International Dealer News IDN 148 April/May 2019 | Page 10

news ROOM
Energica MotoE 'Spec'
BRIEFS bikes destroyed in fire
NEWS
Avon TrailRider tyres are OE
fitment on the KTM 790
Adventure, and the British based
manufacturer has announced
that it will now also supply tyres
to KTM official stunt rider Rok
Bagoros. From Radenci, Slovenia,
Rok started his professional
riding career in 2011 with a
Duke 125, then switched to the
690 the following year. Now he
has upgraded to the parallel
twin engine 790 to "push his
tricks to a whole new level".
Avon products being used by
Rok include the TrailRider, 3D
Ultra Sport and Spirit ST.
Yamaha Motor has received a Global
"iF Design Award 2019" for the sixth
year running for its MOTOROiD,
marking an award triple of all the
global top three design competitions,
having previously received the Gold
prize at the "International Design
Excellence Awards (IDEA)" and the
Luminary award at the "Red Dot
Award: Design Concept 2018."
The Yamaha Leaning Multi-Wheel
(LMW) 'NIKEN', "the world's first
multi-wheel production
motorcycle", is to be the Official
Support unit for each of the
three most famous bicycle races
worldwide. A strategic new 3-
year partnership with A.S.O. and
RCS Sports, organisers of
Europe's three major Cycling
Grand Tours, will see the 'NIKEN'
become the official support
motorcycle through to the end of
the 2021 season.
BMW and Daimler have unveiled a
joint venture covering new-generation
services such as driverless vehicles,
ride-hailing and pay-per-use cars.
Normally fierce rivals, the firms are
investing € 1bn (£880m) in the
project, which will also help drivers
find parking and electric charge
points. The two German firms said
they were open to buying tech start-
ups.
The Ducati Scrambler 'Land of
Joy' is back, with four events
from April to September. New for
2019 are Scrambler Experiences
in Romagna and Tuscany;
participants in the Romagna
Scrambler Experience, a one-day
tour over paved and dirt roads,
will start off from Cesenatico on
Saturday 6 April; the Tuscany
Scrambler Experience, scheduled
for the weekend of 6-7 July,
takes participants on a two-
day/350 km ride over the hills
around Siena.
10
Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer
Energica has seen the bikes being tested
as the 'Spec' bikes for the upcoming all-
electric MotoE championship destroyed
by an overnight fire at the Jerez race
circuit in southern Spain.
The MotoE bikes were at the circuit for
three days of pre-season testing, but all
18 bikes that had been taken to the track
on the opening day, Wednesday March
13, were burned when fire destroyed
the newly built E-paddock structure in
which the Ego Corsa machines were
being stored overnight.
A statement from organiser Dorna (the
MotoGP rights owner) said the five-race
inaugural 2019 FIM Enel MotoE World
Cup will still go ahead. The races will be
held at selected MotoGP events, with
the first race slated for the Spanish GP
at Jerez on May 5, before moving on to
Le Mans, the Sachsenring and Austria
before concluding at Misano, Italy, on
September 15.
At the time of writing the cause of the
fire was still being investigated, but it is
thought to have been caused by an
electrical short circuit fault.
The joint statement issued by Dorna,
Energica and ENEL stated that "the
Alessandro Brannetti - Energica Tester Photo courtesy of www.motogp.com
source of the short circuit has yet to be
identified but, once the fire broke out,
it ignited the high-density battery which
is part of the high-performance charger
used at MotoE events. The motorbikes
were not connected to the charging
infrastructure at the time the fire
began".
The governing body responsible for
MotoE, the Federation Internationale
de Motocyclisme [FIM], also issued a
statement via its President, Jorge
Viegas: "It is a terrible blow, but I am
sure that all those working for this
exciting new venture will find the
strength and motivation to overcome
this unfortunate occurrence and make
the championship a success. We look
forward to putting this behind us and
are confident for the future."
A total of 12 teams - including MotoGP
outfits Tech3, Pramac, LCR, Avintia, SIC
Racing (which runs the Petronas
Yamaha outfit) and Gresini (which
operates Aprilia's works team) - signed
up, and the rider roster includes the likes
of Sete Gibernau, Bradley Smith and
Xavier Simeon. The opening day of the
Jerez test was topped by Avintia's Eric
Granado.
Air Bag Wars - Dainese
wins in Munich Court
Dainese has won the latest stage
in a patent infringement dispute
with Alpinestars concerning the
sale of Alpinestars' Tech-Air
airbag vests in Germany. In
February a judge at the Munich
Court of Appeals ruled that
Alpinestars' product had
infringed on the EU airbag
patent that Dainese has to
protect its D-air technology.
The decision confirms a lower
court ruling from 2017 that the
Tech-Air street airbag vest (for
road use) and Tech-Air racing
airbag vest (for track use and
road), manufactured and
marketed by Alpinestars,
infringed on Dainese’s European
patent EP 2 412 257 B1. This
latest decision is only now
appealable at the German
Federal Supreme Court.
The finding prohibits Alpinestars
from "commercialising the Tech-
Air street airbag vests and
Tech-Air racing airbag vests in
Germany; orders Alpinestars to
INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - APRIL/MAY 2019
recall any such vests which
Alpinestars has supplied since 1
July 2015, and which are still in
the possession of commercial
customers in Germany, and
orders Alpinestars to
compensate Dainese for all
damages suffered due to the
sale of the infringing vests in
Germany since 1 July 2015".
This decision is a major victory
for Dainese in an intensive
patent litigation fight against
Alpinestars in Italy, Germany, the
UK and France.
Dainese had originally accused
its rival of three patent breaches,
however, one was withdrawn at
the end of 2016, after the
Dainese application was revoked
by the European Patent Office.
Another, which centred on
specific features of the Tech-Air
vest air bladder, was declined by
the German Federal Patent Court
in 2018 - a decision that Dainese
is appealing.
The decision in February this
year found Alpinestars in
contravention of a third patent
that centres on the installation
of an inflatable air bladder
within an elastic panel
constructed garment pocket - a
finding that applies to Germany
only.
Alpinestars has an appeal
pending on the validity of this
patent within the German
Federal Court of Justice and is
saying that the patent
infringement does not, in fact,
relate to the core technology
used in the Tech-Air vest, stating
that it wants to "clarify that this
action never involved the core of
Alpinestars' Tech-Air technology;
at no point, either past or
present, has any action or patent
infringement involved the
electronic management,
algorithm, or deployment
mechanism, or any other part
employed within Alpinestars'
entirely unique and advanced
Tech-Air technology".
www.idnmag.com