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Euro Gossip February 2010
| | | The weather over here in Europe for the past month has been pretty horrendous for motorcycling. Not only in terms of lack of riding, but it has meant that the motorcycle industry news has been pretty quiet, with very little happening in the way of leaks or sightings. Even the traditional warmer European circuits have seen little in the way of prototype testing taking place.
Certainly given the economic climate this has not helped the road to recovery, but as you will see from this month’s offering, there are a still a few glimmers of hope for a better year to come. At the risk of being accused of patriotic flag waving, this is highlighted by Triumph’s recently released figures showing their increase in market share!
Austria
Pictures are now leaking out from KTM of the new 125’s that are being built in India by its partner Bajaj. The four-stroke ‘Stunt’ looks almost identical to the concept model seen at the Milan show last November along with the ‘Race’ model. Sources claim the bike is undergoing final endurance testing and will be shown in final form at the end of this year for production in 2011 with the Race following soon after.
Germany
Bosch continues to be on the leading edge of motorcycle safety recieving an award from the ADAC.German automotive component supplier Bosch has been awarded a prestigious 'Gelber Engel' (yellow angel) award, by the massive German ADAC motoring organi zation. The award is in recognition of the part that Bosch’s new motorcycle ABS is playing in motorcycle safety.
Bosch has actually been manufacturing brake control systems for motorcycles since 1994, but while all of the previous systems have been based on passenger car technology its new ‘Generation 9’ has been developed specifically for motorcycles at the Bosch competence center in Japan. Another big plus with the new system is that it is based on a modular design, allowing various levels of sophistication to be selected from a base system with basic functions, to a high-performance version. In the simplest version it weighs just 0.7 kilograms (1.54 lbs) and is half the size and weight of the previous Bosch units. Now in production, it is hoped that it will lead to more motorcycles being fitted with what many be...
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