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/127755
I_SH'-.-. O-,--w-'-S·----'-------'---_., The 31st Tokyo Motor Show (Left) Yamaha's XJR 400RII features an F-1 style dashboard. (Right) The Suzuki GSX400 Impulse Type S - a special edition 400cc naked bike styled after the GS1000S and Wes Cooley's 1000cc Yoshimura Superbike. (Below) The enginepowered Yamaha PAS Aerosport. (Bottom) The Yamaha XJR1200R. Consumer Products Group, explained to the assembled press. ''I'd like to take this .opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the members of the media for their assistance in introd ucing our products to the market, and for providing the channels for valuable market feedback I'd also like to thank you most sincerely for your great support and words of encouragement at the time of the Kobe-Osaka earthquake earlier this year. On behalf of Kawasaki, I wish to say, 'Thank you very much.' " SUZUKI ~ 0\ ~ a.r) ....-l ... QJ "S QJ E5 z 2 Racer replica sport bikes are alive and well at Suzuki. The new GSXR750 was old news by the time of the Tokyo Motor Show. Nonetheless, Suzuki displayed a cutaway GSXR750 for those curious to know more about the fresh-air intake ducts and all that. Suzuki also displayed a GSXR750 with all the superbike kit parts mounted. The other whizbang street racer from Suzuki for 1996 introduced at Tokyo, was the all-new RGV 250SP. The engine is now a 70-degree V-twin, presumably to mimic the close firing order of the RGV500 race bike. A balance shaft has been fitted to attenuate vibrati.ons inherent in any non-right-angle twin. The carburetors are electronically controlled, and carb diameter is 32mm, down 2mm from the older 250 Gamma. The new RGV has a fresh-air intake located in the front fairing (a 1'1 Yamaha TZM250), which ducts air to a massive sealed airbox. The transmission is a cassette-type, and a dry clutch is now standard equipment. The chassis has been completely redesigned to be bigger and beefier, and the swingarm must be the biggest ever fitted on a 250 street or race bike. Suzuki paid extra-close attention to aerodynamics, as the front fairing is now pointier and lower than ever before, and a two-stage windscreen is fitted to better integrate with the helmet of the rider. The undercowling of the fairing now extends all the way to the rear tire, and features deflectors to channel water spray away from the center of the rear tire. With the new RGV, Suzuki has pushed Aprilia out of the limelight in the 250cc wars curiously enough, the new RGV is painted violet, red, and white the same as Aprilia. Next to the RGV 25OSP-was Suzuki's new GSF750, essentially a 750cc Bandit. Actually, the GSF750 is better described as a 1980s GSXR750 with a steel frame, upright handlebars, no fairing, and candy-apple paint job. Every paragraph in Suzuki's press release had the phrase, lI user-&iendJy." The naked bike Suzuki sells by the tens of thousands to the Japanese is the GSX400 Impulse, introduced in the 1993 Tokyo Motor Show. This model has received a few.styling and engine tweaks in the two years since, and at the 1995 show Suzuki presented the GSX400 Type S, a mini GSI000S in white and blue, with bikini fairing - a bike made famous by Yoshimura and Wes Cooley in the early 1980s. Suggested retail in Japan is approximately $5900. Suzuki did not forget the off-road lovers, and presented the DJEBEL 250XG (there's a tongue-twister). Based on the DR250R, the 250XC is called by Suzuki as an "off-road touring motorcycle," complete with a 4.1-gaJlon gas tank, twin trip meters, digi tal instrumentation, a stop watch and 24-hour . clock, a large (200mm) headlight with headlight guard, handlebar-mounted knuckle guards, and a rear luggage carrier. For the color conscious, the 250XC has rims that match the gas tank (dark blue). YAMAHA Yamaha's main stage theme was, "New Age American World," with a heavy emphasis on the 1300cc Royal Star, and the 400cc Drag Star (a V-twin mini-version of the Royal Star), all accompanied by ZZ Top music and videos from Sturgis. These are certainly better names for cruisers than the old, celibate sounding "Virago." One has to wonder when Yamaha will have a . 1200cc V-twin heavyweight cruiser called the "Sport Star." Sport bikes displayed.in the "New Age American World" by Yamaha were XJR1200s and XJR4oos, bikes that are not available ,in the U.S. Perhaps someday the XJR1200 will make it here. It features ·Ohlins rear shocks as standard equipment, a larger oil cooler, a new seat, and a frame-mounted half fairing (getting closer to the FJ1200 all the time). With these changes the bike is now called the FJR1200R. ' Yamaha also displayed a competition XJR1200 NK-l production racer, which is used in Japan in the NK-l series, and in the French XJR Cup Series. These come complete and ready to race, with engine kit parts, competition exhaust, and carbon-fiber body panels (sort of like putting perfume on a pig). The little XJR400R looks identical to the XJR1200R, but for the Tokyo Motor Show Yamaha brought out a new XJR400R II. The new XJR is painted in classic Yamaha pearlescent white, and features a mini carbon-fiber cowl and number plate just over the low-profile headlight. lnside the front cowl is a Formula One-type liquid-crystal dashboard, with a sweeping-bar tachometer, digital speedometer, fuel-level bar graph, digital odometer and trip meter, and digital dock. Even Honda's NR750 dash wasn't 'this high-tech. The XJR400R II wasn't the only bike Yamaha had at the show with a hightech dash. The Yamaha Majesty 250 Tokyo Motor Show Special had higher technology still: GPS navigation displayed on.a handlebar mounted LCD screen! The screen displayed a moving map that could be zoomed in and outfor scale, updated itself every second, and rotated as required to maintain "bearing up." In the lower right-hand comer was an arrow display th.at advised the rider whether to continue straight, or turn left or right at intersections. The GPS monitor can also receive TV signals, as well as ' radio transmissions; audio is provided by a pair of tweeters and a pair of midrange speakers. Four antennae at the rear provide the Majesty's link to the information superhighway. A second Tokyo Motor Show special scooter presented by Yamaha was a modified BA50 GEAR. The basic BA50