All posts tagged bmw
Motorcycle Comic: Ruben Xaus on his Way Out?
BMW’s Ruben Xaus, who crashed out four times at Phillip Island has been the latest rider to be targeted by the caustic wit of Motoblog’s resident comic artist Luca Ruggeri.
The Spanish rider who seems to single handedly support the motorcycle fairings market, according to the latest rumors that are circulating, may find himself without a ride for the rest of the season if he doesn’t regain his confidence and improve his performance in the next two rounds at Portimao and Valencia.
BMW S1000RR Video- Don't Try This at Home
If you don’t believe that BMW’s S1000RR can do zero to 100km/h (62 mph) in just 2.9 seconds, you can always try the age old tablecloth trick like the guys in the video to prove it, but if you do it with your wife’s good chinaware, you can be sure that you won’t be getting any for a couple of weeks.
Photo of the Day: Ruben Xaus, The Flying Spaniard
We can imagine that BMW’s rider Ruben Xaus couldn’t wait to take the first flight out of Australia and put this last weekend at Phillip Island behind his back.
Xaus binned his S 1000 RR three times during Friday’s practice leaving him no spare bikes to ride and during Sunday morning warm-up slammed into the back of Noriyuki Haga’s Ducati at turn 1.
Both riders managed to escape serious injuries, but doctors and BMW’s team manager Davide Tardozzi probably though it was better that the Spaniard withdraw from the first round especially after Xaus said he felt disorientated.
Source | motociclisti.my.blog.it
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BMW S1000RR - Watch the valves from the piston
You’ve seen the birth of the BMW S1000RR from the drawing table to the race track, the other day you saw the bike’s valves in action and now BMW Motorrad has released this second technical video of the valves from the piston’s point of view, which is an absolute stunner for all of you mechanics oriented guys out there.
Turn up the volume on your computers and let this wonderful sound caress your ears.
BMW 2010 Team Launch
Last Friday at the BMW Group Classic in Munich, Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport officially launched its second season in the FIM Superbike World Championship with Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus who are ready to begin the 2010 season that takes of at Phillip Island February 28th.
In the presence of Infront Motor Sports CEO Paolo Flammini, Superbike World Championship Director Paolo Ciabatti and other guests, Corser and Xaus arrived on stage, riding their BMW S 1000 RR bikes.
Director BMW Motorrad Motorsport Berthold Hauser has ambitious goals: “Our goal is to close the gap to the leading teams. We are aiming to finish in the top five as regularly as possible and pick up our first podium. That’s the ambitious aim we have set ourselves for our second year in what is an extremely challenging World Championship. However, we are well aware that our competitors have not been standing still either. The Superbike World Championship brings us up against six motorcycle manufacturers who have established themselves on the race track. You can set yourself aims in sport and make plans to achieve them, but you cannot dictate results – those have to be earned out on the track. Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport is working flat out to make this possible.”
Davide Tardozzi, former Ducati team manager will head up team management and operational control at the race tracks. Rainer Bäumel will continue as Head of Overall Project Management and Project Management Engineering, and Tardozzi has been given carte blanche by the German company.
WSBK: Second Day of Testing at Valencia with more bad weather
Freezing temperatures and rain showers hampered the second day of private testing at Valencia. The Aprilia team even packed in early and won’t be testing tomorrow, because Max Biaggi and Leon Camier will be in Montecarlo for Piaggio’s European Dealers Convention.
“Unfortunately this time the weather was against us,” declared Max Biaggi, “and this could be a problem because we didn’t get the confirmation we were looking for. In addition our rivals will also be testing tomorrow, when it’s expected to be sunny. Now the situation is a bit more complicated, we’ll be testing in Australia before the race, but if there are any problems then it will be too late to do anything. I’m still optimistic however because I have every confidence in the work of the Aprilia engineers“.
Xerox Ducati rider Noriyuki Haga completed 19 laps, while team mate Michel Fabrizio did about four before heading back to his garage. Shane Byrne and Carlos Checa riding their Althea Ducati’s also did a handful of laps before calling it quits.
Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus each managed about 10 laps with very high lap times on their BMW S 1000 RR and they too decided that riding in today’s weather wouldn’t produce any decent testing.
Aprilia won’t be on track tomorrow, while Ducati, BMW, Althea Ducati and Team Pata (Borciani-Guandalini) will try to get some testing done, weather permitting.
Source | wsbk
WSBK: More Testing at Valencia
The Superbike tests at Portimao organized by Infront Motor Sport were officially over on Sunday, but several WSBK teams headed straight to the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia for another two days of important testing, before the first round of the championship that kicks off on February 28th at Phillip Island.
Ducati Xerox with Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio, BMW with Ruben Xaus and Troy Corser and Aprilia’s Max Biaggi and newcomer Leon Camier with test rider Alex Hofmann, who from his Twitter page reports that it’s cold and blustery at Valencia, are the factory teams who are present. Also on track Althea Ducati with Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne.
