But it’s more than just a Virtual Grand Prix at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto. The event is being held in aid of Two Wheels for Life’s – MotoGP™’s official charity – new campaign. The goal is raising funds for their vital work fighting coronavirus on two wheels – ensuring the delivery of test results, education and equipment to hard to reach communities to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and other dangerous diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
But it’s more than just a Virtual Grand Prix at the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto. The event is being held in aid of Two Wheels for Life’s – MotoGP™’s official charity – new campaign. The goal is raising funds for their vital work fighting coronavirus on two wheels – ensuring the delivery of test results, education and equipment to hard to reach communities to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and other dangerous diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Broadcast partners showing coverage of the event will include Sky Italy, Canal+ in France, DAZN (in Spain, Italy and DACHS), BT Sport in the UK, ServusTV in Austria and Germany, Viasat in Sweden, NBC in the USA, Fox Brazil and ESPN in Latin America, Motorsport TV Russia, Eurosport India, Fox Asia, Fox Australia, TEN, and SuperSport across Africa.
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
“I enjoyed it very much,” said the nine-time World Champion, reflecting on his virtual debut. “It was good! I’m not very fast on the game because I am old. I grew up with the PlayStation after my mother gave me it, so I’ve played from when I was very young. But normally I play with cars. So, I’m not that competitive on MotoGP. I did some training the week before though and honestly, I enjoyed it so much. The top guys like Pecco and Maverick are so fast but I had good fun, especially my battle with Petrucci until the last corner. I was on the limit definitely; I was a little bit over the limit but we’re still friends.
Source: MotoGP.com – Read Full Article Here
Queensland riders have been urged not to congregate around cafes when they stop for a takeaway coffee while out on a recreational ride from this Saturday.
Restrictions are being eased from Saturday (2 May 2020) to allow riders to travel 50km for leisure.
Cafe owners on popular motorcycle routes are encouraging riders to stop and grab a takeaway coffee or brekky roll, so long as they don’t congregate.
Mt Glorious Cafe owner Hugh Douglas plans to reopen for takeaways only on Saturday and Sunday to gauge support.
The cafe closed a few weeks ago after one “nasty” neighbour complained to police that riders were congregating.
“We will put up signs asking riders not to congregate,” Hugh says.
“But we are hoping we won’t get closed down again like last time.
“There was one nasty person who lives down the road who took photos of riders congregating outside and sent them to the police.
“We had a few visits from the police who told us we must not cause people to congregate.
“But it’s pretty hard for riders to go too far with a takeaway coffee on a bike.
“In the end, we had to close down. But with this new 50km rule we will reopen and try again.
“So long as riders stand 1.5m apart how is it any different from people lining up to get into Bunnings?”
From Saturday 2 May, Queenslanders can ride for recreation up to 50km radius from their home, but not across any borders
Riders are advised that social distancing still applies which means no congregating at stops.
They must also ride in ones or twos or with several members of the same household.
You can also ride for compassionate reasons to visit a relative or close friend. No distance form home is stipulated.
Police have been ordered to use “compassion”, so make sure your reason for riding is legitimate.
The Health Minister’s office says pillions would not be allowed because they couldn’t keep 1.5m distance.
However, we would find it difficult to believe anyone could be fined for having a partner, or a member of their close family or household as a pillion.
State Disaster Co-ordinator Steve Gollschewski says police will “assist people to understand the new rules but will still enforce flagrant breaches”.
“Police will be understanding but this isn’t an invitation for people to undo everyone’s hard work,” he says.
We saw Sydney beaches opened up last week only to be quickly closed again when they became crowded.
Source: MotorbikeWriter.com
With Phil Aynsley
Suzuki’s original entry into the 500cc class came in 1968 in the US with the XR-05. The motor was a modified unit from the T500 Titan/Cobra road bike.
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III
It wasn’t until 1971 that the XR-05 appeared in Europe with Aussie Jack Findlay winning Suzuki’s first 500cc GP at Ulster that year. Output had risen from 63 to 71 hp over the intervening years.
The Suzuki XR-05 first appeared in the hands of Aussie Jack Findlay winning the Ulster GP 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III
A water-cooled version, the MkII, appeared in 1973 with triple disc brakes, larger carburettors and on works bikes, a six-speed gearbox, while power was 73 hp.
