This morning on the pit-lane at Misano, Yamaha Motor Racing was presented by Cer.To, the Piedmontese agency, with the prestigious "Environmental Management System" certificate, a milestone in the process undertaken by Yamaha Motor Racing in its compliance with the UNI EN ISO 14001 standard. The EMS certificate shows the continued improvement of Yamaha Motor Racing's activities and the ongoing research into materials and instruments to achieve outstanding technical results, along with remarkable environmental performances. It confirms the importance given to environmental matters since 1990, when the Yamaha Motor Company group's environmental activities started, concentrating on the pursuit and sharing of unyielding values; a passion for motors as well as a respect for people and the environment.

This morning the Fiat Yamaha Team succeeded in achieving another goal in becoming the first MotoGP Team to obtain the "Environmental Management System" certificate. No other team before has managed to achieve this highest level of competitiveness and expertise in terms of environmental protection. The success of Yamaha Motor Racing's achievement is another important milestone for Yamaha Motor Company's worldwide activities reflecting the Group's sensitivity to environmental issues through Yamaha's Corporate Social Responsibility Program.

More than three months after my accident, wheel-spin in a high-speed corner, I've finally left the hospital and now at a transitional living facility. Here the focus is on rehabilitation and learning how to cope with my disability on an everyday basis. The expected stay is two or three months, so I've still got some work to do, but this is the last stage of my journey. Overall, it's going well so far. One of the setbacks I had in the hospital was a nasty bed sore, which required surgery and a three-week stay flat on my back in a special sand-filled bad. That gave me lots of time to think about my situation and how I ended up here. It was either that or count the holes in the ceiling tiles.

Over the years I've adopted an almost paranoid respect of riding safely, especially on the street. It started when we first moved to Bangkok and didn't have a car: Any crash and resultant injury that kept me from riding would be the end of my daily transportation, including getting to work. And there was no way I was going to get in an accident with my wife as precious cargo, as she often was. I actually didn't have a lot of street riding experience when I first started at to work in Thailand, and luckily stayed out of trouble right up until my current predicament.

Sometimes I ride like a fool. I do it on purpose. I know I'm riding like a bitch – usual during my daily commute – and I don't care. I just laugh and carry on. Before I go on any further I should define 'bitch'. I ride to annoy cars basically. I ride to make sure that cars know I'm on the road with them and I make sure that they know how much 'better' a motorcycle is than the proxy metal box they're sat in is.

I hope – perhaps misguidedly – that they'll realize that being sat in a car is an epic queue of rush hour, traffic is dumb. I ride to make them jump, I ride to get them to think 'Jesus! Where did he come from ?!' Obviously I take greater delight in 'buzzing' drivers using their mobile phones, since it seems to increase the surprise factor. Anyone tried just staring at a driver stuck in a queue of traffic while they're on the phone? That's a laugh as well – and iridium visor for that 'Robocop look increasingly uneasy.

Currently one of the biggest rumors in the Asian motorcycle community is the possible KTM 125 Duke, the KTM 125 Duke was first shown to the public during the EICMA 2009 motorshow in Milan. KTM is best known for it motocross and off-road style motorcycles, over the years KTM has introduced more road going motorcycles and the KTM 125 Duke, which seems to be sharing a lot of style features of the 2011 KTM 690 Duke.

KTM's business continues to go from strength to strength, with some brilliant new motorcycle models. Despite the global financial crisis holding the motorcycle industry in a tight death grip, KTM has reported healthy financial figures for the third quarter operating results 2009/10. This is a remarkable turnaround for a company who had its worst ever operating year 2008-2009, resulting in production line closure, staff lay-offs and Bajaj Auto Ltd of India, one of the world’s biggest motorcycle producers, becoming a KTM shareholder.

The orange Austrians are no strangers to 125c road machines. On the first of May, 1955, just two years after the founding of KTM, two 125cc KTM's roared their way to victory and second place in the international Rupert Hollaus Memorial Race on the Salzburg Autobahn. So even before KTM's off-road successes, the road motorcycles from upper Austria were already out there and winning. Nearly Fifty-five year later, the decision was finally made in Mattighofen to design and built two new 125cc road going motorcycles.

The current models introduced by Jonway Motorcycles range from 80 to 150cc (all automatic scooter models).

Jonway Group has already become a Chinese nationwide famous corporation after its decade rapid growth. Headquartered in Taizhou City of Zhejiang Province, a city with excellent location for both transportation and communication, Jonway Group has been investing nationwide. By the end of 2003, the company covers a land over one million square meters throughout the country, and has over two thousand employees, and reached the annual revenues of export over twenty million US Dollars.

Starting from scratch, Jonway Group has been developing businesses in many different industries 10 years. In Taizhou, as a mother company, Jonway Group produces mainly motorcycles with an annual production capacity over 100 thousand pieces. Jonway Parts & Fittings Company, one of tens of the subsidiary companies of Jonway Group, manufactures plastic coverage for motorcycles as well as automobiles up to one million sets yearly. In Shanghai, another two subsidiaries Shanghai JMStar Motorcycle Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Shenke Motorcycle Co. Ltd. produce motorcycles with their own brands up to 100 thousand pieces per year.

