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Technology

The 2022 Kawasaki Z900RS SE Is A Modern Kawasaki Z1

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Photo: Kawasaki

The Kawasaki Z900RS is getting an update for its next model year, and Kawasaki is thankfully making this new release more colorful than the last models in its retro lineup. This is a good thing, because even though I’m a big fan of the retro revival that bikes are currently enjoying, I would like to see more bike makers besides Ducati come out with splashy paint finishes.

The update to the Z900RS adds an SE to the model name, and a new “Yellow Ball” finish. It’s been announced in Europe only for now, but it could make its way to American roads. My fingers are crossed.

Photo: Kawasaki

The Z900RS SE has a few mechanical upgrades but it mostly just looks brighter. The non-cosmetic upgrades to the Z900RS are pretty good, and have to do mostly with the suspension and the braking components.

The new bike gets Öhlins shocks both front and rear. The rear shock features rebound damping and preload adjustability, while the front gets inverted forks, sporting the cool yellow finish we’ve come to associate with Öhlins. The new Brembo brakes have stainless-steel braided lines, but the calipers aren’t in their usual bright red finish. That’s fine here, because the new wheels already come in a beautiful gold tone. No need to clash colors.

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The Z900RS SE remains as well-equipped as last year’s Z900RS. The 948cc inline-four engine is still there. Rider aids include traction control and an assist and slipper clutch. Don’t forget the ABS on the Brembos. Kawasaki says that the bike features a new “tuned” stainless steel exhaust system, but the exhaust note was already good to begin with.

The engine on this Kawi series is a screamer, for sure. It scared me half to death when I rode a Z900RS Cafe earlier this year. It’s an aggressive bike with a jumpy power band, and it lets you know that you’re essentially riding a kilo-bike. It’s 52ccs shy, but you can feel the latent horses at your wrist. The bike makes just under 110 horsepower and about 72 lb-ft of torque at 6,500 RPM.

My main gripe with that bike, other than it being too powerful, was its looks. It’s bad enough that our cars have become muted blobs without having to look at café racers wearing crossover color ways, like the boring slate of the bike I rode. The new Z900RS SE’s bright tones are a welcome change that nod to the bike’s heritage. Let’s hope Kawasaki brings this “Yellow Ball” styling to U.S. bikes, too.

Photo: Jalopnik / José Rodríguez Jr.

Photo: Kawasaki

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Technology

This Electric Motorcycle You’ve Never Heard Of Set A New Land Speed Record

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Image: Dnepr

During last week’s SCTA Bonneville Speed Week event, a slew of hot fancy new electric streamliners were hauled out to the salt seeking the overall speed record for electric propulsion. None of them managed to do it, as EV West’s streamliner kept shredding drive belts and all the other contenders fell short of last year’s record setting run. One conservative EV project did manage to set a new record, however, as the Delfast Dnepr electric motorcycle managed to set a Special Construction (A-class motorcycle) powered by electric propulstion (Omega) class record at a lowly 107 miles per hour. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

The rider, Serhii Malyk, had previously set new records at Bonnevile on his Dnepr Electric special in 2017 and 2018, continually iterating the bike to make it faster. This year the bike managed to beat its previous 2018 record by 3 miles per hour. While the frame is a special one-off for the class, the motor and batteries are aparently taken directly from a stock Dnepr.

Image: Dnepr

For the 2021 running of the event, Malyk upgraded the bike with a new controller carrying updated software, and a new production 50 kW permanent magnet electric motor (capable of 100 kW of peak power). Apparently the bike carries 36 batteries onboard to make a run, totaling 22,000 milliamp hours supplying the inverter about 800 volts. Now, if I’m doing my math correctly (or more accurately if the conversion calculator I found on Google is) that should total up to 16 kWh of battery, or about half what my Nissan Leaf has onboard. It’s probably not going very far, but it is going fast.

Image: Dnepr

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This is an interesting little ride, as it doesn’t appear to be carrying any kind of aerodynamic aids. I haven’t studied the SCTA’s Special Construction Motorcycle rulebook, but this record looks to be one that would be fairly easy to beat in coming years. Hell, a stock LiveWire One is electronically limited to 115 miles per hour, so grab one of those and build a special chassis for it and Robert’s your mother’s brother.

