2005 Honda Shadow Spirit 750 (vt750dc) on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Intermot 2012: Honda CRF450 Rally Unveiled

Today at Intermot 2012, Honda unveiled the CRF450 Rally, the machine it plans to enter in the 2013 Dakar Rally, marking the manufacturer’s return to the race after more than two decades. Honda has competed nine times from 1981 in the forerunner of the present Dakar Rally, the Paris-Dakar Rally. Cyril Neveu of France took Honda to its first victory in 1982, the race’s fourth year, and from 1986 to 1989 Honda won four consecutive titles for an overall record of five victories in nine years. The CRF450 Rally is based on Honda’s commercial CRF450X enduro racing model, and features electronic fuel injection, auxiliary fuel tanks in the panniers and lower side fairings, and the requisite navigation equipment located behind the windscreen.

Stoner Back on Top on Day 2 of MotoGP Test in Sepang

Casey Stoner made his return to the track after missing the first day of the MotoGP pre-season test at Sepang and showed everyone why he deserved the #1 plate. After skipping the first day of the test due to back pain, Stoner was back on the Repsol Honda RC213V and set the top lap time of all riders. Stoner rode 29 laps and set the pace with a lap time of 2:00.895, 0.157 seconds faster than Ben Spies and 0.173 seconds ahead of Jorge Lorenzo.

How to solve the mystery of the wildcard replacement

With the two test riders coming forward to act as replacement riders for the injured Rossi and Aoyama, it brought back memories of the days when the grid would be gifted with wildcard riders from the respective countries. The Japanese rounds were always attended by some of the top guys with experience of the 500GP and MotoGP bikes, through racing them in their domestic championships. What resulted was getting to witness the exciting and talented Japanese riders, and bring new riders to the attention of the teams.