Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EUROFILE BY ALAN CATHCART Cathcart logson I n our nIWe:r-ending effort to bring you the latest news fast - and first" - Cycle News has made al1 important addition to its masthead: European Editor Alan Cathcart. Cathcart's extensive background and contacts in the motorcycle world - from successful race:r to being the man who seems to, have ridden IWery notable street and race bike built will be an invaluable asset in our efforts to bring you fast, accurate reporting of what is happening in Europe and the rest of the world. So, in addition to Cathcart's excellent streetbike and race:r tests you already get in Cycle News, now you will be getting "Euro File," a periodic offe:ring of the latest happenings from Europe. Production resumes at Cagiva Mounting speculation about the future of Cagiva in the wake of the sale of a controlling interest in Ducati to the American TPG investment house has been partially answered - at least in the short term - by the news that production is set to resume at last at the Varese factory after a six-month shutdown, which itself fol- . lowed a sustained period of short-time working. First, 1,000 military bikes based on the W12 four-strbke single will be built to satisfy existing orders for the French and Italian forces, before production of the Ducati-engined Grand Canyon 900 launched at the recent Cologne Show begins. in May. Before that, a second pm. duction line will be restarted, building the 125cc Mito-framed Nl, which made its public debut a year ago in Milan. The bike's 15-bhp power output makes it a potential moneymaker under the new European laws recently introduced, which allow bikes with a maximum such output to be ridden on a car license, without any need for a separate bike test. Production of the Cucciolo 50cc bigwheel scooter, scheduled to have already begun at Cagiv,!'s CZ subsidiary in the Czech republic, is still stalled, though presumably for lack of finance. But Cagiva sources insist that development of the four-cylinder F4 in both 750 and 900cc forms is back on line, aiming for a September launch at the 1997 Milan Show. (Worth noting that this has been brought forward two months from its traditional November date, and will now take place' from September 16-21 - a move brought about by the aggressive stance taken by the organizers of the Paris Show opening September 26, which threatened to deprive Milan of acting as the launch pad for any new models from major , manufacturers. Make a note in your diary.) And Husky makes two Alongside the apparent signs of a Cagiva comeback is an even more solid Husqvarna revival, with production restarting early in the new year of the full range of off-road bikes, on two production lines (one two-stroke, the other four-stroke), with a target of building 5,000 bikes in the first six months of 1997. There's no shortage of customers for the Husky range, which exactly parallels Ducati in that there were people eager to part with their money for the bikes, but no cash with which to build them. The Ducati takeover by TPG - and whatever the window dressing. make no mistake that the Americans are very much in charge, with four seats on the seven-man board of directors - has unlocked a brighter future for Husqvarna, with suppliers paid off so production can recommence. The new electric-start engine with balance shaft and oil pump launched at Cologne won't go into production until next September, though - so the bikes it'll be powering will be 1998 models. Rosa leaves Cagiva The upsurge in activity at Cagiva's Varese base comes in the wake of reports in the Italian financial press that the Castiglioni family is presently trying to attract outside investors for up to 50 percent of both the Husqvarna and Cagiva marques. This would entail floating them off as separate companies, just as was done with' Ducati the takeover /buy-in of which provides a model for the same operation with the other two marques. E:laudio Castiglioni - now n,unored to have taken over sole control of Cagiva's motorcycle operations by buying out his brother Gianfranco's half-interest - has fiercely denied this, denouncing the reports as pure speculation. Time will tell. But meanwhile, Castiglioni has parted company with Cagiva's respected engineering director, ex-Ferrari engineer Riccardo Rosa, who has now left the company and whose whereabouts are presently unknown. Rosa's departure will be a bitter blow to Cagiva, since he had overall charge of the F4 engine's R&D, and having previously run Cagiva's 500cc GP technical operation for several years, was to be a key figure in the marque's proposed debut in World Superbike racing with the four-cylinder F4in 1998. Moto Guzzi set for superbike wars . One year behind Cagiva in development of a superbike for road and track, but catching up fast, is Moto Guzzi, set to return to the race track in 1999. With the company's future underwritten by the Finprogetti financial consortium which took over its operation last year, Guzzi's expansion plans call for a huge program of investment in the aged Mandello factory on which work has already begun, leading to a substantial increase in production from the present 6,000 units a year up to 20,000 by the year 2000. Moto Guzzi boss Amulfo Sacchi plans to underpin this by launching 14 new models over a five-year period, of which the V-I0 Centauro, Daytona RS and 1100 Sport EFI already in production are the first, with the 750cc Ippogrifo'launched at the Cologne Show heading up the next wave of new bikes. But these models are all fitted with various fuel-injected versions of Guzzi's trademark shaft-drive transverse V-twin motor first la unched a quarter century ago, eith.er in pushrod tw:o-valve form or high-cam four-valve guise. The new Guzzi engine currently under development by chief engineer Angelo Ferrari is completely different, and though it will initially only be used in the top-of-the-range superbike with which Finprogetti plans to rebuild Guzzi's competition credentials and capitalize on the marque's glorious sporting heritage, the new motor will spawn a series of