What, you mean it’s not powered by a 1.2-gigawatt flux capacitor?

Motorcycle.com will get a chance to see the new YZ this week in a private unveiling, and we’ll unleash full details when the embargo ends on September 8. Stay tuned!

Hit the jump, watch and learn.

We have been sent what the Motorcycle.com team seems to think are spy shots of the new Ducati Multistrada which is supposed to be liquid-cooled and faster.  Judging from the tape on the motorcycle pictured above, it looks like it was out for road testing and they didn’t want to reveal some details of the bike.

What more can I say?  They’re spy shots! What do you think of this thing? Is this the Multistrada update that Pete had in mind?

See more pictures after the jump.

Polaris Industries, the parent company of Victory Motorcycles, announced this week it will form a new on-road vehicle division.

The official announcement says the new division “maximizes cohesive and strategic growth for Victory Motorcycles and other on-road products and brands”.

Which begs the question: what other on-road products and brands?

Apart from the Victory line-up of cruisers and touring motorcycles, Polaris’ catalog consists of ATVs and snowmobiles. Oh, and they used to make watercraft as well. None of those can be considered “on-road” forms of transportation.

So what does that Medina, Minnesota company have up its sleeve?

Clues may be found if you read between the lines with the management team behind Polaris’ new on-road division.

Motorcycle Hall of Famer Mark Blackwell has been the man behind Victory Motorcycles since 2000, helping Victory’s expansion, producing bikes that compete against the big boys from Milwaukee.

Blackwell leaves his previous position as vice-president of Victory Motorcycles to become vice-president of motorcycles. See the difference there? It’s a slight one, but an important one. What we can infer from the change in job-titles is that Polaris will introduce other non-Victory motorcycles. If Victory is the “New American Motorcycle”, could we be seeing a NEW new American Motorcycle?

Polaris already has the cruiser and touring segments covered with Victory, and dirt bikes don’t fit the on-road descriptor.

What about moving into sportbikes like Harley-Davidson did with Buell? Or maybe, as pplasm suggests on the Motorcycle.com forum, a trike like their ATV competitor Can-Am’s Spyder? Heck, it could even be a Victory Vision scooter.

So far, Polaris isn’t talking, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground on this one.

This fabed-up image from a French magazine of what a new Ducati Multistrada might look like is more like a fable than fact.

If nothing else, the Internet is great for generating entertaining rumors, speculative talk, spewing hearsay, etc, etc. With the exception of chatter on where the next lucky third-world orphan to be assimilated by Brangelina might come from, nothing seems to spread faster than talk of a venerated bike receiving a thorough update. One bike that’s in the sights of ‘Net hopers and dreamers is Ducati’s Multistrada 1100S.

The companion website to French rag, Moto Revue, is alleging to have sources report from discussions with Ducati people while at EICMA this past fall that the Bologna-based bike maker will be giving a healthy revamp to the Multi. Saying that the Italian firm revealed to its dealers plans to phase out the Multistrada in its current form and unveil a new 2010 model in late ‘09, Motorevue.com contends that Ducati says the new Multi will be in direct competition with BMW’s R1200GS.

Hmm… Not bloody likely.

First of all, no bike manufacturer management team in their collective right mind would clue-in dealers to such info so far in advance. Dealers are quite often the last to know, at least officially. Secondly, though the adventure-touring segment is growing, it seems too big a gamble, especially in such economics times as these, for a bike maker to tackle a segment that’s:

a) quite new to them.

b) nearly locked up by one or two existing brands (BMW, KTM).

Hey, I don’t have a crystal ball, so I could be entirely wrong about this, but one thing I know for sure is that such a revision of the Multistrada won’t be based off an air-cooled engine as the French website indicates. The current ‘Strada is already an air-cooled mill, just like the Hypermotard, so the likely update would be more along the lines of the new Ducati Streetfighter, a naked, stripped-down version of the company’s near-legendary 1098 superbike. The possible use of the liquid-cooled 1098 in a new Multi isn’t necessarily a revelation, especially if you follow model revision patterns.

What exactly a new Multistrada may turn out to be is still left to speculation, but I’m reasonably certain Ducati won’t stick with the ol’ two-valve air-cooled L-Twin, as I have it on good authority from my source that “when the Multi goes, it won’t be a Hyper[motard] base…”

UPDATE (Feb 27): The Honda Fury Review is finally here!!!

