Ruben Xaus will be reaching for a goal at this year’s season opener at Phillip Island and no, it’s not the number of crashes he’s had in his career, but his 200th start in World Superbikes.

The Spaniard will be joining the likes of Carl Fogarty, Noriyuki Haga, Troy Corser, Aaron Slight, and Frankie Chili for the number of race starts, and if you ever wondered why Xaus uses #111 as his racing number, it’s because each digit is dedicated to the names of the women in his life, his wife and two daughters.

Source | motociclisti.myblog.it

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When Ten Kate revealed the famed green, red and white Castrol livery a couple of weeks ago, long time Superbike fans had a walk down memory lane, so naturally Honda couldn’t resist giving fans a visual reminder of their historic and winning partnership with Castrol.

From their success in 1997 with John Kocinski and the two titles with Colin Edwards in 2000 and 2002, to the present day with Jonathan Rea and Ruben Xaus, who are more than ready to battle it out in this year’s World Superbike championship.

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Here’s a video of the Castrol Honda garage, with Ruben Xaus and Jonathan Rea talking about the three day official test at Portimao that was blighted by bad weather.

Rea however, was the second fastest rider in the combined times and Xaus was 13th, but as every knows testing don’t always give a true indication when the championship season does come around.

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Bad weather continues to hamper World Superbike testing at Portimao, on the third and final day. This fifth session was dominated by Ruben Xaus on the Castrol Honda with a best lap 1′47.065 leaving Michel Fabrizio on the Suzuki GSX-R1000 in second, and more than one full second behind.

Third went to Marco Melandri who head onto the track in the last four remaining minutes of the session, put in just two laps, but they were enough to put him in third, but he was a massive 7.283s off the top spot.

Sylvain Guintoli was fourth fastest, ahead of Carlos Checa, and they were followed by the Kawasaki duo Tom Sykes and Joan Lascorz, who were sixth and seventh respectively. Jonathan Rea, Noriyuki Haga and Ayrton Badovini completed the top ten.

Aprilia Alitalia’s Leon Camier and Max Biaggi were back from Montecarlo, with Camier taking to the track for eight laps, while team mate Biaggi sat the session out as did Yamaha’s Eugene Laverty.

Continue reading: WSBK Portimao test: Ruben Xaus fastest in morning session

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The Castrol Honda World Superbike team was revealed the other day to the media, but once finished with the official presentations, packed up and headed to the Aragon circuit (the round is scheduled for the middle of June) for a two day test, which was hampered by freezing conditions and rain … it is the middle of winter after all, even in sunny Spain.

Jonathan Rea and Ruben Xaus were supposed to learn the new track after missing the October test, but the weather conditions forced them to do a minimum number of laps and then call it quits. The team is now on their way to Portimao for the the official three-day test that starts Wednesday January 26th

“It’s been a frustrating couple of days really because after the rain yesterday morning it’s been sunny, but it’s been really, really cold. At least I got some laps in yesterday afternoon - maybe 30 or 40 - so I know which way the track goes and I was able to give some good feedback on gearing to my crew. It wasn’t a complete waste of time - it’s a really nice circuit and I enjoyed riding it but we were understandably a little way off where our rivals were when they had three days testing here last October. But when we come back in June, at least we won’t be starting completely blind,” said Rea.

Continue reading: Cold and rain hampers Castrol Honda Aragon test

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Lucky for us Bike Channel was present at the unveiling of the Castrol Honda World Superbike team and we can now see and listen to first hand what Jonathan Rea and Ruben Xaus (who speaks pretty good English) had to say about the bike, about each other and their expections for the upcoming 2011 season.

Enjoy the video.

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The new Castrol Honda World Superbike Team was revealed today at the Castrol Technology Center, bringing back Castrol as the title sponsor, with the magnificent livery colours that will grace Ten Kates Honda CBR1000RR’s in 2011.

Castrol has been associated with Honda since 1959 and as a title sponsor helped take three World Superbike titles in 1997, 2000 and 2002. The 2011 team efforts will be placed in the capable riding skills of now veteran Honda rider Jonathan Rea, who is giving up his #65 racing number to take #4, where he finished in 2010 standings, and newcomer to the team, Ruben Xaus who certainly will have something to prove after his two unimpressive seasons with the BMW Motorrad team.

Donald Smith - sponsorship manager, Global Marketing Unit, Castrol:

Castrol are delighted to join Honda once again to see the return of the famous Castrol Honda World Superbike team to racetracks around the world. Motorcycle racing provides Castrol with the ultimate environment to test and develop our advanced Castrol Power One technology and the Castrol Honda World Superbike team provides a powerful and exciting platform to demonstrate the performance of our Castrol Power One products.”