Jakub Smrz is also in Valencia with the merged Borciani-Guandalini team, however the Czech rider will be using a Ducati instead of an Aprilia. Apparently negotiations with Noale to use the RSV4 have fallen through on economic issues.
Several Moto2 teams are also at Valencia including Herve Poncharal’s Tech3 team and Aspar Martinez with his Mapfre Aspar Team, who has finally decided on the RSV chassis.
WSBK: Tardozzi confirms BMW Move and Tips Championship between Ducati and Aprilia
Just before Christmas we told you that former Ducati Xerox team manager Davide Tardozzi was heading to BMW, officially there’s no press release yet, but Tardozzi, speaking with Italian website gpone.com has confirmed that he will be infact in the WSBK paddock and manage the BMW team this year.
Here’s what Tardozzi had to say about his upcoming challenge and he’s very matter of fact about the work and the goals that he set out and wants to obtain with WSBK team:
“It won’t be our objective to win this year, but in 2010 we’ll try to do what Aprilia did in 2009. A couple of podiums and maybe a win so we can be ready to fight for the title in 2011.”
BMW has tied up the Italian manager for the next three years.
“BMW has been really great. They’ve given me the opportunity to move on at the end of 2010 if I want to, but they’ve also given me the option to stay on for another two years.”
Judging by his words Tardozzi is also looking towards the future and would like to run a MotoGP team one day and reading between the lines it looks like he wasn’t asked to replace Livio Suppo in Marlboro Ducati:
“In MotoGP? Why not? To be sincere it kind of upset me that … so if I have the opportunity… the new MotoGP rules will have 1000cc engine with a maximum bore of 81mm and the S1000 RR has 80. The biggest in production.”
Continue reading: WSBK: Tardozzi confirms BMW Move and Tips Championship between Ducati and Aprilia
WSBK – Davide Tardozzi becomes BMW’s Team Manager
The rumors were circulating for several weeks, but Italian website Motosprint has now former Ducati Xerox manager Davide Tardozzi almost signed up with WSBK’s official BMW team.
Tardozzi left Ducati after almost twenty years of service and eight Riders’ Championships, first as a team manager then as Ducati’s SBK project manager, stated that he left the team because he was seeking new personal challenges and will find it in the highly ambitious German Superbike team in it’s second year of world racing,
No official press release yet, but Tardozzi is apparently hard at at work and many are convinced that he’s behind Ducati’s tech and track engineer Max Bertolini,who worked with rider Michel Fabrizio for the past two years, defection to BMW.
Tardozzi will find in BMW two riders he already knows and managed when he was in Ducati, Troy Corser who won the 1996 title with Ducati and Ruben Xaus.
We’ll see Tardozzi in the BMW garage during the official tests at Portimao, January 22th-24th.
Alex Zanardi rides a motorcycle at Monza
If you follow car racing besides motorcycle racing, you may remember Alex Zanardi who used to drive in Formula 1 and in Champ Car (CART) and what happened to him during the German GP at the Eurospeedway at Lausitzring, where he lost both his legs in one of most horrific accidents ever seen.
Zanardi still drives cars and occasionally races and also partecipates in marathons, and thanks to Riders Italian Magazine and BMW Italy, Zanardi was able to feel the thrill of a riding a motorcycle again.
At the famed Monza circuit, Zanardi was given a special BMW HP2 equipped by Guidosimplex with special hand operated gears and brakes, the Italian was able to ride the bike and to everyone’s surprise he continued to improve lap after lap and Zanardi was so happy that he wants to try this adventure again.
Alex Zanardi:
“I want to thank my friends at Riders that involved me and BMW Motorrad Italy in this apparently complicated experiment. I had a fantastic day that let me rediscover such beautiful sensations that I had forgetten. I hope there will be a next time because if I enjoyed the HP2 Sport so much I can’t immagine what an S 1000 RR can do.”
After the jump more pics and the video of Zanardi’s accident.
BMW S 1000RR Styling Explained
BMW Motorrad VP of Design, David Robb walks us through the design and styling of BMW’s first superbike, the S1000RR and tells us why it looks the way it looks and the reasons behind its asymmetrical design.
The explaination is pretty cool and probably answers a few questions that came to mind when you first saw those shark gills and those asymmetrical headlights.
Wayne Gardner tests Superbikes at Portimao
Wayne Gardner, the 1987 500cc World Champion and four time winner of the Suzuka 8 Hours and motorcycle icon of the ’80’s alongside the likes of Kevin Schwantz, Eddie Lawson and Wayne Rainey, got to try seven different Superbikes marques at the Portimao track.
Gardner who turned fifty October 11th, gave his first impressions to Italian website GPone.
What did you think about these bikes?
“Each of them has a different personality and most of all the characteristics are very particular. I was impressed by the Yamaha which was very difficult to ride: my compliments to Ben Spies that brought it to victory, he did a great job. I was also impressed by the BMW’s, while the Kawasaki is the one that has the most potential. On this circuit, I had fun on the Ducati, it seemed made for those up and down hills that remind me very much of the English tracks, like Brands Hatch.”
Source | gpone
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