Some news from Kawasaki UK;

Kawasaki is pleased to announce that it’s successful ‘Precious Metal’ Finance Campaign currently being offered on both the Kawasaki ER-6n and ER-6f will be extended until June 2nd 2007. The finance package offers 0% APR (typical) finance and a deposit of just £99.

The ER-6n and ER-6f appeal to a wide variety of riders and the take up on this package, since it’s launch back in February, has been great, said Martin Lambert, Kawasaki Motors UK Marketing Manager, We have decided to extend this offer until the beginning of June and we hope it continues to help UK riders get back on the roads in time for the summer weather.

‘Precious Metal’, offered through Kawasaki’s K-Care Finance partner, Black Horse, provides 0% finance over 3 years with a minimum deposit of only £99. It is available at franchised Kawasaki road bike dealers nationwide for a further two months following its successful introduction back in February.

(this article was taken from insidebikes.com)

The Motor Cycle Industry has recently released details of sales figures for new motorcycles. It seems that more and more people are purchasing new motorbikes with a 7.8% increase on last year. February alone saw an increase in sales of 12%. March’s sales figures are expected to be up by 15%.

However, the car industry is reporting sales down by 3.2% on this time last year. It seems that with global warming and congestion charging, that people are turning to motorbikes.

Aprilia have released a small amount of information regarding their 750cc v-twin Shiver which will be released in 2008 along with some other new Aprilia models.

Apparently, the 750 twin and the 850 automatic (taken from the Mana 850) will be the basis for the new bikes. They also hinted that the new models being produced are an adventure sports model, supermoto model and a duel purpose model. There is also speculation that the RSV-R and the Tuono are being remodeled.

We’ll just have to wait and see what models Aprilia actually release in 2008!

Yamaha have just released their 2007 YZF-R6 motorbike.

The new bike is a sports bike and looks the part with 17inch, 5 spoke wheels. It also comes with an aluminum frame with the engine placed in a GP position. It has also been built with aerodynamics in mind to aid the bike as much as possible in races. It comes in three colours - Yamaha Blue, Charcoal Silver and Candy Red.

Optional extras include a lap-timer which is built-in on the right handlebar, digital speedometer and a toolkit under the passenger seat.

The AA have been carrying out a motorbike insurance survey and the results have been quite interesting.

The results show that a fifth of all female motorcyclists are of the retirement age and that the oldest female motorcyclist is 80years old. The most powerful motorbike that the AA have insured in the last five years also belongs to a female of retirement age.

In the last two years, there has been a 36% increase in the number of men and women over 60 who have taken to driving a motorbike rather than a car. There has also been a staggering 110% increase in the number of retired ladies using motorbikes rather than cars since 2005.

However, it is not just the retired that have started taking up traveling by motorbike. There has been an increase of 40% of 17-20 year olds that have taken up this method of transport in the last five years which shows how the popularity of motorbikes are once again increasing.

The Yamaha MotoGP team will now be called Fiat Yamaha due to the fact that Fiat are now sponsoring the team for the new MotoGP season.

This sponsorship deal is combines the four wheel and two wheel industries. Yamaha and MotoGP are more of a younger persons sport so Fiat are hoping that the younger generation may start to purchase Fiat cars.

The new logo will be the word ‘team’, the Italian flag and the Fiat and Yamaha logos and will be displayed on the side, windshield and fuel tank of the bikes.

The MotoGP will be at Donnington Park at the end of June.

(Image taken from www.motorcyclenews.com)

This year’s Isle of Man TT Races is set to go ahead on Saturday 2nd June, with practicing the week before on the 26th May. The first race will be the TT Superbike event, with six other races to follow, including four solo races and two sidecar races.

There will be around ten riders in each race with riders representing teams such as Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki.

The course has been updated and improved since David Jefferies’ accident and there will also be many more marshals and medical teams to improve site safety. The course has made these improvements due to sponsors and sponsorship packages, which have raised over £20,000.