In any case, it’s pretty cool to see electric propulsion breaking records at Bonneville. There’s a lot of development to go, but it is theoretically possible that electric-powered cars will soon overtake piston-engine-powered machines in the record books. Watch this space. You know, over the next decade or so. 

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Business

Hyatt Plans to Buy Apple Leisure Group From KKR and KSL Capital for $2.7 Billion

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Hyatt Hotels Corp. plans to buy resort company Apple Leisure Group from its private-equity owners for $2.7 billion.

The deal for the company, which is owned by KKR & Co. and travel-and-leisure specialist KSL Capital Partners LLC, was announced Sunday after The Wall Street Journal reported it was imminent.

The transaction is the latest sign of optimism about a return to vacation travel even as the U.S. economy continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. Like many travel-related companies, Apple Leisure’s business got clobbered by virus-related lockdowns and travel bans last year, but it has rebounded as restrictions have loosened.

For Chicago-based Hyatt, one of the world’s biggest hospitality companies, the deal would bolster its already considerable resort-management portfolio and give it one of the biggest U.S. providers of charter flights and vacation packages for travel to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Caribbean.

It also would accelerate Hyatt’s transformation, long under way, to a more asset-light business model, focusing on generating an ongoing stream of steady and predictable fees.

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Business

Some People Shy Away From Restaurants as Delta Variant Spreads

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Some consumers are rethinking their return to dining out, according to executives and industry data, a shift that threatens the U.S. restaurant sector’s rebound.

Restaurants that survived waves of closures last year had headed into the summer with rising optimism as most of the country ended dine-in occupancy restrictions. Bigger delivery and online ordering business boosted sit-down chains in recent months, including Ruth’s Hospitality Group Inc. and Outback Steakhouse owner Bloomin’ Brands Inc.

However, individual operators and recent industry data now point to a more mixed picture, particularly in U.S. markets hit hard by Covid-19 outbreaks and renewed coronavirus-related advisories. Recent consumer surveys show the Delta variant prompted Americans who say they are the most restricted in their activities to start pulling back their activities again late last month.

Chris Downs, a 32-year-old mechanical engineer from St. Louis County, Mo., had returned to dining out at restaurants in May after getting vaccinated, allowing him to celebrate his dad’s birthday and see friends again. Now, with Delta, he’s stopped dining out for fear of getting the virus.

“I am back to mostly cooking all meals at home,” Mr. Downs said.

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Entertainment

Disney’s Star Wars hotel to charge $5000 for 2 nights

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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Photo: Gerardo Mora (Getty Images)

If Star Wars has a higher point behind all the fun laser sword fights and last-name-based drama, it’s in the dreams that it’s inspired. Dreams like those of the hoteliers of the Disney company, who dared to ask if they could charge chumps $5,000 for a two-night hotel stay in a fake cruise boat that looks kind of like a spaceship. And reader? Those dreams came true.

This is per THR, reporting on the release of a new trailer today for Galactic Starcruiser, Walt Disney World Resorts’ latest attempt to leverage the Star Wars brand for the greater galactic good of the Walt Disney Corporation. The “Oh, fuck this!” part comes early and obviously, when you dip into the pricing for packages for the 2-night vacation destination, which start at $4,809 for two guests and then only get more exorbitant if you decide to graciously bring your kid along rather than listen to them complain about it for the rest of your life. We’d be lying if we said parts of Galactic Starcruiser—about which, more in a minute—didn’t sound cool, but what they definitely don’t sound cooler than is buying a gently used Honda, or a decent chunk of tuition. But, really, who embodies the spirit of the Rebellion better than the sorts of people who can drop five grand on a three-day vacation, huh? (Sorry, we just started flashbacking to all those people hanging out at the cool casino planet from The Last Jedi, sorry.)

