Cycle News

illustration in Webster's dictionary sho ws the tu atara to be a lizard-lik e rept ile . . . Ed itor.) No th in g fu nny a bout th e performa nce of the two-wheeled Tuatara, n or rep til ian about its a pppearance: eq uipped wit h a fue l-injected versio n o f the FZIOOO engine (not FZR), upside-down for ks, a YB6 twin-spar ch assis and spec ia l Bim ot a pipe, th e bike, which is a lmost certain to be ' th e m o s t ex pe ns ive p rodu cti on motorcycle in the world when th e price is a n nou nce d short ly, is capable o f more tha n 180 m ph in street legal for m - if yo u' re br ave eno ugh! O nly 50 T ua ta ras will be built in 199 0 , a lo ng wi th 150 Bell a r ia s (Bimota still isn' t su re h ow big th e market is for a two-sea ter sp ort bike); a nother 150 o f th e Nuova YB4, with revamped co lo r sch em e bu t o therwise unchanged; p lu s 350 of th e co mpa ny's bas e m od el , th e YB8. T h is is e ffec t ive ly an E XU P eq ui p ped version of th e YB6, but ' with th e FZR I000 engine a nd n ew free r-flow ing exhausts. Bim ota so ld 650 bikes in 1989 (the ir pl anned prod uc tio n target), of which 350 went to j apan. Wo n der how m any o f th e T ua taras will end up in th e co untry with the most rigorous ly observed 50 m ph spee d limit in the world .. . probab ly no t as man y as there are Ferrari F40s the re! Bim ot a doesn 't offer a twi n atthe mome n t, but th at will cha nge th is ti me next year when th e DB2 T esi is launched , fitted with th e eigh tvalve 888cc Ducati desm odromic . . en gm e, Meanwhile, the 888cc Du cat i made its debut in street form a t Mil an , fitted in th e 85 I steel spacefra me ch assis and m arketed as th e Sport Product ion ' 85 1. Well , n ominall y stree t-lega l, th at is - th e b ike is built in limited numbers for th e Ital ian , Production Series, with o pe n . exh a usts, a nd is not homologated for th e street in Ital y, th ough elsew here it may be (or more lik el y, will be!) Confus ed? Yes, well , join th e club. T he Ohlins upsid e-d own for ks are a nice a nd necessary touch , but add to the price which is lik ely to be arou n d 24 million lire (over $ I8,000) o n the h ome m arket wh en supplies beco me avai la ble in February. Ma y we now expect th e 950cc, eight-va lve engine to become avai la b le for the cu stomer this time nex t year.: now tha t th e secre t o f th e amazing performace of Raym ond Roch e's wo rks Superb ike has been revealed? No o ther Du cati novelties, thanks , to th e launch ea rlier th is year of the 851 Superbi ke and 900 SS (no t destined for th e U.S.) sportsters, but a Duke b y a ny o the r n ame is th e Cagiva Elefant, which deb u ted in '904cc form a t Milan, using th e o ilco o le d ver sion o f the two-valve desmo engine fitted to th e 900SS Du cati roadster , but here slig htly detuned, in spite of being fitt ed with Weber/Marelli electro n ic fu el inj ecti on with a si n g le inj ec tor p er cylin der, and a five-speed gearbox rather than the Ducari 's six-speed. Cagiva claims 68 horspower a t 8000 rp m for the Elefant 900, wh ich is basically a production str eet-legal version of the works Cagivas that won th e Pharoahs Rally last month. The bike ha s a n a ll -new square-tube frame, and revised styling, though still with th e Lucky Explorer paint motif. Interestingly, this is th e first time EFI has been fitted to th e twovalve desmo engine, and it can surely only be a m atter of time before this finds its way onto the 900 SS and 906 Paso range as well. Small constructors co ntin u e to exist in Italy, and are even making a comeback, thanks to a combination of desire for hand-made, traditional One of the other Moto Guzzis making its debut at Milan was the Quota 1000, ato~ering dual-sport bike. bikes, an d ren ewed interest in singlecylinder ma chinery. A beneficiary of the latter is th e new Piuma concern, a spinoff of th e World Cha mpion spee d way engine manufacturer GM. Piuma bos s Urnberto Borile di splayed his new four-stroke MX racer a t Mil an , wi th fuel tank under . th e sea t for lower center of gravity, fitted wi th a 500cc GM SOHC four-valve en gine a nd chai n prim