Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IS~OW on the prototype which is due to reveal a passenger seat by the time production begins a year from now. One of many l\eat design details is the flip-up 3.7-galIon fuel tank that has space for an openface helmet beneath it. When closed, th-e tank can be locked in place for security. Sharing star billing with the Guzzi Centauro at Milan was the Bimota YBll, the Italian manufacturer's latest hyperbike with distinctive new styling that makes it look a lot smaller than l000cc. Fitted with the latest Yamaha YZFI000 engine from the newly announced ThunderAce, the YBll is 4.4 pounds lighter than the old EXUP-engined YB8 it replaces, at 402.6 pounds dry. The bike also has an all-new chassis with a 25-degree head angle, less extreme than on the YB8 to improve stability, but less trail at just 9Omm, for quicker steering. Unlike the show bike, the customer YBll entering production at the end of March will have PaioH's new 51mm conventional front forks, with carbon-fiber sliders to reduce unsprung weight, as well as a Paioli rear shock. In view of the bike's potential, the new Anteramade alloy wheels seem a bit narrow, with just a 180/55 rear Michelin TX23 on the 5.50-inch-wide rim, rather than the 190-section rubber fitted to new superbikes like the GSXR750 Suzuki: Alongside the uprated YB9SRI (TOO / Bimota fuel injection; 106 bhp from the 600cc Yamaha powerplant) launched at the Paris Show and due to enter production in December, Bimota also launched a Biposto two-seater version of their BMW F650-engined Supermono. But a more significant window on Birnota's.future came with the public debut of the production street version of the 500cc twin-crankshaft, 90-degree Vtwin, two-stroke engine fitted wi th direct fuel injection the Italian company has had under development for the past six years. The miw twin is due to enter production in 1997. Producing 114 bhp at 9000 rpm in street-Ieg<\l form with silencers, and delivering no less than 65 foot-pounds torque at 8000 rpm, the liquid-cooled 72 x 61.25mm motor is extremely economical thanks to the direct EFI. Apart from its effective power-to-weight ratio - likely to deliver scintillating performance when it meets up with the tele-forked chassis that has now been designed for it - the Bimota two-stroke's main advantage comes from the significantly reduced pollution delivered by the combination of electronic fuel injection and direct lubrication, rather than mixing oil with the fuel charge. Bimota has every reason to be very proud of their painstaking work in developing this radical engine design on limited resources and at significant cost in terms of man hours. The benefits they will derive from spinoff applications of this new technology, especially in the small-capacity, mass-transportation market, will be considerable - but sports riders will be the first to enjoy them when the complete bike COmes on line at the end of next year. Laverda continues to go from strength to strength, with production increasing steadi ly and owner Francisco Tognon, the man responsible for the fairy-tale renaissance of the historic [talian marque, expanding the range still further with the debut at Milan of a new, fully faired sports model, the 668. So-called because of the exact cubic capacity of the oil-cooled 78.5 x 69mm parallel-twin engine which presently equips all Laverda models, the 668 retains the same twin-spar alloy frame 'and WP suspension as the rest of the range. But it has been completely restyled with a sleeker twin-headlight 1995 Milan Motorcycle Show fairing that, together with other detail mods, allows the 668 to scale 8.8 pounds less than the 650 base model, at 391.6 pounds dry. Though a more singleminded sports model than the gruntier 650 Formula it sits alongside of, the 668 slots between the Formula and the 650 pricewise, at 19,278,000 lire in Italy, (Right) Blmota showed their direct-Injection 500cc V-twin twostroke - end It's for the street (Below) Also on the Blmots steod wss the' new YBll, powered by the new VZF1000 Ysmahs motor used In the Europe-only ThunderAce. (Below) The 58gsle SR900 is bssed on the CBR900, but emong other exotic elleretlons Is the use of e megnesium, single-sided sWlngerm. including 19-percent tax. Production begins in January, and just BOO versions of the Laverda 668 will be built in 1996 a year in which Tognon intends to start selling bikes in the Italian home market, as well as Japan. Italy's range of specialist manufacturers continues to shrink thanks to the increasing expense and time needed to obtain EC homologation, but Luigi Sega Ie showed the latest version of his Honda CBR900 FireBlade-powered SR900, the ExtraLight. Retailing for 33,000,000 lire plus tax, this not only features carbon-fiber