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/127678
Morbidelli's V-Eight Roadster I L I THE MAN AND THE MACHINE By Alan Cathcart Photos by Kyoichi Nakamura "I took my family on holiday for a month four years ago to a resort in Africa where there was lots of sun, but nothing to do. I was completely bored, so to pass the time I decided to design my own multi-cylinder road bike. Originally, I decided to make it a V-12, but, though I could certainly have made it as compact as a KI00 BMW, which was my target in terms of overall physical size, I eventually opted for a Veight on the grounds that it would be more practical for a touring bike, which is what I wanted to build. Then after I got back from my vacation we started work on the prototype, and plan to have it ready for road testing by the end of this year, so as to start prod uction sometime in '95. Everything's running quite smoothly, and I'm quite pleased with the way the prototype has turned out. It's nice to be back making bikes again!" . This is no t some Mitty-esque figure indulging in a spot of wis h-fulfillment ta lking, nor is it the chief designer of one of the major motorcycle manufacturers. Instead, this deadpan descrip tion of how the world's first production Veight streetbike managed to become reality comes from the lips of one of the most remarkable ac hievers the two- wheeled world has ever been fortunate enough to know - 60-year-old Italian Giancarlo Morbidelli. Overstatement? Excessive praise? Consider the Morbidelli track record, and then decide for yourself. A selfmade man from a humble background, Morb idelli initially worked as a fitter in one of the many factories making woodworking machinery for a furniture manufacturer in his home town of Pesaro, on the Adriatic Coast south of Rimini . He soon realized that he could do a much better job of designing a more capable range of machines himself, so he left to start his own business w ith the princely sum of 30,000 lire ($25!) as capital. Over the years he built Morbidelli Woodworking Machinery into one of the largest and most sophisticated companies in its field, a world leader employing 250 people who prod uce an average of two complete mac hines a day. That doesn't sound much until you realize that each of the ultra high- tech CNC machines costs an average of 200 million lire ($170,000). Six years ago, Morb idelli so ld a 75% inter est in his company to the SCM Group, though he still retains day-to-day responsibility for operations and marketing. As must surely be evident, he is an extremely wealthy man . But one who knows how to make his money work for him, permitting him the time and facilities to do what he enjoys doing most: putting into metal the multitude of ideas that flow from his fertile genius for original thought on two or four wheels. A hardened bike freak from his early days, Morbidelli was im mersed in the Pesaro motorcycle culture based on the local Benelli factory. Although he raced bikes himself, he preferred to tune other people's machines, among them those of future World Champion Eugenio Lazzarini (whose bike dealership coincidentally sits opposite the Morbidclli factory ). In due course, he achieved his dream of going Grand Prix racing with a bike bearing the Morbidelli name, but by then - 1969 - business had already claimed much of his attention, so he commissioned local engineer Franco Ringhini to design the firs t 50cc Morbidelli racer, though the entire machine as well as all subsequent Morbidelli works racers - was built in-house at the woodworking machin ery plan t, even down to the wooden patterns to make the engine castings. It was the start of a deca de- lo ng invo lvement in two-wheeled GP racing which brought success beyond expectation: Morbidelli motorcycles contested every GP racing class from 50 to 500cc at various times between 1969 and 1982, when Giancarlo wound up his bike rae- The V-eight Morb /deIli Roadster will be available In 1995. The pre-production unit features Pininfar/na sty ling , but the main feature is the 32-valve, V-elght powerplant. ing efforts - winning six world titles, five in the 125cc cla ss and one 250cc title. Under the productionized MBA name, the Jorg Moller-designed Morbidelli rotary-valve twins dominated 125cc racing grids all over the world: until the introduction of the singlecylinder formula killed them off. The brave attempt to challenge the might of Japan, Inc . in the 500cc class saw the appearance of one of the most sophisticated GP racers ever built, the squarefour Morbidelli 500, with its aluminum mo nocoque chassis which, once again; was constructed entirely in -house at Pesaro. . Morbidelli pulled ou t of GP bike racing not because he'd fallen out of love with motorcycles, b ut because his son Gianni, then 15, had already started to carve ou t a career for himse lf as a toplevel driver on four wheels. Typ ically, his dad threw all his efforts into helping him reach the top, including the design and construction of a single-cylinder Morbidelli 125cc kart engine that took