One of the big questions that was left hanging yesterday after Ducati announced their not so secret two year deal with Valentino Rossi was whether Rossi would be bringing his legendary crewchief Jeremy Burgess and the rest of his Yamaha squad to Borgo Panigale

Ducati’s CEO Gabriele Del Torchio fended off the question with: “It is too early to say. At the moment we have finalised an agreement with him. Wait and see. It is mainly a decision that we will leave to Valentino.” however it seems that the famous crewchief is still pretty well undecided about his future.

Speaking to gpweek.com at Brno, Burgess candidly admitted, “I honestly don’t know yet” and added, “I don’t think I could commit for six more years, which would be needed. Perhaps I’ll go back to Australia and support a local young rider.”

Continue reading: Jeremy Burgess is he or isn't he going to Ducati?

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Valentino Rossi has released this touching letter in Italian which has been translated in English to remember his love affair and the end of his story with Yamaha.

“It is very difficult to explain in just a few words what my relationship with Yamaha has been in these past seven years.

“Many things have changed since that far-off time in 2004, but especially ‘she’, my M1, has changed. At that time she was a poor middle-grid position MotoGP bike, derided by most of the riders and the MotoGP workers. Now, after having helped her to grow and improve, you can see her smiling in her garage, courted and admired, treated as the ‘top of the class’.

“The list of the people that made this transformation possible is very long, but I would like to thank anyway Masao Furusawa, Masahiko Nakajima and ‘my’ Hiroya Atsumi, as representatives of all the engineers that worked hard to change the face of our M1. Then Jeremy Burgess and all my guys in the garage, who took care of her with love on all the tracks of the world and also all the men and women that have worked in the Yamaha team during these years.

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi's Good-Bye Letter to Yamaha

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Yamaha has released their official press release confirming that that another part of this year’s silly season is finally over and that Yamaha and Valentino Rossi are parting, as if this comes as a surprise after months of gossip and rumors.

Expect Yamaha to now announce Jorge Lorenzo (even if today he once again denied signing with Yamaha) and Ben Spies in the factory team in 2011.

Press release after the jump.

Continue reading: Official - Yamaha parts company with Valentino Rossi

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Yamaha’s best selling market is Indonesia, where they sell millions of low displacement motorcycles and scooters, hence the Indonesian words Semakin di Depan (meaning on the front or always on the front) logo that grace the Fiat Yamaha team M1’s and the riders leathers, has aired another commercial, but this time the Yamaha star is Jorge Lorenzo.

We have to admit that Rossi’s commercial was a little cuter, but we can’t wait to see Ben Spies next year selling Yamaha scooters.

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Don’t you just love it when head honchos like Lin Jarvis of Yamaha try to pull the wool over your eyes? The Yamaha manager who does the actual negotiations and signs contracts with the riders in a interview with Italian sport’s daily Gazzetta dello Sport has revealed that he wants announce the 2011 Yamaha line-up at the upcoming Brno GP and that there is an offer on the table for Valentino Rossi, who has yet, according to Jarvis given Yamaha a reply.

When Valentino Rossi in the post race show Fuori Giri after the Sachsenring GP, was asked by Marco Lucchinelli why Yamaha was letting him go the Italian champion edged around the question, and then laughingly said that they (Yamaha) was probably letting him go because he’s too old. Jarvis went on the record as saying; “We have no intention of sending away Rossi, We’ve put up an offer on which we are waiting for a reply, and there are no problems with his age, Valentino is and remains a winning rider” said Jarvis. “I can’t supply details on the negotiations. But we feel the offer to be absolutely acceptable; obviously this is our evaluation.”

Regarding Jorge Lorenzo who’s contract is also up for renewal and just last month reported that he hasn’t had any proposals from Yamaha, unlike what Jarvis said to the Gazzetta dello Sport: “There is a proposal and I could define the negotiations to be at a good point. We’d like to have everything in place by Brno, in order to announce the 2011 team” which will include Yamaha Tech3 rider Ben Spies. “Should one of our two riders leave, he would certainly be in the works team,” said Jarvis. “We are convinced we’ll have a winning team in 2011 too.”

And the question of Jeremy Burgess leaving Yamaha to follow Rossi to Ducati, the Yamaha manager was much more subtle stating that: “We believe it’s a great combination and that we would like to confirm. I’m convinced that he’ll stay with us … if Rossi decides to stay.”

