Two motorcycle events in Italy are currently, being held, wtih the Motor Bike Expo in Verona, and the Bike Expo Show “next door” in Padua. In Verona you’ll find plenty of famous brands and bikes, including the Aprilia RSV4 R and other new models from Suzuki, Triumph, Ducati etc. Aprilia will also show off its new SXV and RXV off-road models, and for Ducati there’s the chance to check out the new Multistrada 1200, if you haven’t seen it already.

Honda will be present with the CRE and CRM 50 enduro and supermotard models, while the CRE F 125 Racing version will also be on show. Kawasaki will display the Z1000 and the KLX 125 and D-Tracker 125. For the joy of fans of classic bikes, Royal Enfield is putting in an appearance, including the showing of its Bullet Classic EFI.

Suzuki will be celebrating 100 years and will turn up with plenty of new models for 2010, including the GSX-R1000, 25th anniversary edition, the Marauder GZ 125 and the two large cylinder bikes, Intruder M 1500 and GSX 1250F. Triumph will be present with its new Rocket III Roadster.

Interesting to see that Yamaha, despite not putting in an appearance for EICMA 2009, will be in Verona with its X-Max 250 and TMax 500 White Max, along with Rossi’s champion bike, the M1, and Ben Spies’ R1. Check out last year’s show in our gallery, and if you happen to be travelling through Italy, check out the Motor Bike Expo in Verona this weekend, because it should be worth the detour.

Continue reading: Motor bike expo Verona

Yamaha Racing has released these official pics of Ben Spies‘ Yamaha M1 Valencia livery. The 2009 Superbike champion will have his MotoGP debut in the last round this season in what has been an exciting year for both WSBK and MotoGP.

The sponsor for Ben Spies‘ MotoGP appearance is Sterilgarda, the main sponsor of the Team Yamaha World Superbike. Check out the Ben Spies M1 livery in the gallery, with a couple of pics of the rider.

Yamaha M1 Ben Spies Valencia livery

Source | Motoblog.it

Continue reading: Ben Spies Yamaha M1 Valencia livery

Yamaha confirmed that Ben Spies next year would be putting in a wildcard appearance at the MotoGP season finale at Valencia before his official switch to the series and added that they would be sending two M1’s directly from Japan and that the livery would be based on Yamaha’s corporate colours.

The blue and white Yamaha in the pic will be displayed at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show later this month, could be what Spies livery could look like at Valencia. Elegant and cool looking, but it looks a little too much like what Spies runs on his Yamaha R1 in the WSBK Championship minus the sponsor logos.

If anyone from Yamaha reads us, we wouldn’t mind seeing the the classic yellow/black/white livery that Yamaha ran way back when and revived for the Laguna Seca GP in 2005 or the other red and white classic that that we saw again at Valencia in 2005.

Source | solomoto via motoblog.it

Continue reading: Ben Spies Yamaha M1 Valencia Livery?

Ducati’s Livio Suppo was right, when he anticipated on Griglia di Partenza last Thursday, Yamaha has officially confirmed that Ben Spies will be racing in the last MotoGP race of the season at Valencia.

Yamaha will be sending a pair of YZR- M1’s directly from Japan and and will be sporting the be corporate blue colors of the Iwata manufacturer, instead of the Monster Tech 3 colours, the team Spies will riding with next year.

Wildcarding at Valencia will give ‘Elbowz’ three more days of testing in view of the 2010 season, which has winter testing cut to just eight days as a cost saving measure, and give him a heads up on the rest of the rookies and also help him ahead of the two day test that takes place immediately after the final round of season.

Spies has already wildcarded in MotoGP in 2008, but on a Rizla Suzuki filling in for injured Loris Capirossi. At Donington he finished 14th, at Laguna Seca 8th and under the tail of hurricane Ike at Indianapolis took 6th.

Continue reading: Livio Suppo was right, Ben Spies to Wildcard at Valencia

Yamaha announced today that Ben Spies will be contesting in MotoGP next year. During tonight’s television show Griglia di Partenza, speaking to Ducati’s team manager Livio Suppo and Filippo Preziosi from Estoril, Suppo let out a Yamaha secret regarding Spies, but don’t ask us how he found out and why he decided to tell viewers something that doesn’t regard Ducati.

According to the Italian manager, Spies will wildcard on the Yamaha M1 in the final MotoGP round at Valencia from November 6th to 8th.

Having Spies wildcard in the final round makes pretty good sense. With testing days severely curtailed as a cost saving measure, MotoGP rookies will have their work cut out for them, as will riders switching from one manufacturer to another. Giving Spies an extra three days to get better acquainted with the M1 may help him give a one up on the other rookies, when the traditional tests begin the day after the Valencia race.