What do you get in exchange for this sizable downpayment? Well, as far as we can tell, it’s all a little bit like if Sleep No More was a corporate-owned faux spaceship sitting somewhere on a disused lot in Florida. For one thing, the whole setup is apparently windowless; rather than let any of that hateful Southern sunshine in, all the windows—including in the cabins—on the Starcruiser will open out onto “space.” (That is, we assume, they’re going to be video screens showing a bunch of Star Wars screensavers.) Every attendee will also have a “databand” strapped to their wrist, allowing the resort to track their movements, and presumably helping to set up all these little “story moments” you’re guaranteed to have, like, you’re walking down a hallway, and maybe Chewbacca pops out and asks you to come help him secure a small business loan. Or maybe it’s like a Rebel mission or whatever, but we think Chewie could probably use the help, right? Guy’s good for it.

Anyway, your “personal story” will play out through all two nights of your stay (at a rate of something like 84 cents per minute of wonder), while you’re busy going to lightsaber training and playing sabacc and also taking shore leave at Disney’s Galaxy Edge park space, just like all the poor schmucks who aren’t paying the cost of several emergency room visits to eat blue shrimp at the Captain’s Table of a fake space captain on a fake cruise ship. (To be fair, there are pictures of the blue shrimp, and they do look pretty cool.)

All of this is, of course, still pretty damn hypothetical, to the point that all the image on the resort’s web page are drawings, not photos—but the numbers are pretty damn real. Galactic Starcruiser is expected to launch—heh—some time in 2022.

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Business

Tencent and other gaming stocks tumble after China news outlet labels them ‘spiritual opium’ for teens

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Accusations of “spiritual opium” sent shares of the China multinational technology group Tencent and other companies in the gaming industry tumbling on Tuesday amid fears a new regulatory chapter was about to begin.

Tencent
700,
-6.11%
stock tumbled 5% while NetEase
9999,
-7.77%

NTES,
+2.77%
and XD
2400,
-8.12%
each fell 8% in Hong Kong trade.

The losses came after an article in the Economic Information Daily, which has links to China’s state-controlled news agency, Xinhua, said the gaming industry, especially Tencent, was harming the nation’s teens, according to media reports.

While the South China Morning Post subsequently reported the story has been taken down, investors were rattled by fears that yet another regulatory crackdown could be coming. That’s even as the South China Morning Post pointed out the article didn’t appear to represent Beijing’s position on that industry, noting positive comments from an official recently.

China is the world’s biggest videogame and esports market, according to PwC China, with combined revenue reaching $31.5 billion last year. The revenue share of app-based social and casual games in China is forecast to reach 71.8% of overall videogame revenue by 2025, and a chunk of Tencent’s revenue stems from gaming.

A wave of separate crackdowns on technology companies, including Tencent’s music unit, ride-share giant Didi Global 
DIDI,
+0.68%
and education companies, have been hitting China stocks, as well as their U.S.-listed shares in recent weeks.

Read: Ray Dalio says Chinese stocks still ‘important part’ of a portfolio after crackdown

“After the last few weeks, even oblique warnings from authorities are ignored at your peril, and it seems that regulatory risk is alive and well in China still,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst, Asia Pacific, OANDA, in a note to clients.

Also: Videogames entered the mainstream for good in the pandemic, but the industry faces a rough transition

Tencent appeared to be responding to the potential threat as it announced online time limits for minors who want to play its games, and said it would ban those under 12 years old from spending any money on those, according to a statement on a WeChat account reported by Bloomberg.

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Technology

Resident Evil Village Pirate Says Cracked Release Fixes Bugs From DRM

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Screenshot: Capcom

Resident Evil Village is a good game. But on the PC the game has suffered from annoying stuttering issues that have left many frustrated. Capcom has yet to fix these issues, but now a cracked release of the game that removes all DRM seems to have fixed all the stuttering.

As reported by Dark Side Of Gaming, the PC version of Resident Evil Village was recently cracked by EMPRESS, a famous DRM remover. Now that Village has been cracked, anyone who knows where to look can download a pirated version of the game and play it without DRM. Removing DRM from Village also seems to have fixed those nasty stuttering issues that have been plaguing the game since it was released back in May.

In a message announcing the cracked release of Village, EMPRESS claims that Capcom is using both Denuvo and its own DRM technology. And it seems that all that DRM inside Village was the culprit behind the stutters and gameplay hitches players have experienced.

“All in-game shutters like the one from when you kill a zombie are fixed because Capcom DRM’s entry points are patched out,” explained EMPRESS. “So most of their functions are never executed anymore. This results in much smoother game experience.”