Some may baulk at Honda’s description of the Fury as “radical.” Sure it’s not mind-blowing in the way a $60K custom can be, but it’s worth noting that not even Harley-Davidson has produced a bike with a rake angle so stretched or a wheelbase as long. So let’s admit that, for the normally staid Honda, the Fury is radical.
And to get a radical chopper with Honda levels of quality for just $13K seems like quite a bargain.

UPDATE (Jan 16th): Above is the video of the Honda Fury from the official launch, click here for the full article!

Update (Jan 16th): Above is the real deal, shot at Honda HQ in December.

Honda has recently shown its dealers some sneak-peek images of a brand-new direction they will be taking. The bike is the 2010 Honda Fury which is a 1300cc raked-out chopper that will be introduced to the US market early next spring. Apparently we will receive more information later in December. The pictures sent to dealers intentionally had the bottom-half of the bike blurred out. Speculation on the boards is rampant that this bike might be a hybrid with a gas and electric motor!

UPDATE: We have received some additional pictures courtesy of Spanish website SoloMoto of the rumored Fury undergoing some testing in Arizona. The bike is clearly not a hybrid.

We will have to wait and see but this would certainly make for a very interesting bike! Stay tuned!

2010 Honda Fury Chopper

Discuss more at Honda Fury Forums or check out the Honda Fury Review.

Having vested interests in Audi, Porsche and Lamborghini, it would be of no surprise if Volkswagen did indeed come out with its very first motorcycle. In fact, it should be more surprising that they didn’t delve into this arena sooner since they seem to be a dominant force in every other facet of the automotive market.

It has been speculated that the motorcycle would be produced with the assistance of Austrian motorcycle maker KTM. The two companies already worked together on the KTM X-Bow, which utilizes the 2.0L turbo from the Audi TT so a motorcycle collaboration wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

The Volkswagen dealer network could be of great assistance to the appeal and accessibility of this bike, if it actually came to fruition of course. No technical specifications have been leaked yet but it would make sense to snatch an existing engine out of the KTM parts bin. Preliminary images suggest styling cues similar to a naked standard which have been popular in Europe for years but are finally gaining momentum in other markets as well.

Honda announced at EICMA that they intend to introduce a new V4 motorcycle in 2010.

Very few details about the new bike have been released, only that it will be powered by Honda’s iconic V4 engine configuration. The Japanese manufacturer is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its V4 engine.

Honda introduced a V4 concept bike in October at Intermot, and many are speculating that the new bike will resemble the futuristic-looking hubless display model.

The official announcement of the new V4 motorcycle does mention the concept bike, but doesn’t confirm that it’s what we’ll be seeing on the showroom floor. The announcement says that the “V4 production model is the result of overwhelming response from customers, media and motorcycle dealers across Europe following the debut of the V4 Concept Model”. Motorcycle.com correspondent Yossef Schvetz didn’t sound too enthused about the concept bike in his Intermot report. We’ll let you know when we find out more about Honda’s new bike.

What do you think? Would you like to see this bike at your local Honda dealership in 2010?

When the FIA decided to drop the Canadian Grand Prix from the 2009 Formula One calendar, came as a surprise to race organizers and left North America without an F1 race.

The race draws an estimated $100 million in revenue to the city of Montreal and the loss was great enough that bringing back the race became a campaign promise for a major Canadian political party in the recent federal election.

Unfortunately, that party did not win the election and F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone recently closed the door on the possibility of the race returning to Montreal’s Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in 2009.

With four-wheel Grand Prix racing out of the picture, perhaps the Canadians should be looking for a two-wheeled option.

MotoGP already features two American stops on its tour, one on the west coast in Laguna Seca and another in the Midwest at Indianapolis. A Canadian motorcycle Grand Prix in Montreal would add a stop in the northeastern part of the continent.

The last Canadian Grand Prix motorcycle race was a one-off event in 1967 during Canada’s centennial year at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario. Montreal was a popular stop for F1 drivers and the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix drew 51 million viewers making it the third most-watched televised sporting event that year. Of course, the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit may need a major update to meet FIM standards, but the investment may be worthwhile to have a top-tier racing event at the venue.

And if MotoGP isn’t available, World Superbike may be an option as well. The only current North American stop on the WSBK tour is at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. Wouldn’t a second stop on the opposite side of the continent sound nice?