Unless a cataclysmic event that changes MotoGP over the next twenty days, we really think that Rossi and Burgess will be in red next year,with new Italian rumors coming out, that Davide Brivio will be with them and that Massimo Meregalli of the Yamaha SBK team will be running Ben Spies’ side of the factory team.

Source | autosport.com

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Last year Honda and Yamaha both bowed out Milan’s EICMA show, citing the economic crisis that hit both the automotive and motorcycle industries, but this year the two largest motorcycle companies have had a change of heart, or the economy is finally picking up (while European governments are drowning in their debts) Honda announced that they would be back and so has Yamaha.

Yamaha has already booked a stand of over 1000 square meters in pavilion number 2 and it seems they’ll also be present in the Motolive area with a series of initiatives on road safety.

Honda has decided to make EICMA its European trade fair of reference and will be present in pavilion 4 and have booked the track for live exhibitions.

The 68th International Motorcycle Show in Milan will be held November from the 2nd to the 7th.

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MotoGP leader Jorge Lorenzo has picked up still another personal sponsor, Spain’s third largest airline, Air Europa who is based in Majorca has decided to back their homeboy this year.

During the press conference held at the Son Sant Joan Airport in Palma de Mallorca, Lorenzo naturally talked about the season so far and his rivalry with team mate Valentino Rossi and clarifying that both the M1’s are the same and the two riders receive the same treatment from Yamaha.

“Valentino and I have the same bike, so there are no excuses if one rider out races the other”, said Lorenzo. “I’ve had some small problems in these races, but I’ve been able to win and take home 70 championship points”

Lorenzo then talked about his pre-season hand inury that kept him for testing in Sepang 2 and hampered his testing and race in Qatar.

“It has been a dream start to my season,” he said. “Especially after I injured my hand training over the winter. In Qatar, I had to grit my teeth, but the results thus far have exceeded our wildest expectations.”

The Mallorcan also did a photo shoot in the hangar (see the gallery of pics here) and Air Europa’s CEO Jose Maria Hoyos promised that he may make up a special Lorenzo livery for one his planes.

Photo via jorgelorenzofacebook

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Three days after the World Superbike round at Assen, four official teams, Aprilia, BMW, Ducati and Yamaha all headed to the Misano Adriatico race track for a two day test session (Wednesday and Thursday), before next week’s important Monza round.

The Aprilia team has Max Biaggi and Leon Camier and official test rider Alex Hofmann on track, testing engine upgrades a new swingarm and a new positioned gas tank to try to enhance mass centralization that Biaggi tried out on Friday and Saturday practice sessions at Assen.

Troy Corser was with his BMW team continued testing and development of the ECU unit of his S 1000 RR and a new clutch.

While Yamaha Sterilgarda’s James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow concentrated on set-ups and electronics. Toseland did 69 laps while Crutchlow put in 87.

Continue reading: Superbike Testing at Misano with Aprilia, BMW, Ducati and Yamaha

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Ever found yourself in the enviable position that you can really afford to buy any motorcycle that you want and you’ve narrowed it down to one specific marque, but are so undecided because all their models catch your eye and imagination?

Watch this cute Yamaha commercial directed by Mark Toia and find out how one guy decided between Yamaha’s FJR1300, the FZ1 and XV1600.

Source | topspeed

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Jorge Lorenzo has confirmed via his Twitter and Facebook pages that he’s been given the green light by his doctor to take part in this week’s final pre-season MotoGP test in Qatar.

The Spaniard has been doubtful that he would be able to test in Qatar after fracturing his first metacarpal and dislocating his thumb in a training incident last February.

Jorge Lorenzo:

“Today we are leaving for Qatar for the last Winter test. I think that it is important that we are there. The fracture happened less than five weeks ago, but we could not have missed this last test because it would have been negative for our preparation; we are not far from the first race of the season! The doctor has made a special carbon fibre protection and Dainese have modified my glove, in order to further protect the fracture, so we will see how we get on.”

Continue reading: MotoGP - Jorge Lorenzo confirms he'll be in Qatar

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Here’s part 3 of the One on One series with the two gods of motocycle racing, Ben Spies and Eddie Lawson. This time they discuss training, teams and support and the similarities from today and the past. There’s some great photo’s from Lawson’s past in the video, with an interesting discussion on the meanest and toughest race bikes that exsisted, the 500cc.

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Yamaha USA has released part two of their One on One series with Ben Spies and Eddie Lawson. In this video both champions come across much more relaxed, especially Spies. Listen to these guys talk about competitivenss, fans and rider obligations and winning.

Enjoy.

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