Power output on earlier models was 73 hp but evolved up to 80 hp 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
The XR-05 Mk III filled the gap before the introduction of the RG500
In 1974 the MkIII arrived as an interim model, intended to be used until the new RG500 square four was available. The MkIII had revised cylinders with a squarer look and laid down rear shocks.
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
Square cylinders were a point of note on this model
Only 15 MKIII’s were constructed with the bike seen here number 15. This bike has been fully restored although all the paintwork is original apart from the fairing. Care was taken to use as many original parts as possible.
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III
The last of the MKIII bikes were delivered in 1975, by which time output was up to 80 hp at 8900 rpm. Dry weight was just 140 kg and top speed had reached 257 km/h.
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III 
1974 Suzuki XR-05 Mk III
Source: MCNews.com.au
By Rick McDowell
“At low speeds one can liken its performance to that of a steam engine, so sweetly does it gain revs …. it can be driven like a lamb in traffic or like a lion on the open road ….”
Yes, that’s right, another example of a road tester getting carried away with the job, but, as the reference to a steam engine should indicate, these aren’t the words of a modern day test rider on some fuel-injected, plastic-encased, space shuttle.
Rather, the reporter from once famed British motorcycle paper, Motor Cycling, was talking about the new production version of Norton’s first overhead-cam machine which went straight from the workshop to victory in the Isle Of Man Senior TT of 1927.
The CS1, as the production bike was named, is something of a landmark in the history of motorcycling and you certainly won’t find too many examples of the very first model CS1 like this beautifully restored (and admittedly slightly modified) unit that belonged to Ross Lowe in Western Australia when we first featured the bike on MCNews.com.au at the turn of century. Email us if you know where this bike is now?
Ross had his work cut out restoring the bike, which, with its positive-stop gearbox, larger fuel tank and close ratio gearbox, appears to have been imported into Australia as a pure racer. The standard production model CS1 only had a three-speed box and no positive stop mechanism, plus the fuel tank was much flatter than on Ross’ version.
This particular 1929 model CS1 could well be the only example of its type in Australia, because within three years of this first version being released in 1928, the model was completely re-vamped after its designer defected from the Norton camp.
In fact, the whole story surrounding the CS1 is a melting pot of intrigue and scandal, making for a truly great yarn that can match any of today’s soapies.
The death of James Lansdowne Norton (the founder of Norton) in 1925 was a sad event in more ways than one. ‘Pa’ Norton as he had become known suffered from bowel cancer in his later life, yet it didn’t prevent him from being involved first hand with his bikes and those who rode them.
A 1905 Norton alongside a picture of Norton founder James Lansdowne Norton (1869-1925) – Image by Phil Aynsley
Always present at meetings and not afraid to get his hands dirty either, Norton was well known and even loved in two wheel circles.
The treatment of his family by the Board of Norton Motors at the time of his death is therefore hard to understand. Lansdowne, Norton’s eldest son, was sacked from his drawing office position shortly after his fathers death and the family as a whole vowed never to talk of the matter.
Walter Mansell took over as the head of Norton Motors when Pa Norton died, yet it was the passenger in the Norton sidecar outfit that won the 1924 Sidecar TT who is probably more important to our story.
Walter Moore was a well known trouble shooter of the day and was contacted directly by Mansell. After some negotiation, Moore became Team Manager for the works racing squad, but Mansell also gave him special responsibilities on the technical – or R & D – side.
A submerged pump driven by worm gears off the crank was one of the first items Moore designed in his new position and it featured on the 490cc, OHV model 18 ‘Works’ Nortons at the 1925 Isle Of Man TT.
During the winter of 1926 / 1927, Moore set about designing a brand new Norton engine that would feature not only overhead-valves, but overhead-cams as well. At the time, many manufacturers (including Norton), were still building side-valve engines, but there was a growing trend towards overhead-valves and placing the cams above the head was starting to attract interest too.
Moore’s new design was to an extent based on the company’s top of the range Model 18 machine and accordingly retained Norton’s traditional 79 mm x 100 mm engine dimensions to produce 490 cc.