Continue reading: Ben Spies to Wildcard at Valencia GP?

Masao Furusawa may have said that Valentino Rossi is a genius and that he wants the Italian superstar to finish his career in Yamaha and Rossi has said confirmed several times that he too would like to finish his career with the Iwata company, but since Jorge Lorenzo has resigned for another year, the Italian rider has been talking differently and sending out signals to both Yamaha and Ducati.

The factory Yamaha team has been a Rossi stronghold since his sensational switch from Honda back in 2004 and Lorenzo’s presence in the garage despite the wall, is starting to annoy the 8 times world champion.

Lorenzo as a team mate has become one of Rossi’s most formidable rivals on track, the Italian has voiced his opinion about the fact that the Spaniard will now have a say in part of the development of the M1 as part of his contract agreement and that the team will now two top riders instead of the usual one that all of the other teams have.

Continue reading: Rossi sending messages to Yamaha and Ducati?

Jorge Lorenzo unveiled a special one-off livery for his FiatYamaha M1, leathers and helmet in Catalunya today in honour of the Barcelona football club, which won the Champions League two weeks ago in Rome.

Lorenzo who is a life long supporter of the football team and was on hand when Barça won the finals, and had to put in a special request to Yamaha and FIAT to use this livery, because the Italian car company is also a major shareholder in the Juventus F.C. who also takes part in the Champions League.

I’m very proud to be here in the colours of my team. I was there in Rome for the final and watching Barca win was like a dream! “I’m so happy to be able to show my support for them in this way at our home track, and I hope the fans will like it because I know many of them are also big Barcelona fans!”

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo's new livery for Catalunya GP

Like the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything and Valentino Rossi’s last place in MotoGP race at LeMans, 16th and two laps down, is the worst ever result that “ The Doctor” has ever placed in his entire racing career, excluding retirements due to technical difficulties or crashes. Le Mans also ended his podium streak, twelve podiums starting from the 2008 German GP and finishing this year at the French circuit.

Rossi’s race stats are impressive, the Italian has a total of 214 gran prix races in the three series and has never missed a MotoGP race start and in only in ten races including Le Mans, has finished outside the top ten.

One of Rossi’s worst years where he came close to finishing last was in 2006, at Jerez where he was taken out by Toni Elias, he was able to rejoin the race and finished 14th just ahead of Alex Hoffman and James Ellison and always in 2006, in the final race at Valencia where Rossi binned it and lost the title at the same time, finished 13th, ahead of James Ellison and Garry McCoy who was riding the 800cc Ilmor.

Source | motociclismo

Continue reading: A New Record for Valentino Rossi

After noticing that Yamaha Tech 3 rider James Toseland was no longer sporting the Red Bull logo on his helmet during the night tests in Qatar, we should have expected that past rumors tying Monster Energy to Yamaha Tech 3 were about to come true.

Monster Energy has infact officially announced that they will become title sponsor of the Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP team for at least the next two seasons and the team will be called Monster Yamaha Tech3 and that we’ll probably see the new livery during the IRTA tests at Jerez at the end of this month.

Official press release after the jump.

Continue reading: Monster Energy and Yamaha Tech 3 Deal Confirmed

The regional government of the Balearic Islands uses native born Motogp rider Jorge Lorenzo to promote their safe sex awareness campaign and the use of condoms.

Source | masmoto

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo's Safe Sex Awareness Video

In this interview with Spanish website strong>Solomoto, Jorge Lorenzo talks about many things and as always in any conversation with a MotoGp rider, it eventually turns to Valentino Rossi and also Lorenzo’s other rival Dani Pedrosa.

Valentino is adored by the public, do you feel the same about him?

No, I don’t adore him because he’s not my friend, but I do respect him because he’s my teammate and because of what he’s achieved and for what he’s done for motorcyling. He’s very charismatic and he’s a reference point for me, not only as a rider also what he’s done for this sport.

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo talks about Rossi and Pedrosa

This Yamaha YZF-R1 has been transformed into an M1 replica, of which only the chassis of the original seems to have remained.

The engine is a Superbike-spec, with the same forks used by Carlos Checa in the 2003 MotoGP, and an Ohlins TTX shock absorber. The exhaust is from the UK and the 16.5 inch alloy wheels come from Dymags.

The details have been attended to maniacally. The price for this little gem is 65,000 USD, equivalent to about 50,700 euros (something less than a Ducati Desmosedici RR). It is currently produced and distributed in the US and UK by GP Motorsports.

Continue reading: M1 2008 Replica Valentino Rossi by GP Motorsports