpm during downshifts-but he must do this while simultaneously pulling on the front brake lever to slow down. While this riding skill is obviously necessary on the racetrack, it can also pay big dividends in street-riding situations where riding smoothly is a must; for instance, any situation where you are cornering and braking at the same time.

The June 2010 issue of SR has a full test of Ducati's MotoGP replica, the Desmosedici RR. As part of the test we ran the Desmo on our SuperFlow CycleDyn dynamometer. Check out the results here, and look for the full test in the June 2010 issue, which goes on sale this week.

This is a story about twins. Separated at birth, these twins went on to live vastly different lives. The first of these two twins was raised in Italy, where it learned to appreciate form over function, but still keeping performance in high regard. The Italian twin feels there's no reason why cutting-edge machinery can't also look timeless. At the other end of the spectrum, the second twin is of Austrian descent. There it formed a different appreciation for beauty and form; where soft, sensual lines made way for sharp edges and angular, contemporary flair.

The new way to go Hyper

Just as aggressively striking as the 1100, the new Hypermotard 796 features a lower seat height and brand new smooth and flexible engine to make it the perfect urban assault vehicle. Whether it's working the daily commute or attacking the open roads, the 796 rides the common ground between manners and madness by mixing Ducati's unrivalled twin-cylinder power and sportbike heredity with the lightweight and minimalist supermotard concept.

Urban upstart

Light, powerful and bristling with knowledge gained from years of racing, the YZF-R6 is the most advanced production 600cc motorcycle Yamaha – or anybody else – has ever built. The 2009 AMA Daytona 200 Champion and this year’s best selling supersport, it is no surprise that the YZF-R6 is back for 2010, ready to tackle the track and the street.

Yamaha’s MotoGP technology made its way to the YZF-R6, including YCC-T (Yamaha Chip Controlled Throttle), an advanced fly-by-wire throttle system that translates wrist commands into seamless, smooth power delivery. New for 2010, the R6 gets a remapped Engine Control Unit and a new 100 mm longer muffler for increased performance. YCC-I (Yamaha Chip Controlled Intake) is a variable intake-length system that broadens the powerband and reinforces the R6’s amazing high-rev hit. The R6’s ramp-type slipper clutch greatly reduces engine braking for smoother high-speed corner entries.

In the YZF-R6s chassis department, you’ll find a magnesium sub frame, titanium exhaust, and Controlled-Fill die-cast aluminum chassis parts. All this adds up to a bike that snaps into corners, clings to inside lines, and shoots itself down the next straight.

The 2010 YZF-R6 will be available in dealerships nationwide beginning January 2010 with a starting MSRP of $10,490. The YZF-R6 will be available in Raven, Pearl White and Team Yamaha Blue/White.

Improving upon excellence: The new MV Agusta F4 was designed and developed with a single goal in mind: to be the best. The new F4 meets this objective by mating high performance and class leading handling together with styling which sets the new standard in the world of supersport motorcycles.

Moving Art.

Can perfection be improved upon? This question has been answered by the new MV Agusta F4, a motorcycle that from the day of its introduction has been judged as the most beautiful motorcycle in the world. The F4 defines beauty. The new F4 is not an evolution of the previous motorcycle, but it is a new project that has been studied down to the last nut and bolt, from the first to the last curve of the bodywork. No mass produced street motorcycle can boast as many accolades as the MV Agusta F4, which is the absolute reference for performance, speed and raw beauty. The F4 is the synthesis of Italian craftsmanship, no compromise design principles and the application of the most technologically advanced materials in a single motorcycle. The F4 is a pure two-wheeled work of art.

Five minutes on board the Ducati Hypermotard and you instinctually want to do bad things. Suddenly riding on sidewalks feels normal and romping through parks seems appropriate. The Hyper, with its narrow seat, wide handlebars and supermoto-like feel just seems to bring out the adventurous little six-year-old within us all. Of course, performing any of these acts (or any other your inner child is dying to try) is surely to result in a less than pleasurable encounter with the Boys in Blue. You could say that this is the point though, as this is the machine that a few select Italian designers envisioned as their true play bike whenever they weren't conjuring up the latest and greatest racing machine.

Full Test
The landscape of motorcycle sales in the USA is littered with the carcasses of past naked bikes from the Japanese manufacturers. Naked versions of Suzuki's best-selling SV650 had very short life spans compared to the half- and full-faired versions that have sold like hotcakes for years. The naked version of the Bandit 1200/1250 quickly gave way to half-faired editions; even the Hayabusa-engined B-King never really caught on with American buyers. Honda has made numerous attempts with bikes such as the 599 and 919 that quickly faded into history.

