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 »

Bartels Harley-Davidson (Harley-Davidson dealer to the stars) is going to unveil artist Jack Armstrong’s $1 million „Cosmic Starship” Harley on October 21, 2010. The artist is renowned for his inimitable painting style called Cosmic Extensionalism. His exceptional art combines extreme colors and textures, and you can see the words appearing magically throughout his paintings when seen from different angles. Read the full article »

Tired of new color schemes in place of new models? The 2011 Yamaha R1 Roberts Replica is here to fix that. With the kit you can transform your modern-day YZF-R1 and give it the look of the classic vintage yellow and black Yamaha racing motif that was so popular years ago. The unique kit is available exclusively through Yamaha Parts & Accessories. Kit includes all bodywork needed to make the conversion: fuel tank, fenders, and fairings. Read the full article »

The Institutio Europeo di Design (IED) in Turin has a collaboration with Ducati as part of a three year post-diploma course in Transportation Design. The Italian manufacturer is looking for new market segments and potential design direction with an eye on a younger demographic, enlisted the students to draw potential future Ducatis. The students came up with ten design sketches, five were chosen for further refinement by teams of two who then had to build a 1:4 scale model. Read the full article »