Always wanted a Bimota DB7, but thought it was $4,800 too expensive, 8bhp shy of greatness, 8kg too light and you've just gotta have a passenger seat on your exotic Ducati-engined torture machine? Well step right up folks, we've got the perfect bike for you. Compared to the slightly more expensive DB7, the Bimota DB8 adopts the 168bhp Ducati 1198 engine, weighs in at 178kg, adds a pillion seat and reduces the cost to only $33,000 thanks to plastic (as opposed to carbon) bodywork and an aluminum instead of carbon sub frame. Oh, and the suspension loses its ability to adjust high and low speed compression and rebound. Not huge news, but the DB8 is a great way to get 1198 performance without the Ducati's generic me-too superbike styling.

Bimota

Hardtails typically aren't our thing, especially when they're converted from a bike with rear suspension. Sacrificing functionality for questionable style usually doesn't work, but somehow, Deus Ex Machina has pulled it off with the incredibly clean Sacred Cow. Like a lot of the Australian company's bikes, this one started life as a humble Kawasaki W650, but thank to the hardtail frame kit, 21" front wheel, spring-mounted saddle, handmade tank and cleaned up looks it's become an understated cruiser.

This example is in a shipping crate on its way to an unnamed customer in Brooklyn. In addition to the visual enhancements, he's spec'd a 720cc big bore kit to give the parallel-twin some much-needed oomph.

Deus

According to helicopter tow truck operator and Dakar race director Etienne Lavigne, the epic race stands "a 50:50 chance" of returning to Africa next year, although this time around, it could be through relatively terrorist free countries like Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Yeah, that doesn't sound much safer than west Africa to us either, but a return to the Dakar's spiritual home does appear to hold significant appeal to the race's organizers.

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From the maker of "Faster," comes "Charge," chronicling the first ever electric motorcycle race on the Isle of Man, the TTXGP. The documentary promises a fascinating look inside teams like MotoCzysz as they re-think what a motorcycle can be. Like "Faster," "Charge" is narrated by Ewan McGregor, but allows key protagonists like Michael Czysz to tell the story in their own words. Expect plenty of behind-the-scenes action, but the opening scene of this trailer seems to indicate that there won't be much in the way of exciting race footage.

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Photos: van Oers J/Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Photofiles

The big news at the Dakar this year wasn't that multi-time winner Cyril Despres won or that KTM dominated the standings yet again, it's that a privateer team running a reportedly unreliable Aprilia RXV 4.5 managed to place third overall after 14 grueling stages over South America's toughest off-road terrain. Above, you'll find eight of our favorite so-far-unpublished photos (sadly, we don't have access to this one) and below there's three highlight videos with all the action. 

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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Julien Dupont did what any self respecting Frenchman would do and terrorized the city on a motorcycle. The last time we were there, we got a ticket from a very stern policeman for turning from the wrong lane. There's two videos below, one taken in Berlin and one in the city's abandoned Spree amusement park.

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Nike's been sponsoring MX athletes Ryan Dungey and Bubba Stewart for a while, now it's developed an all-new boot for the two riders dubbed the Nike AIRMX 6.0. Right now, Nike claims this boot is only being made for Ryan and Bubba, with no plans to market a consumer version, but we'd be very surprised if Nike, the company that invented celebrity athlete created and endorsed footwear, doesn't eventually cash in on its investment with a production model.

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We've seen rust on bikes before, there both deliberately, as on rat bikes, and not-so deliberately, as on all the bikes I've ever owned, but rarely have we seen it look as good as this. These two Wrenchmonkees Z750s feature different approaches to corrosion. The first has a naked tank, scoured with steel wool then oiled to keep things in check; the second looks like it was pulled straight out of a junk yard. Both juxtapose the OCD level of detail applied to cleaning up the rest of the bikes' looks, heightening the sense of functional nostalgia that makes all the Copenhagen custom builder's bikes unique. As long as the tanks have been gelled inside and the mounts are solid, this shouldn't lead to any short-term issues. Sure beats candy metal flake.

Wrenchmonkees

This is the first of a series of Field Tests in which we'll give real riders real riding gear and have them tell us how it works in the real world. First up is Markus Koelbl, his BMW R90/6 and Alpinestars' range of cut-price Drystar sport touring clothing. He rode from New York to Orlando and back in it, then told us what he thought.

Click below for the feature:
Field Test: Alpinestars Drystar range

Swedish Dakar competitor Annie Seel got a nasty surprise when she veered off course on her KTM and suddenly found herself riding into a 16-foot deep vertical tomb. We'll let her describe it, "The track split around some ruins, and joined again after. To avoid dust I cut from right track over to the left, across a small rise. Behind the rise a 5m deep tomb opened, 2x3 wide. I rode to slow to jump and to fast to stop. Put brakes on, slide bike to the left and abandon ship. I managed to jump to the left edge while bike tumbled down. I am lucky not to go down cause the walls were impossible to climb."

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Casey Stoner says his Ducati GP10 is, "a lot smoother on the throttle, it's got a lot more bottom end. It'll wheelie a lot less and just have so much more traction." The MotoGP bike has a new big-bang firing order and likely more traction and wheelie-control electronics, but other details are scarce. A newly healthy Stoner and newly confident Nicky Hayden hope the GP10 will be capable of besting Valentino Rossi's M1. Two videos below.

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Nicky Hayden says he could be "in the doghouse" after leaking a shot of the Ducati GP10. The bike was supposed to be unveiled this week in Italy, but Hayden posted an iPhone shot of it on his personal website just before christmas. The kid from Kentucky went on to tell The Beeb, "When I saw the bike I took a picture on my phone. I should have known better, I was like a kid." Casey Stoner then stated, "The new 'big bang' firing order that the Ducati engineers have been working on is definitely a step forward."

BBC 

Bought a Harley, bought assless leather chaps, but still don't feel like a real badass biker? Maybe this video will help, it explains the secret codes real bikers use to distinguish themselves from fake bikers. 

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