Full Test
Honda certainly stirred the pot with its new VFR1200F. With tabloid-fed rumors swirling on the Internet about a new V-engined MotoGP race replica or big horsepower successor to the CBR1100XX to appear from Honda for '10, the debut of the big VFR certainly confused those who were expecting another sportbike milestone from Big Red.

Who woulda thought that a company like Ducati, which puts its life and soul into superbikes and racing, would practically invest its future in a bike like the Multistrada, something clearly not meant to win any races? Maybe it's not so crazy after all. You see, racing is rife with rules, limitations, and boundaries. And if there's one thing engineers don't like when allowed to think free, it's rules, limitations, and, well, you get the idea. So what, then, would be the ideal platform for Ducati's brain trust to incorporate cutting edge technology that wouldn't just one-up its competitors, but downright blow the doors off the motorcycle community as a whole?

2010 Aprilia Sportbikes
The incredible RSV4 Factory and RSV4 R
More...

In the arena that is the World Supersport championship, there's a formula that's proven to be successful-the motorcycle must have four cylinders across the frame, have a total displacement of 600cc, and come from Japan. What, then, would it take for the mighty to fall? Being British, Triumph is already breaking one of those rules by definition. The company knew that the only way to beat the mighty Japanese would be to break all the other rules as well. Their weapon, of course, is the Daytona 675 triple. Three cylinders instead of four and an extra 75cc to boot. You may remember Ducati challenging for the Supersport crown with the 749R with varying levels of success, though ultimately the Japanese prevailed every year. So why do it? The challenge, of course. Oh, and the brand exposure.

• Powered by inline six-cylinder
• K1600GT will be a sport-touring replacement for the current K1300GT
• K1600GTL will replace the K1200LT touring rig

From Suzuki's press material

Identities transformed, MADE IN MV.

Almost a decade has passed since the appearance of the first Brutale, a prestigious, naked motorcycle with fascinating design, power, and speed. Its characteristics, unique and unmistakable, have made it famous the world over, enabling it to win coveted prizes as the most beautiful motorcycle of the year. Fifteen thousand, four hundred Brutale units have been sold worldwide, including special versions. Its identity has remained timeless, backed by MV Agusta’s legendary racing heritage. The 38 riders’ world championship titles and 37 manufacturers’ championships - attained with the contribution of motorcycling legend Giacomo Agostini - demonstrate the company’s ability to work under extreme conditions, as well as its great passion for racing.

Urban icon
The Monster family introduces the 796, an exciting addition to the line-up that combines the user-friendliness of the 696 with the sports character of the 1100. Delivering 87hp (64kW), a dry weight of just 167kg (368lb) and optional ABS, the stylish new Monster 796 returns the magic of mid-range to the Monster family.

With the brand new Desmodue 796 engine at the heart of the machine, a single-sided swingarm and revised ergonomics, the Monster 796 perfectly balances lifestyle performance with everyday functionality to enhance the original Monster spirit.

Dressed in Ducati red, arctic white silk or diamond black silk with a bright red Trellis frame, the Monster 796 can be further personalised with an additional 10 colour schemes from the innovative Monster Art program, which features the latest collection, ‘Logomania’.

Launched as an early entry model year 2011, the Monster 796 opens a new road to the world of Ducati Monster and becomes the ‘urban icon’ of hand-built Italian naked motorcycles.

Obsolescence was inevitable. MV Agusta's F4 line, Massimo Tamburini's attempt to best his most famous piece-the Ducati 916-was getting a bit long in the tooth. After more than a decade of minor revisions, displacement upgrades and special limited-edition liveries named after its founder, top speed claims, and even Tamburini himself, its time had come.

With the world economy in a tailspin, much of the motorcycle industry is still in bunker mode. The previous heady days of ramped-up development cycles resulting in new models every two years in the sportbike market will now probably be a fond memory, as manufacturers have taken on defensive positions to ride out the financial storm and stay intact when it clears. This is especially true for the Japanese Big Four factories, who have been hit hard by the declining sales resulting from the economic downturn. Most of their sportbikes have remained mostly status quo for '10, and Suzuki has gone as far as deciding not to import any '10 streetbike models into the U.S.

Ducati has always had racing in its blood. And whenever you think of the term "homologation special" as it applies to motorcycles, the factory from the Borgo Panigale district of Bologna, Italy, always comes to mind-first and foremost. The company has a long history of building limited production versions of its high performance sportbikes whose main purpose is to legalize the usage of certain parts for sanctioned racing.

Learn to ride by taking an MSF Basic Rider Course or Experienced Rider Course.
Visit www.msf-usa.org to find the schools in your state.

