Yamaha’s premier racing team, the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, has a new teammate for the legendary Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales. The name is Lorenzo Daretti and he hails from Rome.
Lorenzo is already a two time MotoGP champion for the eSport segment. That would be the video game version of MotoGP. The nineteen year old Daretti trains for three hours a day to compete online as a Yamaha factory rider. The gamer was introduce to a world that might not be as familiar with his name as that of his two team mates at an event in Gerno de Lesmo, Italy as described by the press release:
“… defending World Champion Daretti entered the stage, that featured a custom Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP replica YZF-R1, sporting his race number, 58, and personal logo, ’Trast73‘. With the support of Monster Energy, Alpinestars, Arai and Aldo Drudi, both the Italian youngster and his avatar have matching customised rider gear (leathers, boots, gloves and helmet) for the 2019 season, finishing off the complete Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP rider look. Leading gaming brand MSI will provide Lorenzo with a high performance laptop for the season.”
The Ride for Dad has announced a full slate of rides across Canada for 2019 in support of prostate cancer research and public awareness. Since 2000, Ride for Dad has donated more than $33 million to the Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation.
It is often the differences in speed that cause the most serious incidents. Perhaps this bit of news will mitigate some of that.
Where’s the next Starbucks? You could jump in the deep end of the pool, and we are talking the really deep end, and head to LA. Eight lanes of freeway traffic moving in the same direction as you. So far so good. Eight lanes of freeway traffic moving at 15kph, not so good. However, California was the first state to allow lane splitting and it has been happening for years. You will see motorcycles on the freeway splitting lanes between tractor trailers and Mercedes driving soccer moms and starlets. There are rules but from a casual glance, it seems pretty interpretative by variation. On the other hand many vehicles drivers seem to be aware that a motorcyclist might just be coming up that painted line between lanes on anything between a Gold Wing and a Vespa. Having been there and done that, it can be a little hairy for the uninitiated. Good news! You can now dip your toe into the kiddie pool for lane splitting and head to Utah where the state is allowing a trial lane splitting period on roads with speeds below 45mph – so no freeway jaunts allowed. If it turns out not to be in the liking of the populace not on two wheels, the law can be repealed in 2022.
Perhaps it was ho-hum seeing the R1200GS tackle every log, rock, river, mud bog, dirt track, windswept no-man’s land and jungle thicket with relative aplomb. The bike could pretty much tackle everything that was thrown at it in the previous versions of the GS Trophy leading some to believe it was going to be predictable. Albeit seeing what those teams and individual rider’s had to endure to be crowned the winning team, predictable it most certainly wasn’t.
If your heart was set on the smallest of the “Neo Sport” bikes from Honda your minimal displacement in Canada will be with the CB300R as the CB125R found in Europe and elsewhere in the world will not be making it to our shores in the discernible future. The CB125R is an aggressive looking machine with many of the styling cues found in the three larger bikes in the line of which the CB1000R is the big daddy. The only machine doing small displacement street duty in Honda’s Canadian line-up is the Grom with its air cooled 125 and most definitely sits in a different category than the CB125R which has more in common with the sportier CBR125 which has been out of the line-up for years.
before if they tried to bring offshore built motorcycles back into the United States.