The year is coming to a close so let’s take a look back at the top stories of 2009 in the world of motorcycles after the jump. Buell Motorcycles Shut Down
Harley-Davidson made the shocking announcement Oct. 15 it would discontinue Buell Motorcycles.
Current Moto2 points leader Scott Redding has signed a two-year contract to race in the MotoGP class for the Go&Fun Honda Gresini team. The 20-year-old British rider will join Alvaro Bautista on the Gresini team riding the new Honda‘s new production racer the team reveals will be called the RCV1000R. Redding leads the Moto2 championship for the Marc van der Straten racing team with 167 points, a comfortable lead of 21 points ahead of Tuenti HP 40‘s Pol Espargaró with seven rounds to go.
Honda announced plans to open its fourth motorcycle manufacturing plant in India, with a production capacity of 1.2 million units per year. Honda is investing 11 billion Indian rupees (US$175.8 million) into the new facility which it hopes will strengthen the position of its subsidiary Honda Motorcycle Scooter India Ltd. as the world’s second largest motorcycle producer while taking aim at the current leader, Hero MotoCorp.