Randy De Puniet recently got engaged to Australian model Lauren Vickers. It's clearly evident De Puniet has been more successful off the track than on the track these last few years. This may well change now that De Puniet will ride the Aprilia powered 1000cc MotoGP CRT (Claiming Rule Team) prototype in 2012. More here including the screenshot Miss Vickers recently revealed on twitter involving a lovesick Italian man. Photo Lauren Vickers, twitter.

In only two weeks I'll test these new Harley-Davidson models that we can see the outline of in this screen shot from Harley-Davidson. At least one (if not both) will join the rest of the understated cool Dark Custom range. More info on the bikes as soon as Harley-Davidson release info. Tor

These are our latest addition to our wardrobe. The Drift Leather jacket is a classic motorcycle jacket of vintage design but with Alpinestars latest protection solutions. I'll tell you more about it as soon as it's in full use. To go with this or supermotard or street riding we will use the Alloy leather gloves, a short summer glove. Tor

26.01.2012 It's with frightful delight that we can reveal that we will test the all new three cylinder MV Agusta F3 at the Paul Ricard HTTT circuit in the south of France in only two weeks time. February 2012 will be a historic motorcycling month with launches of two of the highest anticipated new sportbikes in years. Namely the MV Agusta F3 first and then the Ducati 1199 Panigale and we're present at both. for the latest impressions etc from these launches. Tor Sagen

Here's a video of the three-cylinder Brutale. Expect an official F3 video very soon!

Greetings from Raptors & Rockets HQ. I have some good news regarding what I'll be testing in the near future. First on the schedule are MV Agusta's 2012 in-line four models. The Brutale R 1090, Brutale RR 1090 and the F4 R Corsacorta on a yet to be named circuit. Then I'm jetting off to Spain to test Harley-Davidson's latest addition, and yet to be named, to the Dark Custom range. Then in February the big one that I know many people are waiting for, the 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale world launch at Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. Following this we should get confirmation on launch details for Aprilia's new maxi scooter, the SRV850 and Moto Guzzi's V7 range. Plenty to look forward to I should think! Don't forget to follow me on twitter @torsagen for live test updates and more. Tor Sagen

New additions to the 2012 riding kit includes the 2012 Alpinestars Supertech R boots, Suomy Capirex SE Apex and Suomy Jet 70's Matt Black helmets. The leather suit in the pictures is the Alpinestars Tech 1-R suit that has all the latest in riding safety and it's as comfortable as racing suits get. I'll continue using my Alpinestars Barcelona leather jacket for more relaxed testing service. I will also add the TOR hoodie to the shop shortly. More details on all this soon. Ride safe. Tor

If TOR did motivational posters...@17,000 MPH TOR 17000

MV Agusta F4 full test!

Last night, December 6th at 23:32 hours our ever popular YouTube channel hit a magical 6.666 subscribers and with it more than 37 million views. This made us very happy so subscriber number 6666 gets a custom T-shirt. We promise to do the same for number 7.777, 8.888 and so on if verifiable. Who knows, they may become collectable! Tor

Nottingham, December 2011. Alpinestars presented its groundbreaking new Air Bag racing suit to the UK press at one of their UK dealers. The suit based on the Racing Replica features a highly sophisticated "ECU" so to say connected to five active sensors (when armed) on the suit. These sensors knows when a rider is moving at low speed on a motorcycle and then it arms itself provided that the 8 hour capacity battery is sufficiently charged. In active mode the sensors samples data every second millisecond from all five sensors and when armed Alpinestars algorithms are able to determine whether the rider is having a crash or not. If the sensors and the control unit determines you are crashing the micro processor initiates a firing process. Within 45 milliseconds one of the nitrogen gas canisters will have inflated the air bags by help of a pyrotechnic charge. More here

The EICMA 2011 photo gallery is now complete. Check it out, it's all on one page. EICMA 2011

Moto Guzzi showed us some new V7's that we like very much and also the California 90, Nevada 750 and Norge GT8V. Enjoy this photo gallery. The V7 Racer X is competing for most beautiful bike of the show along with the 1199 Panigale and F3. I want one. Tor

2012 Moto Guzzi News 2012 Honda News

Honda launched the 2012 CBR1000RR Fireblade, Crosstourer, NC700S, NC700X, GL1800 GoldWing, Integra, VFR1200F and Vision. Much more here on the dedicated 2012 Honda page. Some gorgeous Italian babes and some smiling Japanese men. Video

Design a personalized gift at Zazzle.

2012 Headbanger Motorcycles

Here you'll find the entire 2012 Headbanger motorcycles range including the 2012 news and colours. Look out for our test of all these soon. We've also updated with Gilera and Harley-Davidson images on the EICMA 2011 page.

Click on this link to check out not only the new DB9 Brivido and DB10 Bimotard, but also the Evo models available in 2012 from the Rimini factory. Ruben Xaus is now involved with something Bimota calls Bimota Experience. Check out Ruben on the DB8 on the Bimota 2012 News page. Tor Sagen EICMA 2011

Check out all OUR photos and videos of the Panigale S. Launch will take place in February.

