Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

splits horizontally in two places to allow crankshaft and gearbox to be serviced independently of each other, and every step has been taken to reduce weight, even down to the use of waisted crankcase bolts. Still, with the hefty 320mm floating di C5 and meaty 45mm cartridge forks, getting the weight that low is a real feat, even on a bike with a compact 54.7-inch wheelbase. Once again, Suzuki has set new standards for another class with its new bike, which is listed in the United States at an ultracompetitive $7,699: Bimota specification at a Japanese price. Suzuki isn't only focusing on the sportbike market, though, as its trio of other new models underlined. The aggressively styled Katana (yes, really) liquid-cooled 50cc scooter weighing in at 176 pounds and its cheaper, aircooled counterpart scaling 169 are the lightest in their class and certainly look distinctive, but price as mucl1 as styling is what sells in this booming market sector in Europe. But the new chain-drive 805cc Marauder performance custom Vtwin with staggered exhaust, kicked-out . 35-degree fork angle, 64.8-inch wheelbase and upside-down forks with machined alloy wheels aims to cut a new niche for custom go-bikes on looks alone. The Freewind XF650 street enduro powered by a new 644cc air / oil-eooled motor is aimed at Euro-bikes like the Pegaso and Funduro, though here price once again will tell. Adjustable seat height is smart, though, and so is the digital LCD speedo and instrument panel. Suffering badly by comparison with Suzuki at IFMA were the other three Japanese manufacturers, though Yamaha never intended to shine at Cologne after its blitz of new models a year ago, and showed nothing new of any significance, beyond a lot of different color schemes. The lineup included the dressed-up version of the XVZ1300 Royal Star called the Tour Classic (at least we in the States got one model before the rest of the world), the XV125 micro-cruiser and the XVS650 Drag Star, an air-cooled mini-Hardtail with shaft drive and styling Milwaukee would be proud of. Should sell well. But where's the fuel-injected replacement for the 2D-valve YZF750 sportbike, now almost a decade old in conception yet still arguably the- best all-round sports bike for the' street? Maybe ~e better wait till Paris for that one, too - Colin Edwards II probably has his fingers crossed for one. Kawasaki made the public debut of its 500cc ER-5 at Cologne, a cheap 'n' cheerful twin-eylinder roadster likely to become the backbone of the courier industry, as well as a useful commuter tool. Can't help thinking it took them a long time to come up with an answer to the Honda Revere, though. Much more exciting was the ZRXII00, an unashamedly muscular aked Bike using the GPZII00 liquidcooled engine with five-speed gearbox and twin-shock rear end, aimed at recapturing from the Suzuki Bandit 1200 and Yamal1a XJR1200 the leadership of the big-bore retro class that Kawasaki engineers invented themselves half a decade ago with the air-cooled Zephyr. Price will be a factor, but tlus one looks right. With its official 50th birthday coming up next year, Honda had adopted a curious policy of releasing its key new models in a trickle during the summer, rather than go for a sturuUng showtime surprise come the fall. So the CBR1100XX Super Blackbird and F6C (Left) Two-stroke lovers rejoice (rich ones anyway): Bimota is bringing a fuelinjected 500cc twin to the street. Bimota says the 11 G-horsepower machine meets emissions regulations everywhere including California. (Below) Due hunting: Honda debuted its sporting VTR1 000. 9o-degree V-twin at Cologne. Valkyrie are already in the shops, while the SLR650 street scrambler to be manufactured in Spain as a budget-priced version of the Aprilia-engined Boxer 650 launched a year ago in Paris, also had been press-tested before IFMA opened. This left the heavily previewed VTRI000 FireStorm V-twin sportbike as Honda's only completely new model launched at Cologne, in an overorganized, high-tech press conference that started half an hour late and caused Suzuki to have to delay its show as a result to let everyone catch up. Suzuki had the .last laugh, though, because the FireStorm was frankly overshadowed by the TL1QOOS, ellen though in any other year it might have been the star of the show. More overtly Ducati 900SS-derived than the Suzuki, the VTRI000 Honda also has a liquid-cooled 90-degree Vtwin engine, but with the cylinders rotated even further backward on the crankcases than on the Suzuki, to allow the engine to be pushed further forward to shorten the wheelbase - one reason the swingarm pivots in the crankcase's Ducati-style. However, at 56.32 inches in wheelbase, the Honda actually is a little longer than the Suzuki and, on paper at least, suffers in almost every respect in comparison