Gameplay of the cracked RE Village.

According to DSOG, after testing the newly cracked version of the game for a few hours, they can confirm that it indeed runs better and is a more enjoyable experience. In a video posted by the DSOG’s EIC, you can clearly see how smooth the game now runs with all the DRM patched out. Compare that to this video of an uncracked version of the game running on RTX 3080.

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Kotaku has reached out to Capcom and Denuvo about the stuttering and the recent cracked version that appears to fix the issue in Village.

Capcom confirmed in June during E3 that it had started work on DLC for Resident Evil Village. No more details about the upcoming DLC were revealed, but hopefully, Capcom can get the PC version of Village running better before then, even if it means removing DRM from it.

Read More: Resident Evil Village Vs. Resident Evil 4: The Best Merchant

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Health

Terrifying Magnetic Mouth Clamp is a Safer Weight Loss Tool

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Researchers in the United Kindom and New Zealand have developed a unique alternative to bariatric surgery—invasive medical procedures performed for weight loss purposes—with an oral magnetic locking device that limits how far the wearer can open their mouths and, in turn, the type of foods they can eat.

One of the most important skills to learn for effective long-term weight loss is a proper diet, including smaller portions. Procedures like gastric bypass surgery make this easier by physically shrinking the size of a patient’s stomach, limiting how much they can eat at every meal. But it’s an invasive procedure that comes with the same risks as any procedure that requires a patient to undergo anesthesia. It’s also expensive, often costing tens of thousands of dollars, and it’s just as complicated and expensive to reverse.

Decades ago a procedure that involved physically wiring a patient’s jaws shut was a popular alternative for weight loss, but it was permanent and came with its own challenges, including limitations on proper oral hygiene. The DentalSlim Diet Control functions in a similar manner, but less permanently. It uses magnets to power a temporary locking device that limits the wearer to opening their mouths just two millimeters, restricting them to a liquid diet without inhibiting speech or breathing in the process.

The DentalSlim is attached to the wearer’s molars by a dentist using orthodontic cement so it will never accidentally fall out, but the magnetic locking mechanism it uses means it can also be occasionally disengaged and the wearer’s dietary restrictions can be temporarily relaxed. Every patient with the DentalSlim installed also carries a special tool so the device can be quickly unlocked in an emergency. (Imagine dealing with the common side effects of a night spent bar hopping if you can only open your mouth two millimeters.)

In a trial of the device that was detailed in a study published in the British Dental Journal, seven healthy, obese patients were fitted with the device and spent 14 days following a strict low-calorie liquid diet. On average they lost a little over 14 pounds using the DentalSlim, which is impressive, but such results also require a strict adherence to the type of liquids being consumed. Sipping milkshakes for two weeks straight won’t produce similar results, but if you’re going to the trouble of having a device like the DentalSlim installed, you’re ideally committed to what’s needed to make it an effective weight loss tool.

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Technology

Super Rush has finally fixed golf

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Mario Golf: Super Rush
Screenshot: YouTube

Every Friday, A.V. Club staffers kick off our weekly open thread for the discussion of gaming plans and recent gaming glories, but of course, the real action is down in the comments, where we invite you to answer our eternal question: What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Golf isn’t necessarily a bad game, as evidenced by the fact that it’s been a popular hobby all around the world for generations. But it is a stupid game, one that is only redeemed through the use of golf carts, or by stripping away all of the boring stuff where nothing happens and replacing it with windmills and waterfalls and pirates. Until now! Last week, Nintendo released Mario Golf: Super Rush, the latest entry in its ongoing series of Super Mario-themed sports games, and the developers at Camelot seem to have finally fixed mankind’s most boring sport.

This is all thanks to a couple of twists to the regular golf formula: One is that Super Rush allows you and your co-golfers to all play at the same time, playing together in split-screen without needing to patiently wait your turn, or quietly sitting back while your opponents take putt after putt after putt. The other innovation, and one that truly deserves to be integrated into “real” golf, is called Speed Golf. In that mode, it’s all about who gets to the hole first, and also you have to physically run to your ball rather than being automatically transported to it like in most other golf video games. You can even push your opponents out of the way or try to beat them to special powerups while running, and each character has special abilities that can known opponents or their balls out of the way, giving everything that Mario Kart-style edge of constantly being a second away from complete disaster.