However, instead of pushrods on the timing side of the engine, Moore employed two pairs of bevel gears and a shaft to create a direct drive to the overhead-cams which were on a single camshaft.
The upper, non-camshaft bevel carried the weight of the drive-shaft, while the separate cams actuated two-piece rockers that extended out of the cam-box to work the semi-exposed valves.
Tappet adjustment was performed by the screw-and-locknut method and the exhaust port was off-set slightly so as to provide an easier route for the header pipe. Perhaps even more interesting from a technical point of view, was that a 2 : 1 reduction ratio operated between the upper and lower bevel pairings, meaning that the shaft between them ran at a considerably lower speed than the engine.
The lower bevel arrangement saw the bottom of Moore’s shaft splined into a bevel gear which ran in a ball race. This lower bevel gear was naturally driven by another off the crankshaft and the whole arrangement was placed in a housing bolted to the crankcase.
On its debut at the 1927 Isle Of Man TT, the overhead-cam engine also carried Moore’s new oil pump in a separate housing underneath the lower bevel arrangement.
When the CS 1 production version was released though, the two housings and their contents had become one unit. Moore’s pump is a double-diameter rotating plunger type that is driven by a worm directly off the crank. Oil is sucked in to do its thing in the crankcase, which is supposed to have a dry-sump but which can in fact have a wet sump effect thanks to a knurled oil flow adjuster on the inlet line.
Oil is also pumped up to the cam box from where it returns to the crankcase by flowing down the hollow bevel shaft housing and lubricating the bevel gears in the process. A return oil line then feeds the lubricant back to the oil tank before another round.
However, as with many 1920s designs, the valves are left unlubricated. When you look at the photographs, it’s not hard to see that Norton’s first overhead cam engine was quickly dubbed the ‘Cricket Bat’, although it’s not hard to believe that it was also called ‘The Clanker” ! The new engine performed with distinction in its first outing, winning the 1927 Senior TT beneath a Canadian-Irishman called Alec Bennett.
Not hard to figure out why this Norton engine design was nicknamed ‘Cricket Bat’ – Image by Rick McDowell
However, it wasn’t as straight a victory as it sounds and there’s even some debate as to whether the ’27 TT was in fact the Cammy Norton’s first outing. So, it’s here that we’ll introduce one of the all time legendary figures of motorcycle sport to our story, the late and very great Stanley Woods.
Dubliner Woods had been a travelling salesman who raced on the weekends and who’d had some success in the early 20s at The Island. His results combined with the right people getting together at the right time saw Woods drafted into the Norton fold for the 1926 Senior race.
On a Model 18, Woods was the victor and he soon began working as a salesman for the company. In early 1927, Moore organised a transfer for Woods into the R & D department to help with the new overhead-cam engine. Whilst the duo initially got on well together, Woods didn’t think that Moore put a great deal of thought into the design of the new engine and although praising it for being reasonably reliable at the time, indicated that it never finished a race with the full compliment of teeth on the bevel gears!.
Woods’ opinions came through in a variety of interviews he gave more than half a century after the first overhead-cam Norton was built. Woods was known for his sharpness and vitality in later life, making his comments more than credible.
It’s therefore interesting to note too, that while Walter Moore in later life claimed to have rushed the first overhead-cam engines straight from the workshop to the TT, Woods said that he rode one of the machines at a meeting in Germany well before the 1927 Isle Of Man TT.
Woods remembered the event because the con-rod broke and he had to rush the engine back to Moore.
But the intrigue doesn’t end there, as it appears there was some form of inter team rivalry between Woods and Bennett at the TT that year. Whilst Bennett won the senior race, Woods actually set a new lap record of 70.9 mph on the fourth of six laps. His time was 31-minutes, 54-seconds and it was the first under 32-minute lap anyone had ever done on the circuit.
Woods took a re-fuelling stop between the fourth and fifth lap and although he was told by his crew that he was in the lead, nobody mentioned that he was out in front by a huge four-minutes! Unaware of his massive lead, Woods maintained a cracking pace – until the clutch on his works overhead-cam Norton expired at the end of lap five.
