November 2002 All-Moto from the web

* (December 3) It seems a slowing European scooter market is having an interesting ripple effect. Piaggio recently broke off negotiations for a merger with the MV Agusta/Husqvarna group - and the slow market now seems to be a significant part of the reasons. Then Aprilia made noises of interest in Husqvarna, having already shown a desire to add a serious off-road-range to its expanding stable. However we're hearing those talks are off as well. Meanwhile MV is reported to be left struggling for the money to produce a number of new machines which were already a long way down the development track - including a one-litre successor to the 750 F4.

* (November 30) From H-D: "Harley-Davidson is coming to Australia with the world's largest rolling birthday party - and INXS, Jimmy Barnes, Yothu Yindi and 2002 ARIA winners, Killing Heidi, will be there to rock this momentous occasion! "Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park, will host the only Australian stop of the nine-city worldwide Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary Open Road Tour on March 15th and 16th, 2003. The Open Road Tour is a series of weekend festivals for the whole family, created to celebrate 100 years of great motorcycles. Tickets will be available on Tuesday, December 10th from Ticketek and the Harley-Davidson website."

* (November 29) Our winner for the hotly-contested Wally of the Week award is the Victorian Government, which police sources reveal has just spent $150,000 of the so-called bike safety levy (a recently-introduced $50 annual tax) on...wait for it...motorcycle-mounted radar units! Now let's see if we have this right: first you tax us, then you spend the money on more revenue-raising gear.

* (November 26) From the MRA in Vic: "In an overwhelming show of support, the members of the MRA voted to remove any doubt as to who are the spokespersons responsible to speak and act on behalf of the organisation. The Quarterly General Meeting was firm in their resolution to stand by the current Board and voted to uphold their authority by not recognising any public comments by Damien Codognotto as representative of the views of the MRA."

* (November 25) Anthony West will return to the 250cc grand prix motorcycle world championship next year riding an Aprilia for an Italian team. The 21-year-old from Queensland's Gold Coast confirmed today he had joined the Florence-based UGT 3000-Abruzzo team. He will ride the machines raced in this year's 250 series by former 125cc world champion Roberto Locatelli, who has switched to Austrian manufacturer KTM for 2003. West, who did not race in 2002 after being unable to secure a grand prix ride, traveled to Italy four days ago and said he would remain overseas to test the Aprilia for the first time at the Jerez circuit in Spain from December 2-4. "The team's factory and their overall set-up is very impressive, and after sitting out this year I'm really pleased to be going back to grand prix racing," said West.

* (November 22) BMW is introducing twin-spark heads across its boxer range - here's the blurb: "The measure is designed to prepare engines for new exhaust emissions legislation set out in EU 2 and (in future) EU 3. The effect of a dual ignition system is to improve the uniformity of combustion throughout the engine's operating range - even in unfavourable conditions. As a bonus, the efficiency of the boxer engines has been further increased, with a slight reduction in fuel consumption. Engine power output peak values and torque remain the same for all models. "The system requires an additional bore in the cylinder head for the second spark plug as well as a more powerful ignition system capable of providing the extra energy needed to create a second ignition spark.

* (November 20) Triumph has released details of its upcoming Daytona 600, the replacement for the TT600. It's due May next year at $14,990.

* (November 19) Motorcycling Australia says that yesterday's Australian round of the Supermoto world championship - held at Broadford in Victoria - pulled a crowd of 7000. Australian riders discovered that this event is not to be taken lightly. Mark Avard, Greg Moss, Jamie Stauffer, Shawn Giles, Shannon Johnson, Graham Cheney and Mick Kelly finished 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st and 22nd respectively.

* (November 19) From MA: Australia will have five riders in next year's Speedway Grand Prix. New South Wales' Todd Wiltshire has been confirmed as a permanent rider in next year's Speedway Grand Prix and will join four other Australians in the assault on the 2003 title. In announcing the 2003 lineup today, Benfield Sports International (BSI), which holds the rights to the event, said that Todd had proved his potential to be a top ten finisher and is well placed to mount a credible challenge for the 2003 series.

