Celebrating 80 years of the Assen TT includes an appearance by Giacomo Agostini with his 1975 bike, together with Jorge Lorenzo and a special livery with the number one designed for the occasion. Tomorrow, Agostini will lap the MotoGP Assen track with his original bike and while he just sat on the Yamaha M1 today, he has previously expressed a desire to try it. In fact it seems that he will complete a couple of laps with the M1, going from the OW23 with 120hp to the 240hp of the M1.

Present at the unveiling of the historic bike were Giacomo Agostini, Jorge Lorenzo fresh from qualifying in the pole position, Yamaha Racing president Shigeto Kitagawa and Ferry Brouwer from Yamaha Classic Racing. Agostini says: “Tomorrow I will have the chance to ride the “past” and the “present;” the first and the latest world champion bikes. My OW23 was like a bicycle with 120bhp, but used to get power at 6000rpm…whilst the M1 has 240bhp!” See our live pics in the gallery below.

Agostini and Lorenzo with 1975 OW23 and M1

Continue reading: Live pics from Assen: Giacomo Agostini and Jorge Lorenzo from 1975 to M1 in 2010

For those of you who will be attending the Dutch GP this year will have a further treat besides the usual top notch racing, motorcyle legend Giacomo Agostini will be attending the event to pay homage to the 80th Assen TT and will ride his celebrated 1975 YZR500 OW23 racebike at the ‘Cathedral’ on June 26th.

This is the original machine that he rode to his last ever world title victory in 1975 and has special significance as it was also the machine he rode to victory on at the Assen TT in that year. This rare and historically important racebike is being flown over by Yamaha from Japan for this occasion, and is a rare opportunity to see and hear it being ridden by Agostini on track as he did 35 years ago.

Check out the interview with Agostini who speaks pretty good English and maybe Yamaha Racing will give him the opportunity to try the M1, a legend certainly deserves it.

Continue reading: Giacomo Agostini To Ride his 1975 YZR500 OW23 at Assen

Last year Dainese and AGV launched the Italian Legendary Tour for 40 lucky winners who had a marvellous three day riding adventure throught the Italian Dolomite Mountains with Giacomo Agostini, Marco Lucchinelli and Max Biaggi.

Following the success of last year, Dainese is again launching the new Italian Legendary Tour, to discover one of the most beautiful regions in Italy, Tuscany. This year the project also has the precious collaboration of Fondazione Sistema Toscana and turismo.intoscana.it, the portal set up by the Tuscany Region to valorise and promote its territory.

Through this partnership, the group of lucky winners will have the opportunity to experience the best of Tuscany, having fun motorcycling on Ducati, MV Agusta and Triumph motorcycles through gorgeous scenery in the company of some of the greatest motorcycle legends from past and present: Valentino Rossi, Kevin Schwantz and Giacomo Agostini will participate at different stages during the tour .

Continue reading: Rossi, Agostini and Schwantz in 2010 Dainese Legendary Tour

Remember the Dainese Legendary Tour? You had to buy € 250 worth of Dainese and/or AGV products and you could win a trip to Italy to tour the Italian Dolomite Mountains with Marco Lucchinelli, Max Biaggi and Giacomo Agostini.

Dainese has put online this highlight video of the 2009 tour, so we can turn green with envy about what we missed out on; magnificent motorcycles, legendary riding companions, breathtaking scenery (except for snow in September) great Italian food, heady wine, what more can anyone ask for.

Source | motoblog

Continue reading: Dainese 2009 Legendary Tour Video

Giacomo Agostini has decided to put his Moto2 team on the back burner and wait out the 2010 season to see how things play out in the new championship series.

“Thanks, but I’m not in a hurry.” said the most successful rider in motorcycle history.”I want to do things in a right way and there’s not enough time to build a team to suit the situation. We would have to work too quickly.”

When asked if he has given up on the project, Ago replied: “Not at all, I’m going to stand at the window and see how this Moto2 takes off.”

Agostini ‘s intention is to return to his project in the mid 2010 and assess the situation and work in prospect for the 2011 season, however the Italian champion could have an even more ambitious project with MV Agusta -Cagiva, which could have something to do with the recent MotoGP rule changes that will see the return of the 1000cc in 2012.

Source | sportmediaset

Continue reading: Giacomo Agostini puts his Moto2 project on hold

The well informed Italian website Motosprint is reporting that motorcycle racing legend Giacomo Agostini is thinking of entering a team in the new Moto2 series.

The project if it goes through would see the involvement of number of high profile people including Claudio Castiglioni, chairman of MV Augusta and Cagiva and the bike could actually be branded Cagiva, with Simone Corsi as the rider.

There are a couple of problems facing the team, besides the always hard task of finding a budget of at least 2.5 million euros to run in the championship.

Continue reading: Moto2: Giacomo Agostini Racing Team?

If you were thinking of purchasing something from Dainese or AGV do it right away.

If you spend a total of €250 on their products, you’ll get a coupon with a special code, that could make you one of the 18 lucky people who could get the once in a lifetime chance to ride with three legendary champions.

