Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

CN 00 0') CC") (Clockwise from left) Blmota's .14,000 Hond~wered HB2. Suzuki displayed 8 GS650 Twbo. Laverda's RGS 1000 has ~ fuel tankIf8Irlng. Futuretech on display at Milan Show By Alan Cathcart MILAN,ITALY, NOVEMBER, 1981 The Milan Motorcycle Show is only held every two years, unlike most of its European counterparts, and provides a fascinating window into the buoyant Italian motorcycle industry - the largest in the world outside of Japan. The 1981 version was no . . excepuon, with a host of new models and updated machinery, 46 alas, much of which will never find its way outside of Italy. Nonetheless, there was much of interest for Ihe foreign onlooker. No less than 68 different Italian manufacturers displayed their wares, to which could be added another dozen or SO frame manufacturers who don't sell complete bikes. Add the 15 or so foreign exhibitors - not a~as including Triumph, for some strange reason and you really do have the most com· prehensive and imponant motorcycle show in the world. This year, two main themes were apparent from the bikes on display: turbocharging and water-cooled 125 road burners. Some of the latter were beautifully designed and made, being for the most pan competition motocross engines slotted into cafe-style road frames to produce every Italian teenager's dream bike. Right now it's evident that the Japanese manufacturers think that tomor· row's bike is a turbo - or so they would h,,:ve us t?ink; some like Honda a~e hedgmg ~helT bets ~retty carefully with convenuonally-asplTated 750 machines but it's evident that the era of the hyperbike is over. Yamaha didn't show their turbocharged XSlloo (sales would be zero in a country like Italy where fuel costs over $4 a gallon and you have to be 30 or more to insure a Laverda or big Ducati) nor was the KZ1300 to be seen on the Kawasaki stand. All four Japanese makers had small, even restrained dislays, only Kawasaki's having any flamboyance, with their world title-winning duo of the 1000cc endurance racer and Anton Mang's 250cc rubbing noses with the so far unsuccessful KR500 in a parade of Green Power. The Z750T turbo announced at the Tokyo Show was there, but Kawasaki road styling suddenly looks old-fashioned amongst the rash of Katana lookalikes to be seen elsewhere. The CX500T Honda looked pretty swoopy on display, but won't be a big seller in Italy. If Italians want only two cylinders then they go for a home· brewed product from Guzzi or Ducati. Surprisingly, the latter had nothing new to offer beyond touring versions of the 900 Dannah and 600 Pantah plus, if you like that son of thing - a Pantah police bike that would have our local traffic cops falling over themselves to do extra duty roster. By contrast Guzzi had a brimful of new models. including the latest Series 3 LeMans that for my money was the best looking bike at the show. The bulky full fairing of the Series 2, borrowed from the Spada, has been replaced by an elegant bikini fairing that compliments the classic lines of the shaft-driven V-twin. With a dry weight of just 454 lbs. and a top speed of 143 mph in standard trim from an 850cc bike selling in Italy for under $5,000, it's no wonder that Guzzi is riding a wave whose crest is so high they're having trouble meeting home demand as well as their expon market. Other new Guzzis include the V65, a 650cc version of the V50 with 8Ox64mrn engine giving 52 bhp at 7.200 rpm and a top speed of 115 mph. There's a chopper-style version of both the V35 and V50 models, while the most exciting addition to the middleweight range is the V50TS - Guzzi's answer to the BMW GS80. This on/off road machine features the V50 engine in an enduro-style frame. Full technical details weren't yet available at the show because the bike is still in process of development for a launch next June. Definitely one to look forward to. Another bike that we shan't be seeing on the roads for quite a while yet is the new Morini V-twin 500 Turbo, which was displayed in public for the first time at the Milan Show. Longrumored, much-awaited, the Morini was frankly a disappointment, the more so since it won't be on sale for at least another year - if ever. Morini is reported to be having cooling problems with the installation of the Japanese turbocharger. indicating that per· haps the turbo route isn't necessarily the one to follow unless you've got a Honda-sized R&D department and the big bucks to pay for ~ development. For a small manufacturer like Morini to play with this kind of tire just doesn't mue sense - yet here we had an elaborately styled machine whose full fairing, however, conveniently disguised the turbocharger insta1lation - if one was indeed fitted at alII A wall-mounted chan showed the elements of the design, featuring a wastegate of Morini's own design to allegedly eliminate throttle lag at low rpm (what do they know that Honda - using the same IHI turbo unit doesn't?) via a manual override, and an additional fuel injection system to supplement the single carbo The fairing is designed to help cool the engine unit, which produces a claimed 70 bhp, good for 130 mph. Now here's the clincher - designer Paolo Zecchi claims fuel consumption to be better than the regular 500 Morini at all comparable speeds - and if that's the case it's a world flTSt that the Renault Fonnula 1 car engineers, generallyaccepted to be the leaders in the turbocharging field, will be surprised to hear aboutl If the 500 Turbo seems more a case of wishful thinking, there were other sounder propositions on the Morini stand in Milan. The 350 Kangaroo has joined the 500 Camel (where do they get these names froml?) as the company's entries in the off-road market, and if you think that the ~ tudinal 72° V-twin makes an odd din bike you had only to look at the adjacent Valentini stand, where this florence- based speed shop exhibited the Camel that won a gold medal in the ISDE this year, alongside some very striking cafe racers of all sizes. But the unquestionable star of the Italian manufacturers was Laverda, whose entirely new RGS 1000 bristled with innovation. Clothed with an elegant and .functional streamlining - _. ., . • (Continued to page 48)

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