to its rival - 48rnm downdraft CV carbs instead of EFI; much lower 9.4:1 compression; conventional ProLink rear suspension and 41 mm cartridge forks, rather than the rotary damper rear end and 43mm upsidedown forks of the Suzuki; 296mm front dics not 320mm ones; 424-pound dry weight versus 411 pounds for the TL; smaller 18D-section rear tire, etc. etc. But, though the Honda does rev higher while sharing the same 98 x 66mm dimensions as its rival, output is lower at 110 bhp at 10,000 rpm (vs. 125 bhp at 8,000 rpm, both claimed figures by the manufacturer) - yet price in the United States is reported as provisionally set at $9,100 - $100 more than the Suzuki. The chassis of the VTR also is aluminum, but a more conventional twinspar design than the TLl000s, weighing only 15.4 pounds thanks to the engine acting as a fully streSsed member, while the double overhead camshafts per cylinder are fully chain-driven, with the cylinders rotated 180 degrees to each other - the cam chain for the rear cylinder is on the right, that for the front on the left. Cooling is taken care of by twin sidemounted radiators, partially hidden by the three-quarter fairing, whose styling is more restrained and simple than the Suzuki's overaggressive design. Two very different bikes for the same price, aimed at the same sport market - though one perhaps is targeted at the Ducati 900SS niche in terms of specifica tion, the other at the 916 Strada. But Yamal1a engineers must be kicking themselves for the lost opportunity that failing to capitalize on the Over TOM EuroTwin prototype launched two years ago represents - and Honda engineers surely are hard at work on an uprated specification for a VTRI000RR to combat the Suzuki's amazing value for money in terms of performance for dollar. Also, where's Kawasaki's twin sportbike? Honda also showed an uprated version of the CBR600, with detail modifications to engine and suspension, and power up to a claimed 105 bhp at 12,000 rpm, though weight remains higher than the new GSXR600 at 409 pounds dry. Still, the class-leading 600 - now entering its 10th year of manufacture will take some knocking off its pedestal, both on the race track and in the showroom, though Honda has a hard fight on its hands wi th the Suzuki - in more than one class. One company that has no competition at all for its newest product is Bimota, which finally debuted its long-awaited 500 Vdue, the world's first fuel-injected two-stroke roadster, whose twin-crankshaft crankcase reed-valve 90-degree V-twin engine was already shown last year at Milan. But now at last, the complete bike is almost ready for production, with the first of the 600 bikes scheduled to be built in 1997 due to roll off the Rimini production line in May. The 72 x 61.25mm 499cc engine delivers 110 bhp at the gearbox at 9,000 rpm in street-legal form, with a wide spread of torque, say factory engineers, meaning the cassette-type gearbox need only five ratios, not the six you might expect from a GP-derived two-stroke. With a wheelbase of just 52.8 inches, the new Bimota has the same physical size as a Honda NSR250, but with even more power than the factory race version, in a bike weighing the same as an Aprilia RS250 roadster - 312.4 pounds - to deliver an awesome power-to-weight ratio. The distinctive "tricolore" bodywork is styled by Sergio Robbiano, one of the new wave of Italian designers who worked alongside Massimo Tamburini on the Ducati 916 and Cagiva Mito EV, and is wrapped. around an oval-section aluminum tubular chassis with asymmetric swingarm. Bimota says the 500 Vdue can meet all current emissions regulations anywhere in the world even Switzerland and California thanks to the TOO-developed fuel injection, but that noise will be a problem in some countries, not from the carboncanned exhausts which each have a secondary silencer under the seat, but from the primary gear and dry clutch, which will have to be shrouded for homologation purposes. Six years in gestation, the ew Age of two-stroke sportbike is born at last - yours for just 29.5 milion lire (just over $19,000). A bargain. Alongside the two-stroke on the Bimota stand at IFMA was the company's other novelty, a supersport version of its best-selling Suzuki GSXRII00engined bike, the SB6R. This has heavily revamped styling with new intake ducts and a revised Ohlins rear suspension, a carbon-fiber subframe for the seat, and revised airbox and exhaust system delivering even more top-end power. Production begins in November, with 700 bikes planned for the next 12 months. More twins - first at Moto Guzzi where, with the VlO Centauro now in production, the Finprogetti management which had revitalized [taly's oldest bike manufacturer continued the mythological theme with the launch at \0 0\ 0\ ...... ('f') " C'l l-< ill .g .... u o 11

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