More here

More here

I'm in Milan now and the coverage has hence started. I'll be tweeting, FB'ing and YouTube'ing as well. Enjoy the coverage! EICMA 2011 coverage Tor Sagen

Sepang, October 23 2011 was to be 24 year old Marco Simoncelli's last race where the first lap of the race also became the promising Italian's last full lap. What could easily have ended in just a minor racing incident turned into one of the the biggest tragedies MotoGP has seen since Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini both died in a pile up at the 1973 Monza GP. By: Tor Sagen/Photography: Honda Racing Corporation/AGV

Simoncelli's first lap consisted of an eventful exchange of positions, corner to corner racing, between the Italian and Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista. Just before the fatal crash it was Simoncelli that was in front. Whilst pushing through the first corner on lap 2... Read the whole story here including what The Medical Director said and HRC's tribute.

Tor's been in the Helps-Anybody-Look-Good business since the Viking ages. We know what we're doing. People in magazines wear this stuff. Fashion people, sporty people with tattoos. People who know how to wheelie a motorbike. People who don't have to wear a business suit everyday. People who are hell-bent for leather. All designs fit perfectly surrounded by a black leather jacket. Go on son, we know you want to. Here's our new shop

View trainers   View T-shirts

 
Design a personalized gift at Zazzle.

Ducati have now released the first official images of the Streetfighter 848 with a new version of the Testastretta 848 engine found in the 848 EVO. It will be available in Red, yellow and matt black in November 2011. See more images and video here

Streetfighter  Streetfighter 848

Check out the photos of the tweaked 2012 Triumph Daytona 675. Not much is new but we have used the opportunity to update our pages with the full 2009 and 2011 reviews of the bike. Here's the 2012 page.

2006 Daytona 675   2009 Daytona 675   2011 Daytona 675R   2012 Daytona 675

Meet Massimo Bordi, the inventor of the 4-valve Desmo found in every modern liquid-cooled Ducati. He was the General Director of Ducati and now he performs the same role in MV Agusta. In this exclusive interview Bordi talks about the Desmo, the 851/888/916 and Monster and a lot more. Bordi also reveals that MV Agusta will enter World Superbike with its F4 model and that both the F3 and F4 are being further developed at Ferrari's HPE. Will we see a MV Agusta Desmo? Read the interview here.

Watch this video to see which is the top dog in the 600 class in 2011.

MV Agusta CEO Giovanni Castiglioni speaks with Tor Sagen.

“I have the first F4, but not the one presented to the public. It was a 916 with a four cylinder engine with a Cagiva logo.” “The F4 RR is our 911 Turbo.” “We are working on a third 675cc bike which is a MV Agusta interpretation of what could be a motard.”  “Take a bike, any bike you want and cover its brand and tell me which bike it is. 90% of the time you don’t know. With an MV Agusta you know, you say this is an MV.”  “Small companies like MV Agusta should remain family owned.” “Harley-Davidson, I’m not saying they did badly for this company; they did incredibly well for this company. But on the financial side and other sides everything went slower and a bit more bureaucratic.” “Prototype racing isn’t for us, it’s a big show but we can’t afford MotoGP it’s not for a small company.” “Superbike racing is right for us. It takes time to get there; it’s difficult as the brand wants so much. We don’t go racing to finish between 5^th or 10^th place, we go to win.” Read the full interview here

The 2012 MV Agusta F4 RR Corsacorta produces a claimed 200 horsepower @13,400rpm and 114Nm @ 9,200rpm. 998cc.Top speed is a claimed 298km/h - 185Mph. It will do 205km/h - 128Mph in third gear. Dry weight: 192kg. We'll test it in Italy in September. Photo gallery here.

Claudio Castiglioni was born 22.11.1946 and died of illness 17.08.2011 64 years old. Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni inherited the Cagiva company from their father Giovanni in 1978. From 1950 to 1978 Cagiva produced small metal parts but Giovanni's sons were more interested in motorcycles. Cagiva made successes in 500GP in the 2-stroke era and also in the Paris-Dakar race with their offroad machines. In 1985 Cagiva bought Bologna firms Ducati and Moto Morini followed by Husqvarna in 1987 and MV Agusta in 1991. After achieving great success particularly with the Monster model and on the race tracks with the 916-996-998 models Castiglioni sensed that there'd be a V90 onslaught aimed at Ducati. In 1996 he started selling off Ducati shares which enabled a 1997 launch of the 750cc MV Agusta F4 (in production by 1999). In 1998 the remaining Ducati shares were sold and Aprilia, Honda and Suzuki started their liquid-cooled V-twin fight back against Ducati both on the roads and race tracks resulting in a less dominating Ducati presence as Castiglioni had predicted. Cagiva then started buying Suzuki twin engines to power its Raptor range rather than Ducati engines which had been the case in the eighties. Cagiva was to re-create the Monster success with the Raptor whilst MV Agusta were to re-create the 916 success with the F4. This never quite happened and the MV Brutale came and the Cagiva Raptor all but went. Change in ownership and financial ups and downs culminated in the sale of a healthy Husqvarna to BMW in 2007 which enabled 100% effort into MV Agusta again for a refresh which resulted in Harley-Davidson buying the MV Agusta holding company in 2009 injecting lots of fresh R&D cash. This resulted in the new 1000cc and 675cc engines that represent MV Agusta anno 2011 one year after Castiglioni bought MV Agusta back from Harley-Davidson for the symbolic sum of one Euro. Claudio Castiglioni will be remembered for his great contribution to motorcycling in the last 30 years. His son Giovanni Castiglioni had already taken over the day to day running of MV Agusta along with Massimo Bordi so the company is presently in very good hands. By Tor Sagen Follow this link for MV Agusta's press release regarding their President's death and Tor Sagen's 2008 interview with Claudio Castiglioni.

