Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126556
CN 00 C') ..... ICIoc:kwiee fTom top IeftI HRD showed 8 60cc miniature replica H-D Tour G&de. SWM's protOtype roed bike fe8tures 500cc Rotax single. Cagiva introduc:ed an . .yet-ui I_ted Open c:I8ss MX.. BMW's ~ "Bike 2000" touring concept 8ttrlIct8d 8 lot of attention. • (Continued from page 46) (available in any color you want as long as it's racer red), the RGS boasts a DeW frame with silentbloclr. mountinlll for the engine, a 40mm lower seat as compared to the Jota (which still remains in production), an optional" single or dual seat (jUst unclip the back rest if you want to carry a pillion), fuJly adjustable footrests, a one-piece ' fuel tank cover/fairing with car-type fuel filler in the front .,right face of the fairing with lockable flap, and new instrumentation. The formerly 180' engine has been rephased to a 120' triple, which means the distinctive flat Jota exhaust note will be replaced by the equally notable fruity thunder of an ltalianate Triumph Trident - 1982 version though, for the RGS's exhausts exceed all current or envisaged world noise standards, coupled with a very quiet engine with DeW air mters, The 120' engine gives noticeably better torque, according to the only Italian bike magazine to have ridden the bike yet, and the hydraulic;. clutch, twin single primary chains (formerly a single duplex), needle roller gearbox and modified gas flow to 'the head complete the changes to the proven Laverda triple motor. Production of the RGS will start in March 1982 for the home market only, with export Vet'SionI available from September next year. Definitely a bike of the future, In similar vein, but at around , $14,000 in Italy about twice as expensive as the RGS Laverda, was the Milan Show's other superbike sensation, the Bimota HB2, powered by a tuned version of the gooFZ Honda dohc fourcylinder engine. Interestingly, this is tJie very first Bimota-Honda since the fi.-st bike made by the firm's partners in .,the early '70s, and indicates somedring of a brealt for them away from Kawasaki, with ·whom lengthy taIIr.s about the possibility of a Kawasaki-designed engine with the ·Bitdcftl,. mcfemarlr. have come to ' 48 . < naught. Winners of the Italian TT F1 title in 1981 with the Suzuki-powered SB!!, and runners-up to the incredible 600 Ducatis in the TTl! category with their 600cc Kawasaki-powered Laser TTl! , Bimota literally races on the track what they sell on the road, or maybe it's vice versa. Recently moved into a spacious new factory, and concentrating now 100% for the time being on road machines (they're making no more frames for "rZ Yamahas and the like) Bimota's design and finish is of such a superbly high ,quality that one can only compare it to the racing car or aircraft industries' levels. A detailed description of their new bike is impossible in the space available here, but designer Massimo Tamburini has come up wtth another high-priced but outstanding dasic that will keep Bimota on the pinnacle they've attained for aome time to come. Producing 95 bhp in standard form (parts are llvailable to we this to 120 bhp in street form) with a dry weight of 440 Ibs_, the HB2 is sure to have a pretty lively performance, to say ,the least. Sixteen inch wheels front and rear are no longer the problem they were thanlr.s to increased availability of 16" Michelins - in Europe, at any rate - for the road, and the externally adjustable rocker-arm rear monOllhoclr. suspension continues in the Bimota tradition. Cagiva, the former Aermacchi factory, has colne a long way in a shon time since the takeover from HarleyDavidson in 1978, and the little grey elephant on the finri's badge (he used to be white till someone told them what a wh,ite elephant was in English-speaking countries!) has plenty to smile about these days, New at the show were a 500cc air-cooled motocrosser tha t has still to be run even in works form, a pair of water-cooled 125 and l!5Occ enduro bikes based on the sucesfuI 'croeers, and - most surprising of all for a fum who've built their recovery on the two-stroke concept - an entirely new !!5Occ sohc venical single four-stroke, here shown in an on/off road frame. The heavily oversquare 82.5 x 65cc engine has chain driven . ohc and a five-speed box. Cagiva are also the Italian imponers for Harley-Davidson, for whom they sell around 100 machines a year; the belt-driven Sturgis held pride of place on the official H·D display in Milan, but moet attention was focused !!O yards away on the display mounted by the HRD company who've wen over the old MV factory at Gallarate. HRD maltes small-scale children's bikes with '50cc Motori Morini (different company than the bike makers) engines, and alongside their replica of a 1926 Moto Guzzi was an equally faithful small-scale venion of a Harley-Davidson Tour Glide - fuJI-dres version, at that! The first sman guy to impon these into the States ihouId make a mint. SWM is the current World Triala champions with Frenchman Gilles Burgat. and have recently branched out into road,racing and street bikes. The SWM Rotax racer is but a Spanish Siroko in disguise, but the firm's 125 and !IOOcc street bikes have engines of their own manufacture. Moet interesting SWM exhibit was a wooden styling mockup of a projected sports road bike featuring the 502cc four-valve Rotax/ Bombardier four-stroke single, thus far seen only on the Can-Am dirt bikes of Rotax's parent company in Canada. The SWM would be the first street application of this engine, but also at Milan were enduro versions by rival Austrian companies Puch and KTM. Of the foreign manufacturers present we've already mentioned Kawasaki though it should be noted they also had their new shaft-drive Z750GT on display - and Honda. while Suzuki fc!ai1irM -~ ~ GS6!JOT fcldr'-t¥ifI... der turbo with what we'll call neDKatana styling rather than the fuJlblooded variety. Producing 85 bhp and boasting "Full-Floater" monoshock rear suspension of the type first developed on Mamola's RG500 two seasons ago. the GS650T is also the first bike from a major Japanese manufacturer to feature 16" wheels afront and rear with race-developed anti-dive front suspension. Yamaha wasn't far behind though, and even flew in Kenny Roberts foropening day (he probably bitterly regretted coming the following day when he was stranded at London's Heathrow airpon for nine hours without his luggage waiting for Los Angeles airpon to reopen so he could Oy homel). The XJ650T is a shirp piece of styling on the John MocIr.ett/Martini HaiIwood Yamaha theme, which is as identifiably Yamaha as the Katana is Suzuki - except they don't have the problem of everyone eIR copying it! The new-toEurope 550 water-cooled V-twin was right next door - but I just wonder how long il wes to remove ~t rear exhaust pipe - or even if you can/? The Katana IooIr. has DOW arrived at BMW, who showed a range - of restyled models with obvious samurai influence. They did, however, have one styling exercise of their own, the "Bike 2000" touring concept machine that attracted a great deal of attention. Will we ever see it in production? Well, wasn't the Katana just a styling exercise when it ftrst was shown to the public two years ago ... ? From Ancilotti to Villa, through such immediately forgettable names as All Cars, Moto Biro's (sic) and Pukimotor (really), the Italian bike industry is thriving. Milan '81 showed the world of motorcyling would be a great deal poorer without this innova~ and evolu~ collection of ·~.d~~~·-~~;~·;--··.