Afterwards, Stanley Woods blamed Walter Moore and to a degree Alec Bennett for the clutch failure. Apparently, on the evening before the race, Bennett and Woods had a passing conversation in which the former indicated that he’d beat Woods come the race. Woods just shrugged the comments off, but after his let down he learnt that Walter Moore knew about some weakness with the clutch and after practice for the big event had advised Bennett to install a new unit. Nonetheless, Woods did go on to score race wins for the new Norton at the 1927 Dutch, Belgian and Swiss Grands Prix.
Racing politics aside, the buying public were in September of 1927 given the news that a replica of Bennett’s Isle Of Man TT winning machine would be available as part of the 1928 model line-up.
Not only would the CS 1 machine feature the all new overhead-cam engine, but a new cradle frame which had also featured on the TT winning race bike. This cradle frame was also used with Norton’s 490 cc overhead-valve engine for the first time at the 1927 Isle Of Man TT races and the production version of this set up, dubbed the ES 2, went alongside the CS 1 as Norton’s top of the range duo in 1928.
Essentially, the new frame was simply an update of the single down-tube, single spine-tube and single seat-pillar-tube frame being used across the board by Norton at the time. As can be seen from the photographs, the new frame was called a cradle simply because it had a member that ran underneath the crankcase.
To be fair and considering the period, the new frame was a vast improvement, because with extra struts in its rigid rear end and with a good deal of webbing around the head stem, it did offer a huge improvement to stability under riding conditions.
The improved handling on the CS 1 can also be attributed to the Webb front forks which only a few years previously had started to be used by Norton. Other up-dates over previous Nortons included a new position behind the cylinder for the magneto (previously in front of the crankcase), a rounded oil tank under the seat and a new ‘saddle’ fuel tank.
A three-speed Sturmey Archer gearbox was fitted to the CS 1, with the long change lever laid flat so that it could be operated by foot. Hand operated gear levers were common on motorcycles at this time and a foot-shifter quite unusual.
Despite the handling and engine improvements however, the CS 1 didn’t have much in the way of stopping power, although, incredibly, the front drum brake carried by the new Norton was only starting to overtake the stirrup bicycle brake that had stayed with the motorcycle since its invention at the end of the previous century.
Not surprisingly, Ross Lowe doesn’t like to get into heavy traffic situations when he rides around Perth, preferring instead to take the bike out on Vintage club runs. Not that this necessarily means sedate Sunday rides, because make no mistake about it, this CS 1 flies. Stanley Woods managed the equivalent of 110 kph back in 1927 and as Ross kindly demonstrated after the photo shoot, his CS 1 is capable of the same, if not more.
Norton CS1 – – Image by Rick McDowell
Source: MCNews.com.au
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A year ago today, Estenson Racing’s JD Beach made history with a thrilling victory at the team’s home race in Chandler, Arizona, the Super TT. It was not only a career first for the dirt track and road racer; the victory ended a near 30-year win drought for a Yamaha Twin in the premier class of American Flat Track. It also marked the beginning of a new era, that of a modern flat tracker – the MT-07 DT.
Yamaha MT-07 DT
So what exactly is the MT-07 DT? Simply put it’s a purpose-built chassis with a production-based Yamaha MT-07 engine. Multi-time road race champion Tommy Hayden, who heads the program for the Estenson Racing team, goes into a little bit more detail of what they can do within the rules of American Flat Track’s AFT SuperTwins class:
“From a chassis point of view it’s really similar to MotoGP, pretty much everything is a prototype,” Hayden explained. “In particular with our bike, we have made to our specification every piece of the chassis with very few restrictions per the rules. Whereas the engine, I would say it’s similar to World Superbike. It starts off as a production engine, but there’s very little production about it when we get finished with it. Even the parts that are not replaced are heavily machined and changed. The displacement is changed. Pretty much besides the shell of the engine cases, everything else is changed or modified.”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
Although it was Estenson Racing that took it to the track for its debut American Flat Track season, the development didn’t start there. It was originally a project that was in house at Yamaha Motor Corporation USA (YMUS) started by Racing Division Manager Keith McCarty. After near-extinction with very little funding, flat track started to rebuild its momentum in 2015. There was an uptake in interest for the new MT-07 (then FZ-07 in the U.S.) engine for flat track racing and McCarty recognized the potential for the brand in the sport.