I am just back from the Arctic Circle and Arctic Circle Raceway in Norway. I have spent a whole week up north and four of them testing the 2011 BMW S 1000 RR and Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa, Diablo Superbike Pro and Superbike SC2 racing tyres and slicks in association with Bikeport.no. I have also done my Road Racing license, done my first race (1000 Club Race where I participated in the Rookie 1000 class) and instructed road riders in the art of track riding. The 2011 BMW S 1000 RR is no less than a track ready monster. I did decent lap times in the end with a bog standard superbike that you can buy in the shop. The main modification of course were the slick tyres from Pirelli and particularly the full on race Superbike tyres changes the Beemer into something very mean and angry that can handle insane cornering in safety. I also did a whole day on the Pirelli Superbike Pro slicks that have been designed to last for at least two hard days on track without the necessity of tyre warmers. They do of course work better straight away with tyre warmers but I tried both and even used them both for my qualifying session and for the race. Had I had a dedicated mechanic I’d put the SC2’s on for the race but realistically I had no chance to change tyres myself and then be ready for race with warmed up SC2’s and all in only 15 odd minutes. More here

Greetings from the ACR Vairano test circuit just south of Milan. I’ve just finished testing the all new Aprilia RS4 which is Aprilia’s first step away from the 2-strokes that made them famous. Aprilia will still sell the much sought after RS 125 2-stroke alongside its new 4-stroke 125 but it’s obvious that it will be phased out at some point. Despite being restricted to 15 horsepower and 11Nm of torque the small single cylinder race bike provided plenty of fun on the circuit. Tor More here

I'm just back from the MV Agusta factory in Varese where I have tested MV's first serious attempt at something you could be stretched to call a "budget" motorcycle, the all black Brutale 920. The very team that runs MV Agusta today were the very same team that brought Ducati its first successes since the 70's. Mr Desmodromic, Massimo Bordi, told me that it was his idea back in the early 90's to launch the first Monster Dark. The idea being to justify a lower price you remove some exclusive components, replace them with slightly cheaper ones and then paint it all black. This basically is what MV Agusta have done with the Brutale 920. Saying that though, the 920 doesn't share its 921cc engine with any other Brutale so it's definitely a stand alone model and not a budget version of the 990 R. The engine is still a growling in-line four but with a 129 horsepower version of the in-line four. The 990 R features a 139 horsepower engine of 998cc. Giovanni Castiglioni told me in our exclusive interview that the MV Agusta in-line four model range now is complete. It comprises of the three Brutale models (920, 990 R and 1090 RR) and the F4 and F4 RR. The Brutale 920 albeit having softer but still quality suspension still feels very much like an exclusive MV Agusta but now at less than £10K. With full traction control and riding modes and a beautiful engine the Brutale 920 comes across as something of a bargain. Read my full review soon. By Tor Sagen Photo: Milagro

Brutale 920   Brutale 990 R   Brutale 1090 RR   F4

More 2011 news here

Syndication is the magic word for any freelancer. Why work exclusively for one in one country when you can work for many? Raptors & Rockets is expanding and we need your help.

Photographers: If you are a freelance motorcycle photographer we can help with syndication. We have clients interested in photo shows from major events or particularly outstanding photography of special motorcycles. Even if you are not a professional we need your help. Have you been lucky and snapped a prototype motorcycle no one knows about at a remote location? Cash in and get your pictures syndicated all over the world with major motorcycle publication houses. If you have the material then I have the contacts to move your pictures into the spotlight for cash. In particular we are looking for Japanese, German, Italian, US, UK and Spanish spy-snappers.

Writers: If you are a freelance motorcycle writer and feel you are not syndicated enough then contact us. As long as it does not conflict with any of the launches that we attend we are willing to syndicate your material. In particular if your material has got news value and good picture material. English is always best, but on some occasions we will be able to syndicate in various languages. But I must also always get an English version. If you are not a professional writer we are still interested in all sorts of different information's about new bikes and developments in the industry. These pieces of information can also generate cash.

Designers: Hugo van Waaijen, Luc1, Astroman and many others has now been published all over the world as a result of working with Raptors & Rockets. It is your choice whether you want to design anonymously or with full name credit. There will always be a need for brilliant designers and you could be one of them. Show us your stuff and get syndicated! Note to all: send me low resolution stuff as examples of your work. I will ask for high resolution material when needed.

For more information contact Tor Sagen

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