BMW earned its first-ever World Superbike race win at the U.K.’s Donington Park, but missed out on sweeping the round after teammates Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri crashed on the final corner while battling for the lead in the second race.

Melandri earned BMW its landmark first win in Race One leading Haslam in a one-two finish. They could have repeated that finish in Race Two but Haslam low-sided after making contact with Honda‘s Jonathon Rea trying to pass on the inside. That sent Haslam skidding into Melandri, ruining the chance for another double-podium.

The Race Two incident could have overshadowed the milestone victory in Race One, but BMW must be relieved its flagship S1000RR superbike finally earned a race win in its fourth year of competition. Continue Reading »

NGM Forward Racing has named veteran MotoGP racer Chris Vermeulen the substitute rider for the injured Colin Edwards at the May 20 French Grand Prix at Le Mans. Vermeulen will ride the team’s BMW-powered Suter Claiming Rule machine.

Vermeulen raced four full seasons in MotoGP from 2006-2009, all with the Rizla Suzuki team. He has a single victory to his credit, also at Le Mans. Vermeulen also has seven podium finishes in MotoGP with a career-best sixth-place finish in the 2007 championship. Vermeulen raced in the World Superbike series the last two years for Kawasaki though he struggled with a number of injuries. Continue Reading »

Motorcycle tour operator EagleRider is launching a new program for non-riders. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, EagleRider offers motorcycle rentals and guided motorcycle tours. Until now however, you had to have a motorcycle license or ride as a passenger with another traveler who does.

The new Pillion Ride & Day Tours programs puts people on the passenger seat behind Motorcycle Safety Foundation certified tour guides who will show them the sights. As of now, the Pillion Ride & Day Tours are only offered from EagleRider’s Florida locations but the company plans to offer the program to other locations in the future. Continue Reading »

Barni Racing‘s Lorenzo Savadori led for nine of 11 laps on his way to earning the first every Superstock 1000 Cup victory for the 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale.

Racing in mixed weather conditions at Italy’s Monza circuit, Savadori took the lead on Lap 3 from his teammate Eddi La Marra.

Savadori would hold that lead until the end, crossing the finish 1.651 seconds ahead of BWG Kawasaki‘s Christoffer Bergman and 1.884 seconds ahead of La Marra. Continue Reading »

Harley-Davidson dealerships topped the rankings for the 2012 edition of the Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, an industry benchmarking study examining how well dealerships treat customers, and turning shoppers into buyers.

The Pied Piper PSI rated different manufacturers’ dealerships in a number of categories to produce an overall score. The study was conducted between July 2011 and April 2012 with 1,653 anonymous “mystery shoppers” gathering information at different dealerships across the U.S.

The study gave Harley-Davidson dealers a score of 108, a four-point improvement from 2011 and five points above the industry average. According to researchers, Harley-Davidson dealers scored the highest of all brands in 16 different categories, including offering test rides, obtaining contact information and asking customers if for the sale. Continue Reading »

It was supposed to be a weekend of celebration. The World Superbike Championship was celebrating its 25th anniversary of racing at Italy’s Monza circuit. Promoters Infront Motorsports brought out 30 landmark Superbikes from the series’ history, while greats such as Fred Merkel, Doug Polen and Carl Fogarty were in attendance for what was supposed to be a weekend to remember. Spec tire supplier Pirelli was also in the celebratory mood  with special silver-striped tires for the Superpole qualifier.

Unfortunately, the 2012 Monza round will be remembered for heavy rains, a cancelled race, a near boycott of Pirelli tires and the series’ largest team issuing a scathing rebuke to race organizers. Continue Reading »

BMW is shuffling its management team, with current head of the its motorcycle business Hendrik von Kuenheim getting reassigned to the automotive side of the company. He will be replaced by Stephan Schaller on June 1 in a domino-effect series of reassignments.

Pictured to the left in the picture above, Von Kuenheim has been in charge of the motorrad portfolio since 2008. He will now take over BMW‘s automobile business for the Asia, Oceania and South Africa sales region, replacing Guenther Seemann.

Seemann will be taking over as head of importer markets for Africa, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Asia, Pacific and the Middle East. Seemann is replacing Graeme Grieve who will be in charge of sales for BMW’s Mini brand. Continue Reading »

We already know BMW started 2012 off with a record first quarter with 24,373 motorcycles sold, with an additional 2,642 units from its Husqvarna subsidiary. BMW‘s quarterly report now reveals the U.S. accounted for 3,429 units sold in the first three months of the year, a 47.9% increase from 2,319 units over the same quarter of 2011.

The increase pushed the U.S. close to Italy as BMW’s second largest motorcycle market over the quarter. Last year, Italy topped all countries with 4,435 BMW and Husqvarna motorcycles sold, outperforming BMW’s home market of Germany (4,395). This year however, Italian sales decreased 22.5% to 3,437 units. Germany regained the top spot with BMW selling 4,813 units. Continue Reading »

A man is suing BMW and seat-manufacturer Corbin-Pacific because a four-hour motorcycle ride gave him an erection that would not go away.

The civil suit, filed in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco, alleges the plaintiff, Henry Wolf, developed a severe case of priapism after a long ride on a 1993 BMW motorcycle. Priapism is a medical condition where a penis becomes erect and does not return to a flaccid state.

Wolf claims he rode  the motorcycle on a four-hour trip – two hours each way – on May 1, 2010. Soon after, the man claims, he developed a case of priapism. He blames the condition on the motorcycle seat which is describes as “ridge-like”. Continue Reading »

Adventure touring documentary star Charley Boorman and his BMW R1200GS Adventure have traveled a long way together, but the motorcycle had a bit of an adventure on its own after thieves stole the bike.

The stolen BMW wasn’t the one Boorman rode with Ewen McGregor in “Long Way Round” (that was a R1150GS Adventure) or the one used in the sequel “Long Way Down“. Boorman did ride it on his last project, “Charley Boorman’s Extreme Frontiers: Canada”.

The GS wasn’t gone for long however. The motorcycle was equipped with Bike Trac, an anti-theft GPS tracking system from U.K.-based Road Angel Group. The Bike Trac system was triggered at 4:29 am GMT on April 21 and tracked to a location in London. The trail then led to the nearby town of Watford. Continue Reading »