“The very first thing that happened was that we were getting a lot of requests for engines for flat track racing,” McCarty said. “We thought we could not only sell the engines but build some performance parts for it as well.”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
They then went about developing a head with some help from Vance & Hines, cams by Web Cam and velocity stacks designed and made by YMUS. For the exhaust, they tested several pipes and settled on a Graves MT-07 pipe, which provided the best all-round performance. They started off with a 700cc, the standard size of the regular MT-07, before eventually boring it to close to 750cc’s.
“That project turned out really well,” McCarty said. “The G&G guys used our engine setup and there are a number of guys that ran Yamahas that bought those parts from us, and then had a lot of success with them in terms of consistency, reliability, all of those things. So that kind of led us to the next thing.”
That next thing was the chassis. As mentioned before, it’s not really as easy as just buying one off the shelf. There were a couple of options in the U.S. and McCarty went to California-based C&J, to see if they could design a chassis that was distinct to Yamaha.
“It didn’t turn out like what I was looking for,” McCarty said. “We didn’t want it to be just a Yamaha engine in a C&J frame, or look like any of the other models that they build. I wanted something more relevant and more modern in its design. That kind of got me going on doing our own frame.”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
It just so happened that at the same time, YMUS’ motorcycle product line manager Derek Brooks (an ex flat track racer) was working on an idea of his own. He had gone to Jeff Palhegyi of Palhegyi Designs, who works with YMUS with a lot of future concept builds and prototypes. Wanting to build something special as the center piece for the Yamaha display at the AIMExpo, Brooks and Palhegyi had roughed out the idea of a ‘next generation’ flat track bike built on the new MT-07 CP2 engine. After some hallway discussions, Brooks, McCarty, and Palhegyi put their heads together to build not just a cool looking ‘concept bike’, rather a true flat track race machine for the future.
“We started brainstorming about building this frame so we could actually maybe build them and put them into production to race,” McCarty said. “I was responsible for the geometry and that sort of stuff. One of my main objectives was I wanted the bike to have a real air box, not just a K&N stuck on the back of the throttle bodies. I also went to Graves Racing’s Chris Lessing to help with the link and shock settings, which was inspired by road racing.”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
Brooks, who was responsible for driving the overall look and styling, wanted to make sure that it was not only modern, but cohesive design.
“The last thing I wanted to build was a traditional looking flat track bike,” Brooks said. “I felt it was time to progress the styling. We brought in design elements of the MT-07 around the fuel tank and even some dirt bike cues on the rear fender. The main element of design though, was blending the whole body into one harmonious design instead of individual, elemental pieces.”
The DT-07 dirt tracker concept bike was unveiled as planned at the 2015 AIMExpo in 2015, complete with a Kenny Roberts replica paint scheme. It definitely turned a lot of heads with its looks, especially with the growing trend of street trackers, but as far as a race bike goes there was more work to be done. YMUS then took it back in-house and started readjusting some of the things that were off on the geometry.
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“We took it out for several tests, had a variety of different guys ride it and got some pretty good results right off the bat,” McCarty said. “I wanted to take it to the next level. So we worked with Southland to make some frames, some units for us to possibly look at using them to race flat track or selling them.”
Around that same time, there was a guy in Arizona who started to get back to his motorcycle and flat-track-racing roots. A self-made business man in the logistics industry by the name of Tim Estenson who built his own very successful trucking company. He dipped his toe back into flat track racing by helping a rider race some of the Twins races in 2016 and stepped in the following year with a two-rider team, one AFT Twins rider and one AFT Singles. He found success in that debut season with an X Games win with Sammy Halbert and winning the 2017 AFT Singles title with Kolby Carlile. From there on out he kept building on that, and really came in big in 2019.
“Tim Estenson had been racing Yamahas,” McCarty said. “They were doing okay, but he wasn’t really happy with their direction. Tim and I put a little deal together where he could take the bike that we started with and take it from there.”
Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07
As for Estenson, he could’ve gone an easier route with an already established flat tracker, something that they had won on before, but his heart was set on Yamaha.
