Friday, August 29, 2008

Welcome to Supermoto Central

Supermoto Central is the latest addition to the growing Supermoto Community. The goal of Supermoto Central is to become the #1 source for the latest Supermoto news and media.

Supermoto Central is a completely new website that will be offering several features to the Supermoto Community:

- News about the latest races,events,gear and products
- Picture gallery with more than 300 pics of world’s most beautiful Supermoto bikes
-Specials about the most kick ass Supermoto bikes on the planet and interviews with their builders
-Interviews with world class Supermoto drivers from the FIM Supermoto championship and AMA Supermoto championship
- Links database with links to all the Supermoto sites on the web
- Supermoto Central Youtube channel with 100+ and counting Supermoto videos
- Review database with links to online magazine reviews of Supermoto models
- Supermoto Central gear Cool Supermoto t-shirts and more coming soon

Add Supermoto Central to your bookmarks with ctrl+d and keep checking in to get your supermoto fix.

Supermoto Central 100% Supermoto!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Results Austrian GP

GREINBACH (AUSTRIA), 24 August 2008 – A bright sun characterized the final day of the Austrian GP in Greinbach. Ivan Lazzarini won the S1 class from Bernd Hiemer and Sylvain Bidart. Alessandro Asnicar won the S3 class as Viktor Bolsek won in the Open class.

The second S1 moto and the second S3 moto were not run as an accident happened in the early stages of the second S1 heat involving riders Kevin Berthome and Nestor Jorge.

Berthome broke a foot and was taken to the hospital nearby for further checks while Jorge’s injury unveiled to be more serious.

After receiving medical care by specialized trauma doctors to stabilize his condition Jorge was taken to the Graz Hospital by helicopter. Further examinations to evaluate the situation are currently in process.

The event management promptly decided not to run the remaining part of the event’s program as the public and the medical staff gave proof of excellent behaviour in this difficult situation.

S1


DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory’s Ivan Lazzarini took his second season’s win courtesy of an outstanding performance in the first moto. KTM Italia Miglio’s Bernd Hiemer was second and increased his Championship lead over Thierry Van Den Bosch. The DRC SuperMoto Aprilia Factory rider was a disappointing tenth as he crashed at the start of the heat. Cross 2R Husqvarna’s Sylvain Bidart completed the top three in the same country where he raced his first GP (Melk 2005) and took his maiden podium (Melk 2006). Fabio Balducci and Jerome Giraudo rounded off the top five.

Top five overall: 1. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), 25 points; 2. Bernd Hiemer (GER, KTM), 22 p.; 3. Sylvain Bidart (FRA, Husqvarna), 20 p.; 4. Fabio Balducci (ITA, Suzuki), 18 p.; 5. Jerome Giraudo (FRA, Honda), 16 p.

S2


TM Factory Racing’s Davide Gozzini won a very close Grand Prix of Austria with current series leader Adrien Chareyre second despite starting from ninth on the grid. His Husqvarna CH Racing team mate Gerald Delepine made it to the podium in third by winning the final heat as Motoracing KTM’s Ales Hlad clinched a fourth place overall, his best season’s result. Coming back from a hard wrist injury Christian Iddon of PMR H2O Aprilia Off Road took fifth ahead of team mate Luca Minutilli.

Top five overall: 1. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), 45 points; 2. Adrien Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), 44 p.; 3. Gérald Delepine (BEL, Husqvarna), 38 p.; 4. Ales Hlad (BUL, KTM), 32 p.; 5. Christian Iddon (GBR, Aprilia), 31 p.

IN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS
Hiemer has now an advantage of 18 points over runner up VDB, having a bad day in Greinbach. Lazzarini is still third and made up 14 points on his team mate with Chareyre and Winstanley rounding off the top five.

Top ten: 1. Bernd Hiemer (GER, KTM), 198 points; 2. Thierry van den Bosch (FRA, Aprilia), 180 p.; 3. Ivan Lazzarini (ITA, Aprilia), 158 p.; 4. Thomas Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), 146 p.; 5. Matthew Winstanley (GBR, KTM), 126 p.; 6. Boris Chambon (FRA, TM), 123 p.; 7. Sylvain Bidart (FRA, Husqvarna), 118 p.; 8. Fabio Balducci (ITA, Suzuki), 95 p.; 9. Petr Vorlicek (CZE, Suzuki), 84 p.; 10. Jerome Giraudo (FRA, Honda), 82 p.

