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.
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.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s EdgePhoto: 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.
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
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.
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.)
When you’re exploring another planet, the last thing you want to have to deal with is tire damage when AAA is millions of miles away. It’s a concern that prompted NASA to develop an airless titanium tire that’s flexible like rubber, but nearly indestructible. As has been the case with many of NASA’s inventions over the years, that space age tire technology will soon be available to consumers.
Using air-filled rubber tires on a vehicle just isn’t a practical solution for exploring nearby celestial bodies whose natural terrain is covered in rocks and sharp objects. So for the handful of wheeled vehicles that NASA has sent to the moon and Mars, metal wheels are a better alternative. For the Lunar Rover, which Apollo 15 brought to the moon, wheels made of hollow metal springs were created that could absorb bumps to make the ride more comfortable for astronauts. But most metals lose their shape over time and become brittle when repeatedly flexed, resulting in misshapen wheels that don’t roll as well, and even worse, severe damage that prevents them from rolling at all.
As an alternative, NASA has spent several million dollars over the past seven years developing Nitinol: a metal alloy made of aluminum and titanium that behaves differently. Metal springs eventually lose their ability to spring back to their original shape because the bonds between their atomic structures become so stretched they’re no longer able to return to their initial arrangements. But Nitinol features a more ordered atomic structure and exhibits something known as the shape memory effect, which allows it to be deformed but return to its original manufactured shape again and again without permanent damage. It allows metal tires to be created that can deform to absorb the impact of uneven terrain like rubber, without the possibility of a flat tire occurring.
Image: The Smart Tire Company
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It’s incredible technology that will soon be available in the coming years for a vehicle that will probably never leave Earth’s atmosphere: your bike. A startup called The Smart Tire Company has announced that it’s creating a metal bicycle tire using NASA’s Nitinol alloy that never needs to be inflated, will never spring a leak, and will probably survive a lot longer than the bike itself.
Called the METL (Martensite Elasticized Tubular Loading) tire, its creators are hopeful it will be available as an alternative to premium bike tire options as early as 2022. It remains to be seen just how much a titanium alloy bike tire will cost, but you can assume that it will be a long time before kids find a bike with Nitinol wheels under the Christmas tree. For cyclists who are happy to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their bikes, however, the METL tires could be the last set they ever have to buy, although they’ll still require regular maintenance.
Image: The Smart Tire Company
The most common problem with airless tires is that they often feature open structure designs that can allow debris to get inside and throw off the balance of the wheel. Using a structure made of metal instead of rubber further complicates things because the smooth finish means the tire doesn’t have much grip. To solve this, the METL tires will also be finished with a rubber-like tread made from a material called Polyurethanium that adds grip and makes them suitable for riding on all terrains, including pavement, gravel, and dirt. Over time the tread will wear out and need to be reapplied, but that maintenance is expected to be a lot cheaper than having to regularly replace a set of tires.
The METL tires won’t suitable for every rider. They are, after all, made of metal, and are expected to be heavier than the premium lightweight tires used by professional cyclists and athletes. But for most other applications, including athletes who use larger bikes on off-road terrains, the tires won’t feel any different during a ride.
The Smart Tire Company is making a lot of promises about the advantages of its Nitinol tires over rubber ones—see this extensive FAQ on its website touting the virtues of the technology—and there’s good reason to be excited about the technology. Obviously NASA felt it was important enough to spend millions of dollars on its development. But we’ve been promised airless tires for many years now, from industry giants like Bridgestone who have the manufacturing capabilities to make them a reality. They’re still not here, though, not even for bikes, which is just about the least demanding application for the technology.
There’s little doubt that one day flat tires will be a thing of the past, but will it be thanks to this startup’s efforts? If it can deliver the METL tires in the next couple of years as it intends to, there’s good reason for Michelin, Goodyear, and Bridgestone to be concerned.