1. At a recent open track-riding day we attended, we were stunned to see the amount of riders who were wasting a lot of time and physical effort using the clutch to upshift. The continuous rise and gradual fall of the engine's rpm between each shift as bikes roared by us in the pits had us wondering if there was an epidemic of slipping clutch plates that we didn't know about. While it may be an important ritual for beginner or novice riders, using the clutch for upshifts during aggressive canyon or track riding is totally unnecessary (unless, of course, your bike has some shifting/transmission issues that prevent using this technique). In fact, there are many riding situations where it can be a nuisance and even a hindrance to quicker and smoother riding.

In our last issue's RSS, Miguel Duhamel, Mat Mladin and Ben Spies talked about their riding styles. This month, it's Jamie Hacking's turn.

One dictionary defines panic as "a sudden, overpowering, often contagious terror." That's a remarkably accurate description of panic as it applies to motorcyclists. From the countless motorcycle crashes I've witnessed and investigated over 25 years of street riding, 14 years of road racing and nearly a decade of full-time motorcycle track instruction, I can tell you that panic is by far the greatest cause of crashes. Ironically, it's an instinct programmed into our minds back when we were defending ourselves against saber-toothed tigers that's the culprit, not panic brought on by the more commonly feared left-turning vehicles, lack of traction, etc., that are usually listed as the greatest dangers to our motorcycling well-being.

Learn to ride by taking an MSF Basic RiderCourse or Experienced RiderCourse. Visit www.msf-usa.org to find the schools in your state.

While today's sport tires are fantastic performers on both the street and the racetrack, there's still a limit to the compromises you can make with a tire. Not only does a sport tire need to provide decent grip at all lean angles, but it also has to be durable enough to offer a good life expectancy under normal use, withstand tread growth and high heat buildup in the center during extended high-speed usage and provide stability yet offer a fairly smooth ride over bumps, plus it requires a minimum amount of tread siping (grooves) to evacuate standing surface water in wet conditions. The proliferation of some refugee DOT race tires masquerading as "track-day/high-performance sport" tires is a sign of how difficult it is to build a streetable tire that will handle the rigors of racetrack use if asked.

Simply put, concentration is the key skill in taking in and processing information faster than your motorcycle is covering ground. It's also the determining factor in how quickly you can ride safely. It doesn't matter how strong your muscles are or how quick your reflexes react but how focused the gray matter between your ears stays on the job at hand.

1. Downshifting smoothly on a sportbike, especially while braking hard from high speed, requires a definite measure of skill and dexterity. In order to avoid upsetting the bike, the engine rpm must be matched to road speed when the clutch is fully disengaged, otherwise the rear tire will momentarily "chatter" and upset the bike as the engine is forced to match road speed involuntarily. This means that the rider must "blip" the throttle to raise the engine rpm during downshifts-but he must do this while simultaneously pulling on the front brake lever to slow down. While this riding skill is obviously necessary on the racetrack, it can also pay big dividends in street-riding situations where riding smoothly is a must; for instance, any situation where you are cornering and braking at the same time.

We've all had it happen, and it's usually quite unpleasant. It's that point during your travels when the realization hits that you are completely unprepared for the intemperate weather Mother Nature is force-feeding you. Whether it's extreme heat, cold or precipitation, most meteorological annoyances tend to send the unprepared, gung-ho motorcycle traveler hightailing it to the nearest shelter-usually in the form of a nice temperature-controlled motel room.

Last issue we covered the importance of body position and steering techniques and how they relate to each other. The only truthful way to describe the optimum body position is that it will vary depending on the rider's style and preference as well as the bike's strengths, weaknesses and setup. Anyone who teaches that there is only one optimum body position isn't being realistic or particularly observant in watching the variety of styles seen at the top level of AMA Pro Racing here in the United States.

Even At first glance, Kawasaki's ZR-7 reveals a careful combination of both current and classic (or at least 1980s) styling. The swoopy tank and bodywork clearly marks the ZR as a bike that was introduced in 2000. However, details such as the engine's big oil cooler and superbike-style handlebar say that this bike has more depth than just following current fashion trends. Perhaps the best way to consider the ZR-7 is as the average guy of motorcycling. He's not a couch potato because he works out a bit, but he's not a professional athlete either. Still, he's comfortable in a variety of environments. Similarly, this bike was designed for general purpose motorcycling with a sporting bent-but on a budget. Call it your bike for the active lifestyle.

In the previous RSS (Dec. '06), we discussed how our sense of speed can be impaired by panic, causing us to think that we're entering a corner too fast. This often leads to the desperate-and false-sense that we need to stay hard on the brakes as we lean into the corner. In my eight years of instructing thousands of students of all ability levels on racetracks across the country, I can tell you without reservation that this panic situation causes more crashes than all others combined.