Giacomo Agostini, Marco Luchinelli and Max Biaggi in the Dainese 2009 Italian Legendary Tour will join the proud winners and for three days, and each day you’ll have the chance to ride alongside a different champion in the wonderful and breathtaking Dolomite mountains in Italy.

Just visit the Dainese website and enter your code.

Can you imagine the faces of your buddies when you tell them that you’re going to Italy to ride with “Ago”, “Crazy Horse” and the “Roman Emperor”?

Continue reading: Ride with Agostini, Lucchinelli and Biaggi

If you’re going to be in Belgium this weekend why not take in the three day 4 Hours of Spa Classic at the Spa Francorchamps circuit.

You’ll be able to breathe and see what motorcycles was really like back in the 60’s and 70’s and see the likes of legendary riders Giacomo Agostini, Rod Gould, Dieter Braun, Steve Baker and Chas Mortimer who will be reunited with their Yamaha bikes that they originally rode.

Agostini will be riding the awesome Yamaha 500cc OW23 in the GP1 and 750 class. Ago rode this bike for the very first time at the Belgian GP in Spa 35 years ago, and finishied 2nd in that race, in front of Braun.

Supported by Yamaha Motor Company in Japan, Agostini’s OW23 bike was flown over from the factory especially for the event. Following Spa it will then be taken to Goodwood Festival of Speed where it will be ridden by Chas Mortimer on July 4th and 5th. Chas was the first ever Yamaha GP winner in 1972 on the YZ634A.

In the GP2 class at Spa Chas Mortimer and Dieter Braun will appear on the screaming 2 stroke Yamaha YZ635 and Yamaha YZ634 while Luca Cadalora was to be racing his original OWA7 250 2 cylinder, but had to pull of out of the event for personal reasons.

If you’re going to be attending the 4 Hours Spa Classic or the Goodwood Festival why not send us your pics, we’ll more than happy to post them with your name. Send to: pics@twowheelsblog.com

Continue reading: Giacomo Agostini to ride Yamaha OW23 at Spa Classic

As Marc Potter from MCN, who rode alongside Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini during the parade lap and was with the Italian duo while they were watching the Dainese Superbike race reported what Valentino Rossi said, or what I imagine anyone would say, who was taking in for the first time in their life the Tourist Trophy and watching John McGuinness go by at 180mph: “’Fack!”

Rossi rode a specially painted 2009 Yamaha R1 alongside Giacamo Agostini who was on a MV Agusta and followed the TT marshals and “Ago” showed Rossi where he won 10 TT Trophys out of the sixteen times he competed in the races when they were part of the official Gran Prix championship.

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi and Giacomo Agostini at 2009 TT

Valentino Rossi’s appearance at 2009 Isle of Man TT has been postponed until Monday June 8 due to poor weather forecasts.

The 8 times World Champion was due to complete a parade lap of the 37.73 mile (60.7 km) road circuit with Grand Prix and TT legend Giacomo Agostini this morning ahead of the Dainese Superbike TT race.

Vittorio Cafaggi, Communications Director, Dainese commented:

“Valentino is very much looking forward to visiting the Isle of Man and is keen to experience the races which is why we have rescheduled his trip to make sure that he is able to enjoy a lap of the course and be certain of a full day’s racing.”

Continue reading: Rossi Postpones TT Appearance

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi has been nominated for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award, an honour that will be decided in the tenth edition of the Laureus World Sports Awards.

Rossi was one of six sportsmen to be entered onto the final shortlist, following a ballot open to the world’s media in a record 112 countries. His rivals for the prize are Olympic gold medal winners Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, tennis champion Rafael Nadal and soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.

Giacomo Agostini, 15 times world champion and member of the Laureus World Sports Academy is estatic about Rossi’s nomination:

“He is without doubt the greatest motorcycle racer of his generation and one of the greatest of all times. He lost the championship in 2007 and bounced back stronger than ever, winning in 2008 as a champion. Records are made to be broken and I don’t think there’s a better person than Valentino to break mine and I compliment him. I’m also happy that it was an Italian who did it.”

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi in shortlist for Laureus World Sportsman Award

With the Moto GP kicking off in Qatar, and the Superbike underway, it looks like it will be a season of record making and breaking. And the names to beat will be Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi, as both in their respective disciplines, will look to be the best (Italian) rider of the year.

In the ranking of most poles won in the three classes, Rossi is third on 51, preceded by Max Biaggi (56) and Mick Doohan (58). The possibility of Rossi beating Biaggi is at hand, but in Yamaha, Rossi has never achieved more than five poles in any one season.

If Rossi should win a fourth title with Yamaha, he would beat the likes of Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and Kenny Roberts all on three titles with the company. Rossi is also first in the ranking of most points ever won, with 3,720, ahead of Loris Capirossi on 2,993 and Max Biaggi 2,892. If Rossi gets 400 points (he reached 373 last year) he could hit the 4,000 mark.

Continue reading: The season for records: Valentino Rossi vs history and Agostini, Doohan and Biaggi