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Jimmy Adamo (left) and Reno Leoni pose with Leoni's Cagiva Superbikes,
Pantah on the right. The 900's wheelbase is 56 inches, the Pantah's 52
magensium sliders, the Pantah's aluminum. Leoni bored out the stock triple
standard Pantah fork tubes 36mm. Wheels are EPM cast magnesium, WM4·
the 943cc, 90 x 74.4mm 900 on the left and the 707cc, 88 x 59.5mm
inches. Both are fitted with Forcella ltalia 40mm forks; the 900's forks have
clamps to accept the larger forks; standard 900 fork tubes are 38mm,
18 up front and WM6·18 in the rear, mounted with Michelin tires.
By John Ulrich
Jimmy Adamo and Reno Leoni dominated
Battle of the Twins road racing in America
for three long years; Adamo lost his title as
overall BoTT Champion in 1984 thanks to a
combination of unpredictable,
random m'echanical problems
and a strong performance by
Harley Owners' Group (HOG)-
14
backed Gene Church on the Lucifer's
Hammer Harley·Davidson prepared
by Don Tilley. But even if Adamo
had beaten Ghurch, he most likely
wouldn't have been overall BoTT
Champion anyway, because a rule
change made each BoTT class pay
points equally, thus favoring the
usually-trouble-free machines in the
Stock class. Indeed, Will Roeder won
the 1984 overall title on a Stock-class
XRlOOO Harley-Davidson.
Be that as it may, the combination
of Adamo riding Leoni's motorcycles
is a potent one. Adamo not only
entered and .won BoTT events, but
also scored well in Superbike and
even, on occasion, Formula One races
on the Italian twins.
What we have here are Leoni's
Superbikes, one b.ased on a 600 Pan·
tach, one based on a 900. Both were
Ducatis before Cagiva took over production and sale of "Ducau" motorcycles in an arrangement we're still
not certain we understand,
These two aren't the trickeuCagi-
vas Leoni has - a new Pantah-based,
single-rear-shock GP model ridden
by Adamo exclusively in BoTT and
F-I events is newer and tricker - but
these two are Superbike legal.
Which is why we're looking at
them here.
This is the first installment in a
series examining just what it takes to
make street bikes into Superbikes. The
question is, how close are these things
to the bikes people can buy from
dealers? The answer? Not very.
Here, then, are Reno Leoni's Cagiva Superbikes, as ridden by Jimmy
Adamo.
