MV Agusta has been sold to former owner Claudio Castiglioni by Harley-Davidson just two years after the company was bought for $109 million. The American manufacturer announced its intention to sell MV Agusta in October 2009 as part of a new corporate strategy to focus resources on the Harley-Davidson brand. Harley has held discussions with various potential buyers since then. Read the full article »

Honda Motor Co posted its best quarterly operating profit in two years on brisks in the US, China, and other Asian markets. Japan’s second biggest automaker raised its forecast despite a sharp rise in the yen. Honda’s motorcycle, scooter and ATV sales are up 28.2% over Q1 of 2009, selling over 2.8 million units compared to Q1 2009’s 2.25 million units. Read the full article »

Harley-Davidson has a long history of adding a third outrigger wheel to its line of heavyweight models, starting back in 1914. That's over now, Harley has just announced that 2011 will be the final year it offers sidecars as a factory option, and it will no longer accept new orders for them. Hit the jump for the good news. Read the full article »

This custom Ducati was built by a motorcycle dealer in New Zealand. The second-hand 2003 Ducati 999 is equipped with fully adjustable Nemesis race ECU, which is front-mounted with the battery case and waterproofed wiring loom, a custom exhaust system, and modified rear 17-inch rear wheel with knobby tyre. Read the full article »

The Olympics isn't a meaningful event for motorcyclists, but this can change pretty fast thanks to a new agreement and sponsorship announcement. None other than the BMW Group will be the Official Mobility Partner of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) from now through 2016. The only question is, what kind of motorcycles will the Olympians get? Read the full article »

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that Harley-Davidson is planning to build a manufacturing plant or rather a motorcycle assembly plant in India for the purpose of lowering the almost 100% tariff on imported heavyweight bikes. The company sells 32 percent of its motorcycle outside the US but wants to increase this number. Read the full article »

Honda has unveiled the company's future plans, which includes solar charging stations and cheaper zero-emission technology. Company president and CEO Takanobu Ito has outlined in his speech: Honda will begin lease sales of battery-powered EV-neo scooter to businesses in Japan later this year. He also said Honda tries to improve electric technology and reduce costs to make zero-emission machines available to a wider audience. Read the full article »

What you can see here, is a full-scale, three-dimensional blueprint of an astonishingly accurate rendition of a Chinese copy (Chiangyiang 750) of a russian copy (Dneper) of a German copy (Zündapp) of a bike based on a pre-World War II BMW R71 motorcycle with a side car. Chinese artist Chi Jindian searched the "brand new and completely untraditional" material for years, and he finally settled on steel wires. We have no idea how long Jindian worked on this motorcycle, but this is far the coolest art piece we've seen in a long time. Read the full article »

Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft Corp., has invested in EcoMotors International, a company that is developing encironmental friendly car-engine technology. Gates and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla have jointly invested $23.5 million into Detroit-based firm to help them complete engineering and testing of their Opoc-engine. The Opoc engine technology uses a twin-opposed cylinder layout and claims to make vehicles up to 50% more efficient. The firm wants to produce a car later on in 2010 that will return over 100mpg. Rumours suggest that a design for a motorcycle is also in progress. Gates said: “EcoMotors has developed a promising technology that could help reduce levels of greenhouse gas emissions in a low-cost, globally relevant way.” Read the full article »

Not every motorcycle company is slowing down after the credit crunch, british marque Royal Enfield is set to double production capacity in their Chennai plant in India. The move is necessary because of the stronger-than-expected worldwide demand for its new fuel-injected product line. Production at Royal Enfield has been running at full capacity for over a year, with demand generated by domestic and international markets continuing outpace supply. The expansion plan forecasts unit production growth from 2010 unit volume of 52 000 to as much 70 000 units for 2011, followed by up to 90 000 units for 2012 and finally 100 000 units or more for 2013. Read the full article »