The other Australians are Jason Crump who finished second overall in this year’s Championship, Ryan Sullivan (third), Leigh Adams (fourth) and Jason Lyons (22nd).

* (November 19) Valentino Rossi's tilt at the Rally of Britain ended early with a crash. Though he was in good company - the world champion, Marcus Gronholm, didn't finish either.

* (November 18) From reader Peter Saxon: last week a Brisbane mate of mine has had his Ventura rack (and bolted on top box) stolen while his bike was parked in the city and he was at work. Yesterday he had a front brake caliper stolen while his bike was parked in the city. Luckily he discovered 'no brakes' when he lifted the bike off the stand and it started to roll backward into the gutter - it could have been as he was heading to the first red light in peak hour traffic. So Brisbane riders beware - check your brakes before riding off and let's try and nail the bastard who could easily have caused a death.

* (November 16) Australia's two premier road race series, the Shell Champs and Formula Xtreme, will see a shake-up in the talent departments next year. Honda says it will be fielding factory teams in the superbike and supersport Shell classes. Meanwhile in FX we're hearing the all-conquering Team Radar will be switching from Yamaha to Kawasaki in 2003, while the Trinder crew will take over Radar's former duties.

* (November 14) Teenage American road-racer John Hopkins (formerly of Red Bull Yamaha) will join the factory Suzuki GP team in 2003, after agreeing terms in Valencia at the final round of 2002. Hopkins completed his debut GP season at Valencia and is testing the latest version of Suzuki's GSV-R machine in Malaysia this week. Hopkins (19) will be team-mate to 2000 World Champion and fellow-Californian Kenny Roberts Jr to make an all-American rider line-up for the factory Suzuki team. Hopkins takes the place of Sete Gibernau, who has moved with the Movistar sponsorship to a Honda ride.

Meanwhile lead Red Bull rider Garry McCoy is settled in the Kawasaki team with Aussie countryman and former world supersport champ Andrew Pitt. The Kawasaki is early in its development and will present some challenges to the riders and team as they try to get up to pace.

* (November 14) Toy Run reminder: This year marks 25 years of motorcyclists riding in Melbourne's MRA Toy Run and making Christmas special for thousands of needy children. More than 10,000 bikers on everything from the latest sports machines to vintage classics will ride from St Kilda Rd over the West Gate Bridge to Williamstown for the Bikes By The Bay Show on Sunday, December 8.

* (November 12) Frustrated national ABC radio host in the early hours of the morning: "In 100 metres there was a red light camera, a speed camera, and a random breath test accompanied by sniffer dogs (checking the car for drugs) - it's like the worst days of East Germany."

* (November 11) Suzuki-mounted Shawn Giles wrapped up his third consecutive Oz superbike title at the final round of the Shell Series in NSW yesterday. Honda-mounted Shannon Johnson (son of former superbike racer Andrew) won the Supersport title. Giles has also scored a wildcard at this weekend's Supermoto world championship round at Broadford in Vic. He will be riding a purpose-built DR-Z470.

* (November 11) Noriyuki Haga has been confirmed to switch from Aprilia's world Superbike outfit to join Texan Colin Edwards in the MotoGP squad next year.

* (November 11) Motorcycling Australia announced yesterday that the Shell Superbike Series will remain independant of the Formula Xtreme in 2003, and will be run over six rounds under this approximate timetable: 1. April - Mallala, 2. May - Phillip Island, 3. June - Winton, 4. July - Wanneroo, 5. August - Queensland Raceway, 6. August - Eastern Creek. Channel 9 is expected to broadcast highlights.

