India’s Giant Hero MotoCorp Continues to Sponsor Erik Buell Racing AMA Superbike Efforts

Erik Buell Racing announced today that Hero MotoCorp will continue to sponsor the two teams fielded by EBR in the AMA Pro Racing American Superbike Series, including Team Hero (with returning rider Geoff May) and Team AMSOIL/Hero, with new rider Aaron Yates, a very experienced superbike racing veteran.
As EBR moves toward volume production of its three models, its relationship with Hero becomes more interesting. Hero is massive, and is controlled by one of the wealthiest families in India (including Pawan Munjal, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer). According to EBR’s press release, “Hero MotoCorp is the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer in terms of unit volumes by a single company in a calendar year. Hero sold over six million motorcycles and scooters in the calendar year 2012.”

Hero started as a joint venture with Honda Motor Company in 1984, as part of an effort by Honda to take advantage of low manufacturing costs in India. The Munjal family purchased Honda’s interest in 2010, gaining majority control of the enterprise.

It is understood that Hero has used its alliance with EBR to gain knowledge about both high performance engine design and racing. Hero is establishing its own racing efforts in India.
This all points to the likelihood that EBR is tooling up production of its bikes in India at one of the 3 plants owned there by Hero. Hero could conceivably vault EBR into a strong manufacturing position quickly. Coupled with the financing announced by EBR recently, it is not unlikely that we will see the new EBR production units available for sale in the U.S. in the not-too-distant future.

Repsol Honda unveil new bikes for 2013 MotoGP season

Repsol Honda officially unveiled their new bikes for the 2013 MotoGP season on Wednesday, while also confirming a new management structure.
Livio Suppo has been announced as new the team principal, while the RC213V bikes have undergone minor redevelopments from last season.
The bikes are described as having a bit more power and better fuel efficiency.
Dani Pedrosa, 27, and rookie Marc Marquez, 19, are the team's riders for this season.
The pair will get their first outing on the bikes when they head to Malaysia for testing in February before the season opener in Qatar on 7 April.
Pedrosa, who is entering his eighth season in MotoGP, won seven races last season and is hoping to build on that this season.
"I hope I can take up where I left off last season, with the same energy, strength and confidence," he said.
"I have been training well and I hope to arrive at the first race in good shape."
Marquez, meanwhile, has stepped up from Moto2, replacing the retired Casey Stoner.
"There are high expectations and I am grateful that [the team] have this much confidence in me. It is important for a rider," he said.
"This year will be a new experience for me, an apprenticeship, and I will have to take it one step at a time.
"Stoner was always very quick and to be able to replace him is a privilege. But in the end I am me, not him."

Motorcycling in the winter

When it comes to motorcycling, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing, so make sure you get it right when winter arrives.

You might have noticed it's been getting cold. This is the time of year when a lot of riders give their bikes a good clean, wheel them into a corner of the garage, plug in a battery charger and forget about them until the spring.
Yet in some respects, winter is the best time to be riding because congestion is worse and parking a car more difficult. As we reported earlier this year, a small increase in the number of cars has a disproportionately large effect on congestion, and when the weather deteriorates, a lot more people drive instead of walking, cycling or riding motorcycles.
When you're looking out at cold rain driving against the windows and a bitter wind is bending the trees, it's tough motivating yourself to go out on a motorcycle, with little protection against the elements. But get past that initial barrier, and it's rarely as bad once you're out there, as long as you're properly set up for it.
The bike itself matters as there are some features which make a big difference. A fairing is a major advantage: the bigger the better. A big touring bike like a BMW R1200RT will even keep most of the rain off you, until you come to a stop that is, but it's more difficult to ride through heavy traffic than smaller bikes. Even a small screen makes a noticeable difference as the key is reducing the speed at which the wind is hitting you – this also reduces the windchill factor, which above 60mph is substantial.
A very useful accessory is a pair of hand guards, common on adventure-style bikes. These also break the wind pressure against your hands and stop rain hitting them with such force. Or try handlebar muffs, which wrap right around the bar and your hands – these certainly work at staving off cold but they can be clumsy to use and it's common at speed for them to push back on the clutch or brake levers.

Kevin Ash

Kevin Ash, who has died aged 53, was for 15 years the motorcycling correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, bringing readers an unrivalled expertise and converting many into armchair, or even actual, bikers.

A great number of the latter were of the “born again” variety – middle-aged men who had dabbled with motorcycles in their youth but then put them aside, only to be fired with enthusiasm by Ash’s columns and coaxed back into the saddle. For though he was a fearsomely talented rider himself, Ash was never condescending about the weekend amateur. Indeed, in the 1990s he presciently foresaw the coming popularity of leisure biking, and his rise through motoring journalism coincided with the rise of that trend.

To those new or long-lost bikers baffled by the often nerdish complexities of modern motorcycling terminology, he provided guidance and succour. He knew which bikes readers should or would be interested in, and those that they could forget. Such clarity and broad appeal drew in even those who knew they would never kick-start anything more powerful than a lawnmower.

For Ash himself, however, such vicarious thrill-seeking would never suffice. He always, relentlessly, wanted to be in the saddle, and had done from his earliest years.

Kevin Charles Ash was born on December 10 1959 in Ilford, Essex, to Margaret and Dennis Ash. His father worked in insurance and, after his parents moved to Suffolk, Kevin won a scholarship to Ipswich School.

From the outset his overriding passion was for cars and motorcycles. As a boy he acquired a scooter on which he suffered countless scrapes. Accordingly the machine was perpetually being taken apart and repaired. Naturally enough, when Ash went up to Imperial College, London, it was to study Engineering.