It all could probably stand to be just a little wackier—even though the overtly Mario Kart-y battle mode is too hectic and complex to be anything but a chaotic mess—but the game in general is a testament to how good Nintendo can be at injecting some Mario personality into these sports games. This is still recognizably golf, even with some of the wackier options turned on, it’s just a superior version of golf that makes every other version of golf look… you know, stupid.

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Also, Super Rush introduces a fun new line of Mushroom Kingdom fashion, with most of the characters putting on garish golf outfits for their time hitting the links. Bowser has a terrible red and black Guy Fieri number, Peach has a nice golf skirt, and even Toad gets in on the fun by putting a little golfer hat on top of his regular mushroom hat. Oh, wait, Nintendo said it’s actually part of his head and not a hat a few years ago, so his Mario Golf: Super Rush hat is probably just a canonical in-universe confirmation of that fact, which is less funny than it being a hat on a hat. (That one’s for you screenwriters out there.)

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Business

Krispy Kreme Stock Gains Nearly 24% in IPO

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Text size

Doughnuts on a production line inside a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store in Times Square in Manhattan.


Angus Mordant/Bloomberg


Krispy Kreme

led a group of six companies to the public markets on Thursday.

Besides the doughnut chain,

Acumen Pharmaceuticals,


D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading,


Evercommerce,


Torrid Holdings,

and the

Glimpse Group

made their stock-market debuts.

So far this week, 17 companies, including those six, have listed their shares. There are no initial public offerings on tap for Friday because of the holiday weekend. On Wednesday, 10 companies went public, with

Didi Global,

the Uber of China, trading flat and closing at $14.14, 14 cents above its offering price.

On Thursday, Acumen Pharmaceuticals (ticker: ABOS) was one of the first to begin trading. The stock opened at $25.07 and closed at $20.10, up nearly 26% from the offering price.

The solid performance came after Acumen increased the size of its deal by nearly 20%. The biotech company, which is developing therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease, collected about $160 million. It sold roughly 10 million shares at $16, the top of its $14-to-$16 range.

The Glimpse Group (VRAR), which develops and commercializes virtual and augmented reality software products, also opened. Shares kicked off at $11.75 and ended at $17.66, up 152% from its offer price. Glimpse delivered Thursday’s smallest deal. The company collected $12.3 million, after selling 1.75 million shares at $7, the midpoint of its $6-to-$8 price range.

Torrid Holdings (CURV) shares rose 15% from the offer price to close at $24.15. The direct-to-consumer retailer of plus-sized women’s clothes increased the size of its deal twice. It filed to offer 8 million shares at $18 to $21, which it boosted Wednesday to 10 million. It ended up selling 11 million shares at $21, the top of its expected range, raising $231 million. Sycamore Partners, the retail-focused private-equity firm, will own nearly 76% of Torrid after the IPO. 

Krispy Kreme (DNUT), the most well-known of Thursday’s group, kicked off at $16.30 and ended at $21, up nearly 24% from the offer price. The doughnut chain increased the size of its deal by 10% but priced it well below its expected range to raise $500 million. Krispy Kreme had planned to offer 26.7 million shares at $21 to $24 each, but ended up selling 29.4 million shares at $17 each. JAB Holding, the European investment firm, will own about 39% of Krispy Kreme after the IPO

D-Market Electronic Services & Trading, or Hepsiburada (HEPS), jumped nearly 12% from its offer price to close at $13.43. Hepsiburada, which means “you can find anything you want here” in Turkish, is a leading e-commerce platform from Istanbul. The company raised $680 million after selling 56,740,000 American depositary shares at $12 each, the midpoint of its $11-to-$13 price range. Each ADS represents one class B ordinary share.

Lastly, EverCommerce (EVCM) stock opened at $20, but slipped back to close nearly 4% above its offer price at $17.60. EverCommerce’s IPO came in at $325 million after the comp[any sold 19.1 million shares at $17, the middle of its $16-to-$18 range. The company provides software for small and midsize service businesses.

Write to luisa.beltran@barrons.com

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