The Indian manufacturer revealed its plans to enter the indian motorcycle market last month, and here’s a teaser video showing one of the company’s models in Italy. Mahindra, an established scooter, 4x4 and tractor manufacturer is moving into a competitive market, dominated primilarly by Japanese manufacturer Honda. “We’re looking to become a credible player in the two-wheeler space in India over the next few years,” said Anoop Mathur, the head of Mahindra’s motorcycle arm. Read the full article »

Union employees at Harley-Davidson Inc. will vote today on labor contracts that could determine the fate of their jobs and Harley’s production facilities in Wisconsin. The seven-year contract could cut hundreds of full-time employees. Harley says it needs to cut over $50 million dollars in labor costs at its plants in Menomonee Falls and Tomahawk. If the Steelworkers union does ot approve the new contract, Harley says it will close the two Wisconsin plants and move the production out-of-state where it is cheaper. Read the full article »

Italian manufacturer MV Agusta has just added a „virtual” museum to its website. The site, available under adress http://www.mvagusta.it/it/moto-storiche/moto-da-strada, includes pictures and specifications for all of its most historic road motorcycles from the ‘40s, ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s beginning with the first 98cc “Turismo” in 1945 before chronicling and also chronicles the racing MVs which delivered 37 world championships between 1952 and 1976 in the hands of the likes of Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read. Read the full article »

The North American arm of Ducati reported an impressive 24-percent increase of sales last month. The Italian marque says these numbers display „a significant growth in a declining market for the second month in a row. The manufacturer credits their sales increase due to the new Monster 797 and the Multistrada 1200S, which continues to be one of the industry’s best sellers, and the arrival of the 848 EVO. Ducati says this lineup confirms that the motorcycling market wants „innovative, quality performance models.” Read the full article »

We have seen a few different ideas that try tackling the problem of speeding motorists but a school in Canada hase come up with one of the most thought-provoking methods of the bunch. The École Pauline Johnson Elemtary School, in Vancouver, is using a 3D optical illusion of a young girl crossing the road to make drivers slow down. The idea is based on the same optical illusion technique used on many sporting venues for advertising, jumps out of the road. Read the full article »

The guys at Triumph are busy with the final high-speed track tests before the bike is officially launched. The new Tiger 800 was circulating the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire. The bike is wired up with data-recording equipment, carried in the tail pack. It seems the motorcycle is complete bar final colors and graphics. The bike here is the road version with a 19” front rim – the off-road version will come with a 21” front wheel and knobby tire, plus a „beak” mudguard on the nose. Read the full article »

The DDB&Co Istanbul agency came up with this ad, not requiring any words. The ad suggests you’ll be spending so much time in the air on a KTM that, in order to remain effective, your license plate should be mounted on the sump. They even made it an Austrian plate. Simple, immediate and a clever brand message. Read the full article »

It’s not really a surprise that Erik Buell is planning a new street bike based on the 1190R. The source of this information is quite unusual: it appears on a t-shirt on the Rat Pak Records website along with an announcement of a teaser video coming September 14th. They don’t show the teaser, they tell you a teaser video is coming. The website also includes this short bit: „The 1190RS will be the new street bike from Erik Buell Racing! The design is currently in the pre-production / testing stage and is not yet available for public sale." Read the full article »

Daimler-owned Smart has released more plans for a plug-in electric scooter at the Paris Motor Show. The new motorcycle, depicted here in a couple of official sketches, is set to form part of Smart’s upcoming show spread. It’s currently uncertain when the scooter goes into production but knowing that Daimler plans to significantly broaden the Smart lineup we would say the fans of electric scooters don’t have to wait more than two years. Read the full article »

This is a picture of the Kawasaki W650, that was released and available for sale in the United States for span of two years. It was thought part of the other markets, not India though, until 2008 and owing to this masterpiece was very well received by the press. Now, there are rumours that Kawasaki will announce soon a new retro model – the W800 -, an upsized version of the popular W400 and its predecessor, the W650, both parallel twins. Read the full article »