“Yamaha was bred into me as a young boy,” Estenson said. “It’s what I first started riding, so it’s more of a sentimental thing for me. When I got back into flat track with my team, I went racing with Yamahas and some other bikes, and had a couple wins with those, but I just kept thinking about the Yamaha and its legacy. Then there was this sense of, ‘if I’m winning on a purpose-built race bike, what have I accomplished?’ All of a sudden I said, ‘That’s it! We got to go back to the Yamaha.’”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
He took what he been developing with the MT-07 the previous two seasons, took what YMUS had developed in house – the MT-07 DT – and went forth to build on that framework and take it to the race track. Estenson also brought in Palhegyi to help with the chassis development.
The team showed some potential for the all-new flat tracker with a Jake Johnson podium at the Daytona season opener and Beach’s landmark win for Yamaha that Estenson was hoping for pretty early in the season. Later that year, they backed it up with a Beach and Johnson 1-2 finish at the Buffalo Chip TT. While there was early success, there was some struggle as well developing a new bike at the race track. American Flat Track presents some unique challenges and not just with the dirt, there are four very different type of tracks: Miles, Half-Miles, Short Tracks and TTs.
“I think what makes developing the flat track bike more difficult than let’s say MotoGP or superbike is that the conditions of the track change so much and so fast,” Hayden said. “When you’re testing it’s really hard to measure your gains and to really be confident that you’re making things better or worse, that it’s not the track changing. Literally in 10 minutes your racetrack can be a second slower if it’s too wet or too dry or a new line develops. Then there’s the types of track that vary so much. From the little, bitty small tracks to Mile ovals to some of the TTs with the jumps and different things. So I feel like that also makes it more challenging, even sometimes frustrating because you think you have something good but maybe it’s only really good on one specific kind of track or type of dirt or something like that.”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
McCarty recognized those challenges flat track racing presented to developing a race bike, but could see that that was changing.
“I think it’s evolving,” McCarty said. “The limiting factor for all these bikes, no matter how big or how powerful they are, is the tires. The tires are a spec tire. They’ve been around for quite some time. They made some changes this year, but I think they were really hoping to get consistency out of the tire and not make it a tire game. There are things that can be done, adjustability is one thing, the suppleness let’s say, so the frame can help the tires get as much traction as possible. The power band is quite important for that as well.”
At the same time, with his experience in many different motorcycle racing disciplines, McCarty could see those issues as just being a part of development.
“Racing is racing, whether it’s a superbike or a flat track bike,” McCarty. “They have a lot of similar problems. You always hear the word traction wherever you go. Road racing and dirt track or even motocross bikes sometimes. Suspension plays a role. Every component on the bike plays a role. I think it just has a different title and it looks a little bit different, but all of the engineering things are not unique to just superbike or flat track. They all have the same things going on.”
JD Beach on the MT-07 Flat Track machine
Although Estenson was overjoyed to get that first win in Arizona and accomplish his goal of putting Yamaha back on top in the premier class, he wants more than just a win or two. Heading into the 2020 season he increased his already substantial investment in the project. Estenson expanded the team’s headquarters to add a machine shop, and added more full-time personnel, including adding a very experienced Technical Manger, Davey Jones, and a full-time electronics technician instead of sourcing it out. In addition to that, YMUS has also increased their support for the team.
“We proved that the potential was there in the motorcycle,” Estenson said. “When we looked at the end of the year and we looked how many hundredths of a second we were behind, and we took an honest look at the motorcycle and started picking off places we felt we could get a tenth here or half a tenth here, to get up and run consistently in the front, and it looks very doable.”
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With a year under his belt with the team and a year with the new Twin, Hayden has seen the project make a lot of forward progress in that time.
“It’s evolved a lot,” Hayden said. “The biggest thing this year is we really increased our level of sophistication on everything we’re doing as far as the measuring of the motorcycle, all of the data collection, all the geometry software, the way we’re dynoing the engines and our ability to now rapid prototype development parts inhouse. As a team I feel like we have advanced a lot in the way that we are working together as a group and in our discipline with our much more structured work flow process. I feel like we have a lot more accurate documentation of everything that’s going on, every change we make, every part we develop. We’re dealing with a lot of real, hard facts and real numbers instead of, I would say a looser estimate on some of that kind of stuff.”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
The guy racing it, and the guy who has won a couple races already on it, has noticed the improvements even without turning a wheel on a racetrack yet with Covid-19 postponing the start to the 2020 season.
