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For the seventh season running , Brembo will be supplying all MotoGP riders with braking systems in 2022 and this year ' s season they will be individually customisable - for all 24 riders . Brembo parts will include GP4 brake calipers , a choice of 12 carbon disc options , brake master cylinders , clutch pumps and pads . Brembo says that more than one-third of MotoGP riders regularly use the thumb master cylinder , first seen in the 1990s for Mick Doohan . For the 2022 season , there are two variants . The most commonly used is a closed circuit system with a thumb master cylinder and pedal , using a rear twopiston caliper ; the second has two discrete circuits - each acting on two or four pistons within the rear caliper . In the former , one system excludes the other ; in the latter , they can operate simultaneously . Eight out of 12 teams will use forged magnesium wheels by Brembo owned Marchesini .

In a surprise move , KTM has brought back the 790 Duke - the original ' Scalpel ' brings " all-new colourways and a renewed rebellious streak to the world of midweight naked machinery ". First seen in 2017 , the 790 sold over 29,000 units before being followed by the 890 Duke R - the so-called ' Super Scalpel '. In early 2021 , the KTM 790 Duke was upgraded to the KTM 890 Duke , with more power and improved electronics . " The 2022 KTM 790 Duke is the continuation of the story that introduced the world to the power and agility of the KTM LC8c parallel-twin platform ".

Two years ago , Triumph announced that it would move the bulk of its production for all markets to Thailand , with arising lay-offs at its Hinkley , UK factory ( with still further subsequent pandemic- triggered UK job losses in June 2020 ). Triumph now appears set to respond what it says is a big rise in UK and European sales by increasing target UK production to 20,000 or more bikes a year ( from approx . 4,500 largely specials at present ) and hiring 100 new production staff to build them ! CCO Paul Stroud says : " Sales were just over 81,500 motorcycles in 2021 , 29 % growth on the previous year ."

Elisabetta Quadrini , Newfren , Turin

For two years now the motorcycle components sector has been living with instability and unpredictability . First the pandemic , then the uncertainty in demand , then the surge in demand , followed by logistics and materials supply chain issues and inflation . Then ? The conflict in Ukraine has catapulted us into a world plagued by scenarios that we are all only familiar with from the pages of the history books ! Our factories have been hit , like our lives , by issues that burden our daily routines and that no businesses have been able to prepare for . Like many other companies , Newfren has worked hard to structure itself to overcome the difficulty of finding raw materials , to understand the reasons for the tripling of transit times for

goods and to understand how to manage the volatility of pricing . Like most manufacturers , some of our production processes have had to be adjusted and , in our case , we have been forced to modify some processes that have been established and perfected over more than forty years of experience and development . We have had to look for different supply points too . ERP computer systems have had to be updated because the statistical data used for

the calculations that govern the purchasing processes have been overtaken by events . Here at Newfren , in January 2022 we were convinced that we had successfully rebuilt processes to adapt to the new scenarios - we were confident that our changes would prove to be robust and able to manage the challenges and variables that could affect our daily work . Then , a month ago , hostilities began between two countries that play a key role in supplies to the manufacturing industry and commercial life in Europe and beyond . Every bit of certainty achieved in two years of work is now being called into question again and , worse of all , our Italian industry is being weighed down by the high cost of energy - which affects the entire production chain . Today we are again having to deal with daily increases - in both raw materials and processing . Our brake shoes are made from 90 % die-cast aluminium - the costs of aluminium are increasing day by day and the foundries that die-cast our shoes are powered by gas , oil and electricity . As I have said before , we here at Newfren are a lot luckier than some manufacturers , because we are so well established and financed . But the results are still that we are now having to manage a 30 % increase in the cost of processing - in addition to the raw materials price increases . Our brake pads are moulded on a steel support , the cost of steel has increased due to the high cost of energy , which is impacting foundries - but there is also a blockage in the availability of the large quantities of nickel that are needed for making steel alloys . Our foundry sources them from Ukraine , so

they are directly impacted by the conflict . At this point in time , we have enough raw material stock in our warehouse to be able to keep production going . The powdered raw materials we use for our friction materials have a shelf

life of six months , so we are trying to build up stocks , so as not to impose continuous increases on this front too . As far as brake discs are concerned , our stock of AISI steel raw materials ( made in Japan ) covers about the entire production year , but the costs of heat treatment , which is an energyintensive process , have increased by 20 %, and the grinding processes are also energy-intensive , and they too have gone up in price by around the same . The most difficult thing to manage is that we are suffering the increases immediately - without any time to take planning measures . This is just a little summary of our daily life , and , of course , we are just one manufacturer - however , most of all though , it is the wellbeing of our Ukrainian industry colleagues that concerns us most , and we are wishing them all the best in these uncertain and dangerous times !