derivatives in the next millennium, underwriting the continued evolu-' tion of Guzzi's model range. But these new models won't be too different. "It's vitally important that we shouldn't lose Guzzi's strong sense of technical identity and individual appearance:' says a company insider. "The new superbike will be very recognizably still a Moto Guzzi." For this reason, designer Ferrari is retaining the current engine's transverse V·twin format, but with the cylinder angle narrowed slightly to around 75 degrees to produce a more compact layout (necessitating the use of a balance shaft) and the cylinders inclined forward about 20 degrees to improve packaging and increase front-end weight bias. This will also allow a steep downdraft angle for the Weber / Marelli EFI fitted to the liquid-cooled eight-valve' engine, which may have chain rather , than belt drive to the. two double-overhead camshafts. The design will be a true DOHC format, rather than the high-cam layout of the present Daytona motor, and will feature an extractable six-speed gearbox and - yes, chain final drive! The engine has been designed as a true load-bearing structure, which will enable the front and rear suspension to be' essentially bolted to it (upside-down forks and a single-sided swingarm with rising-rate linkage), with a GP-style com~ posite material subframe for the single seat. But it's unlikely the exhausts will exif under the seat as on the 916 Ducati, because of the difficulty in obtaining the correct tuned length -' a problem which continues to afflict the superbike version of the 916, but which Ducati is hamstrung by marketing reasons from altering. Styling of the new Guzzi·will be radically aggressive - a truly mus~ular yet sleek V-twin sportbike, the street version of which is expected to make its debut at the 1999 Milan Show. And with his supercar design experience, thanks to previous stints as development engineer at Lamborghini and chief engineer at Bugatti bracketing his time at Laverda, Angelo Ferrari will be incorporating the latest in four-wheeled technology into the new bike, which in competition form will most likely include pneumatic valve gear in order to obtain Ducati-beating horsepower. The new Moto Guzzi is a very serious project on which Finprogetti plans to place heavy emphasis, because of the future application of the overall format to the whole of the Guzzi range. Guzzi guru Dr. John Wittner (now back in full-time employment at the factory after the Finprogetti takeover) is the man charged .with bringing this project to life - itself a continuation of the abortive Iiquidcooled V-twin'Guzzi race project he worked on five years ago for Alessandro de Tomaso. This time around, it seems certain the next-generation Moto Guzzi engine will get built - and Italy's most historic bike factory will return to the race tracks with a works team in three years' time. ABeemer for World Superbike? It seemed too much of a coincidence when it first surfaced in the wake of the confirmation that the "other" manufacturer of shaft-drive transverse-twin motorcycles was planning a competition comeback, but a persistent rumor from Five plus 11 more uperbikes are go. After the fantastic spectacle provided by the Kawasakimounted Go-Show of Anthony Gobert and his supporting cast in the final race of the 1996 World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island, when four different makes finished in the first four places and the hitherto allconquering Ducati twins didn't even make the rostrum, the future of top-level four-stroke racing looks better than ever. Which must explain why A1rudy a allCCllSS In AMA Superblkll racing, Is there are so many other manu- the VR1000 apon aet to embark 9.0 a World f"cturers lining up to join in, Superblkll mission? besides the four Japanese and one Italian factory already involved at the world level. Count'em: Bimota (Suzuki TLl000 V-twin powered SBS due in a year's time); Moto Guzzi (see above); BMW (ditto); March (four-cylinder Melling-designed 750 slowly taking shape); Aprilia (RSVl000 6O-degree V-twin with ultra-co1"pact Rotax-developed DOHC motor due next year); Cagiva (Massimo Tamburini's design work on the F4 four-cylinder prototype is completed; it only remains to be seen if the Castiglioni family has the cash to put it into production in 1998, as intended); Triumph (new T~95 Daytona deliberately launched in 960cc form, with fuel-injected triple motor b.lgger .than the ~cc three-cy~d~ ~toff for Superbike racing; but a smaller versIon WIth competition credentials IS m the cards, once Triumph gets the chance to do more race-related R&D); Harley-Davidson (VRl000 now consistently running at the front of AMA Superbike competition, to be fitted at last with a six-speed gearbox, allowing a sharper state of engine tune_ Although Harley management still hasn't revealed its future plans for the eight-valve motor, they wouldn't be continuing t? underwrite its competition activity unless they had plans for it to go into pr0duction); Laverda (wOI'k continues under new chief er1gineer Nicola Materassi, formerly of Ferrari, on the fuel-injected three-cylinder Jota Superbike due in 1999; project is right on schedule); Benel1I (new owner Andrea Merloni has long-term plans to build his own superbike - probably a 900cc triple - but after rejecting the chance to take over the Britten V-twin project, he won't be ready tmtil after the tam of the century; instead, his Gattalone team has the use of a full works Ducati for Pier-Francesco Chili to race in 1997); A.N.Other (an exciting and very serious superbike project from a country not yet represented in the above list, details of which I ~ be able to reveal soon; the fuel-injected 9O-degree V-twin is already up and runrung on the street, and incorporates seIf-generating pneumatic valve gear with the ~ chambers cast into the cylinder heads, and wiD make its public debut at Daytona m March next year, with the street version entering production in time for it to be homologated. for the 1998 Superbike season. No, it's not April 1st: this is for real!) S

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