2013 Yamaha Pw50 (romney, Wv) on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Rossi Makes Progress but Hayden Suffers Shoulder Setback

Ducati continues to develop its Desmosedici GP12 MotoGP race bike, setting modest goals while trying to establish a good setup. Already trailing the other factory teams in development time for its race prototypes, Ducati continued to try to find good base settings for the GP12. Valentino Rossi achieved the team’s goal of lapping under two minutes and two seconds with a time of 2:01.886 while completing 44 laps on the second day of testing at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit.

US Motorcycle Thefts Down 6% in 2011

Americans reported 46,667 motorcycle thefts in 2011, a 6% decrease from 49,791 stolen motorcycles in 2010, reports the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Despite the drop in reported thefts, the non-profit organization representing nearly 1100 property and casualty insurance companies says the theft rate still averages out to one motorcycle stolen every 11 minutes in the U.S. The numbers were published in the NICB’s 2011 ForeCAST Report which examined theft reports as well as recoveries.

2012 Yamaha YZF-R1 Video Featuring Ben Spies

Yamaha has released a new video of the 2012 YZF-R1 featuring MotoGP racer Ben Spies taking the new bike with Yamaha’s 50th Anniversary limited edition livery to a track day. Spies who won the 2009 World Superbike Championship on a Yamaha R1 so he is obviously very familiar with the sportbike which will now be available with a seven-level traction control system. Spies appears a little bored as the other riders learn the layout of the track and when they get to the track, he calmly waits while they take off around him before dropping the hammer and showing them how it’s done.