#ducati

The 30th running of the Grand Prix de France at Le Mans – Round 5, for those of you keeping score at home – arrives at a critical time for the factory Yamaha team. Both Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales have been struggling with the YZR-M1 this year, searching in vain for feeling in the front and grip in the rear. Le Mans has been très Yamaha-friendly of late, M1s having gone three-for-three since 2015. Sunday would be a really good time for a replay.

Today’s Red Bull Grand Prix de España served as a vivid reminder that in the premier class of MotoGP there is Marc Marquez, and then there are a bunch of other riders. We are clearly living in the heart of The Marquez Era in MotoGP, which appears likely to extend into the future as far as the eye can see. With the best rider in our generation astride the best bike on the grid, in mid-career, an air of inevitability has settled over the 2018 championship.

With but eight points separating the top five riders, MotoGP storms into Jerez on fire, happy to be back in Europe, the contenders looking for a little separation as Round Four is upon us. Jerez is one of those beloved tracks – along with places like Mugello, Assen and Valencia – where riders aspire to join the great ones. With almost a dozen legitimate podium threats starting the race, of which only four have ever won here (in the premier class), the odds of a fifth rider from this grid finishing Sunday standing on the top step of the podium has never been better. Paging Cal Crutchlow.

Ducati is performing two separate worldwide recall on all 2018 Panigale V4 models (include the S and Speciale variants) related to potential fuel leaks. Though both recalls seem related, they are for two different problems, one that may cause fuel to leak from an internal breathing valve and one that may cause fuel to spray out when the tank cap is opened. The recall affects 692 motorcycles in the U.S.

The laws of physics haven’t changed, but its application to motorcycling can be hard to understand at times. To help educate local high school students, Ducati created the Fisica in Moto at the company headquarters in Bologna. Among its many features, the physics laboratory includes several interactive and hands-on displays to help understand the inner workings of Ducati motorcycles. Now the Fisica in Moto is open not just to students, but to the general public.

The 2018 edition of the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas will not be remembered as one of the best tilts of all time. Truthfully, it might not make the Top 100. But for defending world champion Marc Marquez, today’s walk in the park restored some order in the championship and washed away the ashes of Argentina. The series, picking up speed, now heads for Europe with the top five riders separated by eight points. Tight as tree bark.

Ducati announced plans to introduce a front and rear radar system for motorcycles and to make cornering ABS available across its entire model range. The two initiatives are part of Ducati’s overall “Safety Road Map 2025” plan, the company’s strategy for motorcycle safety technologies.

Now that we’ve had 10 days to assess the Argentinian misadventure, a consensus seems to have formed around the BS being widely peddled by a petulant Valentino Rossi that Repsol Honda head case Marc Marquez should be put in front of an Italian firing squad and summarily executed. Marquez, it is true, may need to reconsider his approach to racing. This weekend could offer the opportunity he needs for a solitary retreat off by himself for a while, to ruminate on the sport and his place in it, and take the checkered flag when he’s done.

Today’s Gran Premio Motul de la República Argentina had something for every taste and budget, even after the laughable theft of the pole on Saturday. Wait-a-minute weather? Check. Chaotic, delayed start? Check. Seat-of-the-pants rulemaking? Check. Quadruple MotoGP world champion having a mental Mardi Gras? Check. Riveting finish that shakes up the world standings? Check. Satellite teams kicking posteriors? Check.

Right now would be a pretty good time to forget most everything you thought you learned two weeks ago in the Arabian Peninsula. This week the sadists at Dorna take us from the desert to the jungle. From them sizzling wide open man-made Qatari spaces to a grueling, tighter Argentinian layout hacked out of triple canopy, deep in the humid heart of nowhere. Marquez and the factory Yamahas like this place.

Ducati just released the flagship to its hugely popular Scrambler lineage with this, the Scrambler 1100. Personally speaking, it’s the Scrambler I like most in Ducati’s line for reasons I mention in my First Ride Review. Time will tell if the Scrambler 1100 lineage is as much of a success for Ducati as the original, 803cc Scrambler Icon, but from where I’m sitting, the new 1100 has a lot of things going for it – as well as a few blemishes. Here then are six things I like about the new Scrambler 1100, as well as three things I don’t.

For a company priding itself on racing and performance, there’s an irony in the fact that, since its introduction in 2014, the Scrambler has been Ducati’s best selling model. Eschewing performance in favor of simplicity and riding enjoyment, the Scrambler charts a different path for Ducati, and the folks in Borgo Panigale have embraced this concept wholeheartedly.

Ducati superbikes have long been known for running fairly warm. The rear cylinder’s header pipe connects to the engine just under the seat on some of the latest Ducati sportbikes and tends to create an often uncomfortable amount of heat for riders on warm summer days.

The season opener at Losail went mostly according to expectations, which is to say it was crowded up front. At one point I counted nine bikes in the lead group, a sight normally seen in Moto3. French sophomore Johann Zarco led from pole most of the day, fueling a lot of premature trash talk. Once his tires went up, though, it came down to Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez for early bragging rights. Round One goes to the Italian on points. No TKO.

Nothing like the start of a new racing season to turn the iron in a man’s blood into the lead in his pencil. All the speculation, all the testing, all the contingencies will become moot once the lights go out in far-away Qatar. The Alien class – Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales – is sharpening their fairings in anticipation. Another handful of riders dream of getting their tickets punched in 2018.