Continue reading: Castrol Honda World Superbike Team revealed

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With some advertising money to waste, BMW Motorrad did this odd experiment using after image effect (subliminal advertising) for their S1000 RR.

The video is very interesting and explains how this whole image effect works and what’s pretty scary is the viewers after closing their eyes, were able to see the BMW logo. (You won’t be able to see the effect in this video).

What we don’t know is how BMW picked their target group (which should be potential motorcycle buyers), because if their guinea pigs are already motorcycle owners and lovers, who follow trade magazines and motorcycle websites, they’ll recognize with one glance that those asymmetric headlights belong to S1000RR machine and associate it with BMW, even without the image effect.

Then you have Ruben Xaus doing the commercial, so you can’t rule out that one of the viewers may also be a Superbike fan and consciously know that Xaus rode for the BMW team for two consecutive years.

Source | bikesinthefastlane

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Just the other day we reported the rumor that Ruben Xaus was on the verge of signing a deal with Ten Kate Honda and we can now confirm that the Spaniard will officially be with the Dutch team next season.

Xaus despite being popularly considered as single-handedly keep the fairing industries in business, is one of the most experienced riders in the World Superbike scene and has won eleven races and been on the podium 35 times and in 2009 and 2010 raced for the BMW’s official Superbike team.

“It’s difficult for me describe how happy I am that I will ride with the Ten Kate Honda team next season. For many years I have admired the passion and dedication that they bring to World Superbikes and I believe that they capture the essence of the championship,” said Xaus. “They run a successful Honda dealership in Holland and with the support of Honda Europe they manage a team that has some of the most skilled tuners and engineers. They have shown with all their world titles that they have the right blend of skill and desire. I know that I am capable of more SBK wins and I will bring all my racing experience, gained on many different types of machine, to help achieve more success with the Ten Kate Honda team. I would like to thank Gerrit, Ronald and all the guys Honda for the faith that they have shown in me and in my potential. I still have a lot of things I want to do in World Superbikes and I believe this team will allow me to achieve what we all aim for. It will begin with my first test with my new team at the end of this month and I cannot wait to start work.”

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Just last week at the EICMA show in Milan, Ruben Xaus who was attending the event, revealed that he was still searching for team to hook up with for the 2011 season, but MCN.com is now reporting a rumor regarding the aggressive, but amazingly crash prone Spaniard (HFL has decided that Xaus’s tendency towards weird crashes deserved a special dictionary meaning).

According to the British website, Xaus has reportedly signed with Ten Kate Honda’s WSBK team this week and will partner Jonathan Rea next season. The news of the deal should be released before the Portimao test at the end of the month.

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The first free practice for the ninth round of the World Superbike Championship at Brno saw Michel Fabrizio on top of the time charts and the end of the session with a best lap of 1.59.917 and the only rider to break the 2 minute mark. The Ducati Xerox factory rider was followed by privateer Carlos Checa who was four tenths off the top spot.

BMW riders Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus were also on top of the charts, with a suprisingly fast Xaus who finished in third while Corser took fourth and 0.163s from his Spanish team mate.

Ducati Xerox rider Noriyuki Haga lead the top of the timesheets for a good part of the session before slipping to fifth, ahead of privateer Luca Scassa who’s riding Haga’s last year’s 1198.

Continue reading: WSBK Brno: Michel Fabrizio on Top in FP1, Ducati's Looking Good

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After just four rounds of the 2010 World Superbike season, we’re already talking silly season with the future of Ruben Xaus in the BMW team at risk, according to the recent gossip coming out after Assen.

After Xaus’ pull-out following four massive crashes during the Phillip Island round, where he also ran into the back of Noriyuki Haga’s Ducati and team manager Davide Tardozzi going to Spain to play the role of psychologist and trying to get Xaus mentally back in shape and stating that Xaus’ spot in the team wasn’t in doubt, and he would give his rider a couple of more rounds to to regain his lost confidence, but the Spaniard’s position in the team has slightly changed after Troy Corser’s excellent performance during the Assen round.

Xaus crashed four times during last weekend, once in qualifying, once in warm-up practice and twice in race 1 and in race 2 managed a tenth place, but now Tardozzi is now eyeing Jakub Smrz to replace Xaus in the German team’s 2011 line-up.

According to this week’s edition of Motorsprint, the volcanic Italian manager admitted that he’s thinking about having Smrz in BMW: “We like the guy and his name is the first on our 2011 list.”

Xaus is now officially warned.

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