bodywork but also a cast-magnesium single-sided rear swingarm, still fitted with Ceriani rising-rate shock and a 6-inch rear wheel, but with increased rear wheel travel. At the front, new offsets on the upsidedown Ceriani forks deliver IOmm more clearance to keep the wheel from hitting the radiator under heavy braking. Wheelbase is unchanged, though, at a very compact 54.1 inches. Segale has now built a total of 18 SR900 specials, mainly for Japan, Germany and Australia,·and is also oUering a kit for the stock CBR900 FireBlade, Which allows owners to convert their bikes to a 17inch front wheel and a single-sided rear end with one of his magnesium swingarms, at a cost of 6,500,000 lire plus tax, ready to fit. With Magni declining to exhibit for the good reason that they can't get enough engines from Moto Guzzi to satisfy existing orders for their 8V Australia, let alone worry about creating any more, the only Guzzi-~gined moto artigianale (hand-built bike) on display was the s\yooPY Mako Shark Pantera cruiser, first displayed at Milan six years ago, and now at last in production. selling for 24,800,000 lire including tax, fitted with the two-valve pushrod V-twin motor from the 750 Nevada. Designer Claudio Bonomelli has now had a stab at another very different kind of vehicle, which made its debut at Milan - a 125cc scooter with a roof, rather like the Honda already in production in Japan for some time. Don't hold your breath waiting to see this one on the streets of Italy - but waiting to join it in the MotoMorgue will surely be the two "prototypes" displayed by the giant Piaggio group: a pair of futuristic-looking single-seater four-wheelers powered by 125cc scooter engines, which have all the inconvenience in terms of bulk, but not the internal space and carrying capacity of a car, and none of the benefits of a motorcycle. Viewing them one was forced to ask Why? No new models from any of the Japanese companies at Cologne - though lots of their lO-year-old designs resurfacing at bargain-basement prices through being made in China - but one interesting venture from, predictably, Yamah{s now wholly owned Italian subsidiary, Belgarda, which manufactures the SZR660 street single now comprising part of Yamaha's world range. As promised at the launch last July, Belgarda is organizing an SZR660 Monomarca championship in 1996, which was launched at the Milan Show. Known as the Super Single Cup, this will be held at major race meetings in Italy next season, and is open to riders from all over the world, who all pay the same 1,200,000 lire entry fee covering the entire five-race series. This includes not just participation in the races on a bike you must buy and prepare yourself, but also the provision of a Belgarda race kit which includes a race fairing and seat, racing camshaft, Termignoni exhaust and revised carb jets, racing brake pads and Aeroquip braided brake lines, and Dunlop treaded race tires. Sounds like a good deal - especially with the confirmation of -a six-race European Supermono Championship to be run next season at World Superb ike rounds, for which this should be an ideal feeder series, using less highly developed bikes. Wonder if any Japanese riders will turn up for it! Unquestionably the most interesting new Japanese-powered bike to debut at Milan was the Hyperpro 1 Yamaha TRX850, built in Holland by the world leaders in one-step progressive spring technology for suspension systems. Hyperpro boss Hans Rinner and the bike's designer Hans Oosterhoff of Troll Engineering used to work together at White Power, where Oosterhoff was the development engineer on the avantgarde Monoarm front-end design. The Hyperpro TRX was born from this, but has an entirely' innovative design with the whole front part of the chassis removed, and replaced by twin tubular locating arms bolted to the left side of the engine, which now acts as a fully stressed chassis member. These arms function as carriers for a vertical strut providing a guide for the special-offset Dymag wheel to rise and fall in, controlled by two diagonally opposed pul1eys' with two opposite-positioned pulleys preventing assembly rotation under braking. Oosterhoff and Rinner say the main advantages of the Hyperpro.l system compared to telescopic forks are a big reduction in unsprung weight, improved suspension response and ease of adjustment thanks to the single Quantum shock, quickly variable and more-constant steering geometry, and more space around the engine to improve aerodynamics as well as airflow to the carbs and radiafor. They plan to put the Hyperpro TRX into limited production in both road and race form, and will be campaigning a racing version in European BOTT races in 1996. Trick Troll! fN

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