Adrien Chareyre still tops the S2 standings with a six point advantage over Gozzini, who gained just one point on his rival today. Delepine is third and Pignotti fourth with Minutilli (fifth) increasing his advantage over Beltrami to 11 points.

Top ten: 1. Adrien Chareyre (FRA, Husqvarna), 228 points; 2. Davide Gozzini (ITA, TM), 222 p.; 3. Gérald Delepine (BEL, Husqvarna), 171 p.; 4. Attilio Pignotti (ITA, KTM), 163 p.; 5. Luca Minutilli (ITA, Aprilia), 159 p.; 6. Massimo Beltrami (ITA, Aprilia), 148 p.; 7. Lorenzo Mariani (ITA, TM), 121 p.; 8. Emanuele Giovanelli (ITA, Husaberg), 109 p.; 9. Paolo Gaspardone (ITA, Husaberg), 100 p.; 10. Christian Iddon (GBR, Aprilia), 98 p.

Full Report

Picture Gallery

WHAT’S NEXT
The sixth round, the GP Andorra Pas de la Casa Grandvalira, will take place in Pas de la Casa, Andorra, on September 21.

Swatdoc's YZ450F



How about a small introduction of yourself to the readers of Supermoto Central?

Ok an introduction. I am 48 years old. I've lived in Hawaii for the past 24 years. I have been a Doctor of Chiropractic for the past 24 years, and a police officer the past 13 years. I have been a member of the Honolulu Police Department's SWAT TEAM the past 8 years, so hence the screen name: SWATDOC.

I have been riding motorcycles since age 15 when I got my first CR125 Honda. I used to live in Oceanside California, so I got to race motocross at the infamous Carlsbad and Saddleback race tracks.

How did you get into supermoto and what do you find so great about it?

I first became interested in Supermoto from going to all of the Superbikers races they had at Carlsbad Raceway. It really looked fun. It definitely seemed like the motocrossers had the edge as guys like Magoo, Steve Wise, Bailey, Ward, etc. dominated most of the time.

When and how did the idea for this project originated? What was your inspiration?

I finally got interested in doing it myself after seeing supermoto had made a comeback, and Suzuki was offering a street legal bike already converted for supermoto. I then picked up my first SM bike, which was a 2006 Suzuki DRZ400SM. That bike didn't stay stock long, as I always have to mod things.



About a year later I heard that it was legal in Hawaii to modify a dirt bike and make it street legal as long as it met the state's requirements. This was important to me as Hawaii had recently lost the only road track on this island, so i had to have a bike that was street legal for me to able to ride it.



What’s was the base for your project?

I've always like the look of the old retro yellow Yamahas, from back in the Bob Hannah days. Therefore the Hurricane style Yamaha was going to be the inspiration for my new project bike. So I picked up a brand new 07 YZ450F, took it home, and tore it down to the bare frame before ever riding it so I could powdercoat the frame black.

Can you tell us in short how the build went? Did you have any big problems or did it all went smooth?

The build went pretty smooth except for getting the wrong Marchesini rear wheel from Motostrano. They sent me an old outdated rim and the spacing with the hub carriers was totally off. I ended up having to pull the tire back off and send the wheel to QTMI to get the proper carriers and spacers installed - all at my expense.

The most challenging thing for running a street legal Yamaha is the limited wattage available for electrics. all aftermarket and rewound stators put out a max of about 50 watts. The requires running a 35 watt headlight and a 1 watt LED tail and brake light. Anything else like turn signals or horn need to be battery powered. Choosing the components is crucial. I am considering running a cooling fan for when I am stopped at a light or in traffic. This will necessitate running it thru a rocker switch in conjunction with my headlight. When I turn the fan on the headlight will go off and vice versa.

Check out my garage on Thumpertalk.com for a pretty complete list of mods. Since the pics were taken I picked up the stage 3 cooling kit from PWR, which includes oversize radiators with a built in oil cooler setup - pretty much what all the factory motocross teams run. Having to stop and start when riding on the street makes the bike easy to overheat, so I'm doing about all I can to keep the heat down.

What do you use your bike for? Do you ride it on the street or just take it to the track once in a while?