Once its fundamental theory is understood, the skill of clutchless upshifting is typically mastered in a matter of minutes. For first-timers, snicking slickly through the gears without the clutch brings a smile of wonderment, as if they just learned a new magic trick.

One of the most frequent questions heard among riders centers around which gear to be in for a given corner. Often you're torn between high revs in a low gear or pulling a taller gear at lower rpm. Naturally, different engine sizes and configurations behave differently, and occasionally you'll find the perfect gear that pulls smoothly and strongly off a particular corner.

I like to think one of THE reasons I'm an effective riding instructor is that I'm not blessed with much natural talent. Consequently I've had to learn nearly every aspect of high-performance riding firsthand and often from my mistakes. It's good to learn from your mistakes, but it's even better-and often less painful-to learn from those of others whenever possible.

In Ama Pro Racing, World Superbike And MotoGP there's been a shift in riding styles. From the days of '80s and '90s heroes like Kevin Schwantz and Mick Doohan who were forced to wrestle powerful, unruly beasts to their will, a younger generation of riders typified by Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner took over, rising from the high-corner speed ranks of 125cc and 250cc Grand Prix machinery to the more refined, better-behaved MotoGP bikes of today with their complex engine-management software and traction control. Actually Rossi's career dates from the final days of fire-breathing 500cc two-strokes (he won the last 500CC World Championship in 2001, then piled up consecutive MotoGP championships from 2002 to 2005), which likely contributes to making him the most versatile and perhaps most talented roadracer of all time.

Odd as it sounds, sometimes the most beneficial riding practice takes place between your ears with your eyes shut and the ignition switch turned off. Mental visualization is used in many sports, and I actually picked it up from a coach while shooting small-bore rifle competition in college. The benefits were immediate and obvious, so I quickly applied it to my roadracing as well.

It's often been said that there are probably more crashes from riders losing the front end in a corner than from overstepping rear tire traction and highsiding on the exit. The reason is that a motorcycle is made to function at its best under power; the inherent design of its chassis and suspension means that the machine is much more stable when power is applied. Anyone who has hit a false neutral in midcorner will tell you how difficult it is to control the bike when it's not under its own propulsion.

Ten years ago I signed on at Motorcyclist magazine and began commuting to work on a motorcycle over the busiest freeways and streets of Los Angeles. In those 10 years of commuting, two staff members had commuting accidents, neither of which caused significant damage or pain. That's five to seven editors riding to work every working day for 10 years. If we were the survey panel, the conclusion would be that commuting on a motorcycle is an extremely safe way to get to work. And with the proper skills, it can be.

A motorcycle's brakes are both its most powerful component and the most difficult to master. In nearly a decade of teaching high-performance riding on racetracks all over the United States, Germany, France and Japan, I can say with confidence that even those riders serious enough to go to high-end schools have difficulty getting much more than 50 percent of the braking potential from modern sportbikes.

As someone who's been lucky enough to ride some of the top superbike and grand prix machinery on many of the world's finest racetracks, let me assure you that there's still nothing more pleasurable than riding on a favorite road in a group of familiar partners. Fortunately for me, as a frequent guest tester for Sport Rider, it's also a common occurrence.

We know we're constantly harping on this subject, but we've seen one too many accidents lately that were caused by a rider getting into a corner a little too hot, locking up the brakes and/or straightening the bike, then running off the road. We can't emphasize enough how important it is to not only look where you want to go, but also to scan far enough ahead of yourself; this is basically a recital of the racing mantra, "Don't ride the front wheel." Riding a sportbike well means being in control, and although it may not appear that way, it's vitally important for a racer to constantly be on top of his motorcycle's handling. Since racers are more often than not traveling at warp speed, they must anticipate what their racebike is going to do long before it happens-which means looking far ahead of their present location. This is why racers seem to be checking out spectators on the side of the track when entering hairpins. Instead, they're looking at where they'd like to be in a 10th of a second. Yamaha 500 Grand Prix rider Norick Abe demonstrates.

1. Many times we have stressed the importance of looking ahead into a corner so that you can formulate a riding plan well in advance. Another benefit of looking where you want to go is that it can help save you when things get a little out of control; like when you're caught unaware in a corner going a little too fast. Obviously, these steps won't do you much good if you totally screw up and blast into a 30-mph corner at well over 100 mph, but if you find yourself running into a turn that tightens up unexpectedly, these points can help keep you rubber-side-down during a situation that probably qualifies as the number one trap for novice riders.

New for 2011, the 848^EVO is the year’s most significant middleweight sport bike