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. would like to announce that the partnership between Valentino Rossi and Yamaha will come to an end at the close of the season, when Valentino will move on to new challenges.

Yamaha and Valentino have enjoyed seven fantastic seasons of racing, during which time they have won four MotoGP World Championships together.

Valentino has played a huge part in the history of Yamaha and he will always remain an important part of Yamaha's heritage. Yamaha is extremely grateful for Valentino's contributions to its racing successes over the past seven years and it would like to wish him the very best in his future racing endeavours.

Yamaha will be putting all its efforts into ensuring a successful and happy end to the partnership over the remaining races.

Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, said "On behalf of the Yamaha Motor Group, I would like to express our sincere gratitude for the amazing seven years that we have spent together. Valentino joined Yamaha in 2004 at a moment when Yamaha was struggling in road racing after eleven seasons without a championship victory. Valentino's victory at his first GP race for Yamaha in South Africa in 2004 was an incredible moment and was just the first of many more race wins that have thrilled MotoGP fans and Yamaha fans around the world. His unsurpassed skills as a racer and a development rider enabled him to win four MotoGP world titles to date with us and helped Yamaha develop the YZR-M1 into the ‘the bike of reference' for the MotoGP class.

Ducati say they have not completed a deal to sign Valentino Rossi despite rumors that the seven-time MotoGP world champion was set to move. The Fiat Yamaha rider is widely expected to join the Italian team next season following Casey Stoner's exit.

Recent news which has appeared on websites has been misreported and must be attributed to the many rumors circulating lately," said a statement. "Whether and when a deal is reached an official press release will be issued.

Former world champion Stoner recently announced he was leaving Ducati at the end of the season to join Honda, which would create the vacancy for the Italian rider and Italian manufacturer to link up.

Newly announced 250cc supermoto style motorcycle available in Thailand within two to three months. The Apollo Orion RX250 is powered by a single-cylinder, liquid-cooled 249.4cc four-stroke engine, with a 70m bore and 64.8mm stroke. The Orion RX250 engine is capable of producing 21 horsepower at 7,500rpm.

The manual transmission is a 5-speed constant mesh, and final drive is 16-teeth front, 38-rear sprocket and KMC 530 high quality chain.

The frame is made from high-tensile steel and anthracite powder-coated with a modern matte black finish.

The front suspension superb quality 54mm wide upside-down hydraulic fork with 265mm suspension travel and 910mm in length. The rear suspension is by a single fully adjustable nitrogas shock absorber. Dual piston hydraulic disc brakes, with stainless steel protected hydraulic brake hose.

The Apollo Orion RX250 is approved for Thai exhaust emission, and operational sound 81 dB(A) at 4250rpm (regular speed).

Not so long ago, the imminent death of the two-stroke seemed certain, as advances in four-stroke technology and concerns over the environmental impact of burning pre-mix oil threatened to render the long-serving two-stroke engine obsolete.

Adding weight to the fears was the controversial decision Honda made to cease production of their two-stroke motocross bikes line-up. Recently, however, a wave of exciting new class-rulings have emerged from all around the world, ensuring the preservation of the two-stroke motocross bike in Junior- and several other levels of motocross competition. The world's most extreme off-road races have also been dominated by two-stroke machinery.

Two factors driving this resurgence of interest in the two-stroke are their easy maintenance and affordability, in contrast to the crippling cost and complexity of some modern four-strokes. For the guy on a budget, who pulls his bike out once a month, this is a massive bonus.

PT Astra Honda Motor (AHJ), Honda's joint venture company in Indonesia responsible for motorcycle production and sales, announced plans to expand its annual motorcycle production capacity to 3.5 million units before the end of this year, and then construct a new plant with an annual production capacity of 500,000 units to expand total capacity to 4 million units before the end of 2011.

In order to meet growing demand for motorcycles in Indonesia, AHJ recently increased its annual production capacity from 3 million units as of the end of 2009, to 3.3 million units as of the end of May 2010, through the addition of a new line to an existing plant. Now, AHJ will further increase its capacity to 3.5 million units by the end of 2010. The new plant will be built on the grounds of the third plant, and is scheduled to become operational in the latter half of 2011. The total investment for the new plant will be approximately 760 billion Rupiah (approximately 2.7 billion baht). AHJ's total employment will increase from the current 16,000 to 17,000 associates at full capacity.

In addition, AHJ has enhanced its lineup of automatic transmission (AT) models by introducing three new AT models in August 2009, a new scooter model, Scoopy, in May 2010, and a new strategic global model scooter, PCX, in June 2010. Moreover, AHJ today introduced a new Cub-type AT model, Revo AT, which is equipped with the CV-Matic, Honda's newly developed automatic transmission for Cub-style scooters. AHJ's sales plan for 2010 is approximately 3.21 million units, (up about 20% compared to 2009) and actual sales is expected to exceed the 2009 sales result (approximately 2.7 million units).