I have to ride my bike on the street only, as the island of Oahu has had no road track for several years now. If we had a track, believe me, my bike would be on it! A couple of my officer friends have supermoto bikes, and they work at the training academy, which has a small track area used to teach emergency driving techniques. They've taken their bikes on the track a few times after hours, so I hope to able to get with them one of these days and hit the Police track.

Is this your first supermoto project or did you also build other supermoto bikes?

This is my second supermoto project. My first was a 2006 Suzuki DRZ400SM. It's heavily modified with a 50HP motor ( I actually swapped motors - I bought a kickstart only motor brand new off ebay and used that motor as the basis for my bike ), Marchesini wheels, slipper clutch, custom graphics, etc, etc, etc. I probably have about 8K into the bike over the cost of the bike itself.

Do you have any plans for another supermoto project in the future?

No plans for any future SM projects at this point. The only other change to my bike besides the stage 3 cooling kit and fan is to mount a stock type front number plate back on and run a projector beam style light for a headlight. I bought a 35 watt PIAA light, the 004X, and plan to mount it to the handguard bracket next to the top triple clamp.

Have you got any tips or advice for people that want to start a project like this?

The best tip I can give people who might be considering a project like this is don't even think about it if you are not fairly mechanically inclined and are used to custom fabrication and in depth maintenance on your bikes. For a project like this there are many things that don't come with directions, or things that have to be modified considerably to get them to work.

Thanks to John aka Swatdoc for the interview



Specs







Base

2007 Yamaha YZ450F

Engine

Thermal dispersant black coating to valve cover and engine cases

SFB Racing billet high capacity clutch cover

Hinson BTL slipper clutch

Exhaust

FMF titanium Megabomb header with carbon fiber 4.1 muffler



Wheels/Brakes

Brembo 320mm front disc

Marchesini wheels - 3.5 x 17 front and 5.0 x 17 rear

Brembo radial supermoto front caliper and bracket

Suspension

Tri Star Racing 13mm offset billet triple clamps

Mach 1 Motorsports / Race Tech revalved / resprung forks and shock

Bars

Pro Taper Windham bend gold colored handlebars

Cycra pro handguards

Body

One Industries Hurricane yellow plastics and graphics kit

Black Acerbis side plates and front fork guards

Custom Graphics by Dirt Digits

Friday, August 22, 2008

Supermoto Gear


Supermoto Central now offers special Supermoto T-shirts! The first batch of 100 T-shirts have all been sold to supermoto riders in the Netherlands,Belgium and the UK. Nothing but positive comments about the T-shirts. Now it's time for the second batch which will be sold to all countries in the European Union. Not available in the US and countries outside of the EU because of shipping costs.

We need atleast 50 orders to print a second batch. How do you order your t-shirt? Send an e-mail to gear@supermoto-central.com with your full name, adress details and size of the t-shirt you want to order. When the t-shirts are printed we will send you a payment request, when the request has been payed the t-shirt will be shipped.

Price is €18.50 a T-shirt including shipping costs. Prices for multiple t-shirts will vary because of shipping costs.

Not available outside of the EU

Friday, August 15, 2008

Supermoto Reviews

Aprilia

2006 Aprilia SXV 550 - Motorcycle USA
2006 Aprilia SXV 550 - Raptors and Rockets
2006 Aprilia SXV 550 - Motorfreaks (Dutch)

Honda

Honda FMX 650 - Motorfreaks (Dutch)
Honda FMX 650 - Raptors and Rockets

Husqvarna

2004 Husqvarna SM450R - Motorcycle.com
2005 Husqvarna SM510R - Motorfreaks
2005 Husqvarna 610SM - Motorcycle USA
2007 Husqvarna SM510R - Bikepoint

KTM

2005 KTM 450 SMR & 525 SMR - Motorcycle USA
2006 KTM 950 Supermoto - Cycleworld
2006 KTM 950 Supermoto - Motorcyclist Online
2006 KTM 950 Supermoto - Raptors and Rockets
2006 KTM 450 SMR - Cycleworld
2007 KTM 690 SM - Cycleworld
2007 KTM 690 SM - Motorcycle USA

Suzuki

Suzuki DR-Z400SM - Cycleworld
Suzuki DR-Z400SM - Motorfreaks (Dutch)

Yamaha

2008 Yamaha WR250X - Motorcycle USA
2008 Yamaha WR250X - Topspeed
2008 Yamaha WR250X - Motorcyclist