* (November 8) Victoria's State Opposition leader, Robert Doyle, has had the mid-election temerity to suggest that some speed cameras on freeways are little more than revenue-raising exercises and should be shut down. This has raised howls of protest from the Government, which has won our hotly contested Wally of the Week Award by swearing such a move would result in us all ending up in a coffin and/or public order taking the express chute to hell.

* (November 7) It's all been happening at Valencia this week with a gaggle of riders introducing themselves to their new MotoGP mounts. They included Capirossi and Aussie Troy Bayliss on their new Ducati (yesterday and today). Ducati Corse Race Technical Director Corrado Cecchinelli made a comment which shed a little light on why Ducati went for this interesting pairing of riders: "We are really pleased with how things went today and in particular the way Troy and Loris worked together. Throughout the day, Troy, who has a lot of experience with four-stroke machines, and Loris, who has been around in 500 and MotoGP for a long time, exchanged a series of information which will be useful for Ducati Corse in the future development of our Desmosedici prototype."

Of most interest locally is that Garry McCoy took the new Kawasaki for a spin. Still no signing, but you'd have to suspect he's sorely tempted. His future, and that or promising team-mate John Hopkins may well swing on what Yamaha decides to do with the satellite team it hinted at a couple of days ago (see November 5).

* (November 6) MV Agusta is about to release a new limited edition version of the F4, designed as an Agostini replica. Notable features of the F4 Ago include newly-designed 17-inch Marchesini wheels in forged aluminium alloy, single block Nissin Racing six-piston brake calipers, front disc brakes (310mm) with aluminium flange, Marzocchi 50mm fork embellished by titanium nitride treatment, and Sachs Racing shock-absorber with double adjustment for compression. It has a few more horses than the stocker and a few are expected to land in Australia for around $50,000.

* (November 5) Yamaha has announced a major two-year deal which sees the factory MotoGP teams sponsored by tobacco company Altadis - but running under separate brand names.

The first will be the Gauloises team, which has hired Brazilian Alex Barros (formerly in the West Honda Pons line-up) and Frenchman Olivier Jacque. Second is the Fortuna team, with Spaniard Carlos Checa and newly crowned 250 champion, 20-year-old Italian Marco Melandri.

Hiroshi Oosumi (General Manager, Yamaha Motorsports Engineering Division) "MotoGP has become an even greater focus for Yamaha. We are very satisfied with our 2003 line-up of an excellent sponsor, two top teams and four very capable riders. Our engineers are continuing to work extremely hard to maintain the momentum we have built up with the M1 project and to keep improving our performance.

"Yamaha is also considering the possibility of an additional entry in the 2003 MotoGP championship with a satellite team, although this will depend on a number of factors due to be confirmed shortly."

* (November 5) Garry McCoy to Kawasaki's new MotoGP effort? That's the word at the moment, with both sides saying nice things about each other. We've yet to hear of ink being put to paper, but the Aussie MotoGP rider's existing WCM team is in a perilous situation, with no major backing and therefore no bikes at this stage.

* (November 4) Alex Barros rounded out the MotoGP in fine style by beating fellow Honda rider Rossi at the Valencia GP. Max Biaggi came third, confirming his status as second in the world championship race.

It was a torrid day for Aussie Garry McCoy, who was penalised for jumping the start, then crashed. Countryman Andrew Pitt brought the Kawasaki home in 12th. Melandri won the 250 race and Pedrosa the 125, while Arnaud Vincent's second place in the latter race was enough to score the world championship. More details on our MotoGP page - click here.

* (October 31) Kenny Roberts Snr's father, Buster, died on the weekend, according to USA site Motorcycle Daily.

* (October 29) Spaniard Ruben Xaus on the announcement that he will be sticking with the Ducati superbike team - partnered with Briton Neil Hodgson: "I'm really happy to be able to continue to ride for Ducati and I hope I can continue to get the best possible results for the team. It feels strange because although I'm only 24, I feel like one of the oldest guys around in Ducati, this is my fourth year with them. The new bike looks and feels great and I can't wait to put it through some serious testing out on the track."