“I think throughout the year last year we definitely learned a lot about the bike, but made some mistakes as well,” Beach said. “So going into this winter we had a lot better plan and a lot more time with the bike. It went from a bike where I was almost dreading to ride each weekend because we knew it wasn’t getting better, to a bike that was a lot of fun to ride. Before, it was almost like, when you sat on the thing it did what it did and you couldn’t really put input into it and make the bike turn. That’s one thing that I think we’ve improved a lot this winter, how much better the bike responds to riding and be able to push just that little bit more. Also when you make changes to the bike and you can actually feel them. Before, you could make some big changes to the bike and the thing wouldn’t change at all. Of course we haven’t gone racing yet, I think it’s going to be really interesting. I also think we’ve got a better plan for when things aren’t going as well.”
Yamaha MT-07 DT
Moto News Weekly proudly brought to you by DunlopSource: MCNews.com.au
Add Kawasaki to the list of manufacturers supporting dealers with home delivery programs.
Begin press release:
Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (KMC) is proud to lead the way in revolutionizing the powersports industry yet again, streamlining the purchase process of Kawasaki vehicles, parts, accessories and apparel for the modern era. Working closely with our nationwide dealer network, KMC will be able to provide delivery of Kawasaki products to your home, all while ensuring a safe, timely, and professional experience.
“In these unprecedented times, Kawasaki is looking to ease some of the burdens facing everyone and give them the opportunity to experience Good Times
again,” said Kawasaki Senior Vice President, Sales & Operations, Bill Jenkins. “We are proud of our dealer network for working with their customers to give them the Kawasaki vehicle delivery experience, while also following the guidelines set out in their local areas.”
In light of recent stay-at-home orders, travel restrictions, and social distancing recommendations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, participating dealers are now able to deliver Kawasaki products directly to your home or business. Our goal is to help facilitate purchases of Kawasaki products by those who cannot or may not wish to visit a dealership. These products include vehicles, parts, accessories and apparel.
Our Kawasaki dealer network is committed to providing a first-rate experience for vehicle deliveries, replicating as closely as possible the vehicle pickup experience at a dealership. This means that vehicle inspections will be performed at the dealership prior to delivery, and all required delivery checklists will be completed in your presence. Your vehicle will be delivered by trained dealership personnel who can provide a thorough briefing on vehicle operation, maintenance, and safety information, and not by a third-party delivery services or common carriers.
Parts, accessories and apparel will be delivered via third-party services or common carriers. Delivery for parts and accessories ends May 31, 2020, and other limitations may apply.
Due to variations in state and local stay-at-home orders, home delivery of vehicles may be unavailable in some areas. Accordingly, please contact your local dealer for additional information and to confirm that they are able to offer home delivery.
The post Kawasaki Launches Home Delivery Program appeared first on Motorcycle.com News.
Now a new Yamaha can come right to your home with just a few clicks.
Begin press release:
Yamaha Motor Corp., USA, launched an all-new “Deliver Your Ride” program supporting Yamaha dealers that are able to complete vehicle purchases remotely and then deliver the product directly to customers. The new program includes ATV, Side-by-Side, motorcycle, and snowmobile products, and is available nationwide wherever dealers can legally and safely participate.
“Yamaha is working hard to support our dealer network and their customers during these difficult times,” said Steve Nessl, Yamaha’s Motorsports group marketing manager. “It’s not business-as-usual for anyone, yet we know people may still want to buy and enjoy new Yamaha products where possible and appropriate based on their local laws and regulations.”The new Deliver Your Ride initiative was announced to Yamaha dealers on April 17, 2020, as a temporary program and Yamaha is working diligently with dealers to assist with the implementation. Interested customers can contact their local Yamaha dealer or visit YamahaMotorsports.com to determine availability in their area. This is a voluntary program and Yamaha is encouraging each dealer to determine the feasibility based on their local laws and capabilities.
For details regarding all Yamaha products, visit YamahaMotorsports.com.
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