The International Motorcycling Federation and the Superbike Racing Commission released a number of amendments to the 2013 World Superbike Championship rulebook including pitstops, fake headlights and a revised starting grid alignment.

We’ve already seen the fake headlights with Kawasaki getting a jump on the new regulation earlier this season with headlight decals on Tom Sykes‘ and Loris Baz‘s ZX-10R. Starting in 2013, all superbikes will have fake headlights to resemble their homologated production models. The idea is create a closer visual tie between the race bikes and their street-legal counterparts. Superbikes will switch to 17-inch wheels from the current 16.5-inch wheels, another move to bring them closer to production models. Continue Reading »

World Superbike racebikes will be required to have fake headlight stickers on their race fairings to more closely resemble their production series counterparts.

The new regulation, set to kick in for the 2013 WSBK season, was designed to establish a closer link between the production model and the race-trim superbike. The new rules will also mandate 17-inch aluminum wheels.

The Kawasaki Race Team got a head start on the new regulation, debuting fake headlight stickers on its Ninja ZX-10R superbikes for riders Tom Sykes and Loris Baz at this weekend’s races at Spain’s Aragon circuit. The team will use the stickers for the rest of the 2012 season. Continue Reading »