ary dr iveto a Maico gearbox. He also showed a partiallly com p lete m ockup of his 560cc road ra cer, with a lloy chassis, si ngle-si ded sw in garrn a nd - unitco ns truc tion GM -based engine, wi th gea r primary drive. A street versio n is plan ned for 199I, and h e can already su pp ly comp le te engi ne un its with ei ther th ree, four, five or six-speed gearboxes, accordi ng to req uirements. The era of the specialist builder is dawn ing again, a nd vetera n chassis specialist L u igi Segale is living proof of that, arrivi ng in Milan in h is us ual last-min ute flap with two new bikes completed th e day before the show opened. Bo th of these use H onda NX650 en gines, for wh ich a ra nge of tu n ing parts is already avai la ble in Ital y for stree t or race use. T he motors were mounted in sq uare-tu be, chrome- mo ly sp aceframes with lower Er ga l a ircraft a lloy side p la ies, just like th e j apanese fours Segale built a decade ago. There are two versions o f th e latest Segal e-Honda chassis kits availab le, one a street version a nd th e other a racer with GCB in verted fo rk s, Gazzan iga rear su spen sion unit a nd March esini wh eels. Rath er more estab lis h ed as a bespoke m anufacturer is ex -MY Agusta race ch ief Arturo Magni, wh o with his two sons Carlo and Giovanni has sold more than 200 Moto Guzzi-pow ered specials th is yea r, th e majority to Germany a nd japan. These have so far been powered by the 950cc Le Mans en gin e, but for the japanese market Magni has now launched a 400c version fitted with Guzzi's smallest pushord Y-twin motor, fitted in an all-new ch romemoly chassis of his design, but retaining th e original Guzzi steel Bimota unveiled two all-new street bikes at Milan, including the Tuatara. a 180 mph fuel-injected, Yama~a FZ1000-powered rocketship. swingarm to save costs. T he 400 Sfida (mean ing "challenge") is joine d by a bigg er 1000cc vers io n for Europe and the U.S., basicall y th e existin g Clasico chassis wi th parallelogram rea r en d, bu t offerin g a more ro un ded sty lin g them e th an th e previous model w h ic h is mos t certai n ly in spired by th e racing MYs of th e 1950s which Magni had so much to do with . The 1000 Sfida will go o n sa le in jun e 1990, while homologatio n of th e 400 will not take place until Septem ber , because of th e a ll new chassis desi gn. Prices hav e yet to be esta blished. Coming from an equally illustrious ba ckground, but a com p le tely d ifferent kind o f bik e is the Gallina four, co m missio ne d from Grand Prix team manager Rober to Gallina by a j apanese businessman who initially wanted just 10 exa m p les o f a unique motorcycle for him and his friends. Gallina persuaded him to think beyond this; however , so that Milan '89 witnessed the birth of a n ew manufacturer that ma y well " o u t-Bim o ta" Birnota in future "years, for th e simple reason that they build their o w n four- cylinder en g in e. This is an all -m agnesium, DOH C 16-v al ve , air /o i l -coole d desi gn with gea r driv e to th e ca ms up the center of th e in -line en g ine, fitted wi th Weber/Ma relli EFI a n d inititall y displacing 750cc (a 100Qcc version is envisaged in due course). ' . Ap art from th e Suzuki GSXR sixspeed gearbox, th e res t of th e bike is made in Italy, includin g th e rather wid e c h ro m e mo ly spacef ra me whi ch , in co nj u nctio n ~i t h ' th e Avional sidep lates, recalls a Birn ot a HB2, circa 1982. The Gallina has a h orizontall yloca ted Marzocch i rear sus pe nsion unit, an d when launch ed in fin al form at th e Bologna Motor Sh ow in December - by which time th e final bodywork design will h ave been determined an d the bik e full y clothed - will a ls o featur e Marzo cchi upside-down forks. G allina talks of a minimum production run of 200, sufficient for Superbike homologation, in which class the 71 x 40.5mm en gi ne, wh ich already gives 122 bhp at th e rear wh eel in early tests with open exh austs, 12.5:I Mahle pistons and titanium ' exhausts (on the same dynamometer wh ere the last works Honda NS500 triple delivered 115 15

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