Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EUROFILE BY ALAN CATHCART box located between the cylinders and fed by a single ram-air French twin After the Hunwick-Hallam from Australia, America's Excel- duct under the headlight. Sodemo has extensive experience in EFI from its car R&D sior-Henderson and Rumi of Italy, the Year of the Twin sees yet another new manufacturer gearing up to launch a range of operation, and has developed its own fully mapped, sophistitwin-cylinder bikes this autumn. Aiming at starting production cated fuel-injection system for the Voxan, using a mixture of early in 1998 is France's Voxan marque - a project first revealed Bosch and Marelli hardware run by its own CPU, with a single in this column back in December '95, and now right on sched- injector per cylinder. Alternative gearboxes are under development - a six-speedule to make its debut at the Paris Show this September. Given the high profile of French companies at the topmost er for the roadster and· sport tourer, five-speed for the cruiser. level of motorsport - Michelin, ELF, the Renault V10 engine Output for th.e 1000cc version is just under 100 hp at 9000 rpm, which dominates F-1 car racing, or the Peugeot V10 whose but with a very strong torque output of 72.3 ft.-lb. at about 5000 invincibility killed off the Sport Prototype class - and the rpm. The 1240cc cruiser engin.e will make the same power, but prominence of those two marques plus Citroen in automobile with even more huge torque of 94 ft.-lb. at just 3500 rpm. While the V-twin engine is surely capable of being tuned to markets around the world, it's always seemed a paradox that France didn't have a motorcycle industry of its own - especially make considerably more power, with production initially as the country is Europe'S number-two bike market after Ger- aimed primarily at the French market where there's a 100 bhp horsepower ceiling, that's all the Voxan range will be launched many in terms of annual sales. But apart from the stillborn Siccardi three-cylinder super- with - for now. But Voxan does envisage building an unrestrictbike project which was the victim of political infighting 15 ed version from the second year of production onward. For key export markets like Germany years ago, and the specialist Barigo marque still struggling : : t : , - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . , and such, expect 120-130 bhp at 9500 rpm for the power-up modto niche-market its way to sur- § els. vival, the only prod uction road '" Voxan w'ill use a modular bikes built in France in the past ~ chassis design for all its bikes, two decades have been short- Q produced by former French lived car-engined hybrids like in 500/250cc GP constructor Alain the BFG Odysee aj1.d Boccardo ~ Chevallier, 'who has penned a diesel. ~ distinctive twin-tube backbone But now, thanks to Voxan, '" frame, using two large-diameter this is about to change. Product ~ (60mm section) steel tubes boltof a design consortium embraced to steering head and rear ing leading figures in the counengine mount alloy castings try's car and bike worlds, the (welded-up fabrications only in first model on the new compathe prototype pictured in the ny's agenda is a fuel-injected attached photo). 1000cc V-twin naked roadster The chassis uses the V-twin aimed squarely at the Ducati engine as a fully-stressed inteMonster and Triumph T509 gral frame member, with the air Speed Triple. However, after the Roadster's debut in Paris this autumn, Voxan plan to launch Joining the ranks of new both sport touring and cruiser motorcycle manufacturers Is models within the next 12 France's Voxan. Plans include months, powered by a bigger a 1OOOcc twin-powered road 1240cc long-stroke version of bike In the same vein as the same engine. Ducati's Monster and Voxan (the name was choTriumph's Speed Triple sen for its neutral pronuncialooking something like this. tion in any language - the same Pictured at right is the rolling rationale as for the ELF corpochassis for the new bike. ra te tag) is the brainchild of Jacques Gardette, a wealthy industrialist from ClermontFerrand, site of Michelin's headquarters in central France. A longtime bike freak since owning his first Kawasaki HI 20 years ago, and currently the owner of a Ducati 916, Gardette has already sunk over $1 million of his own money into the filter for the EFI mounted within the steering-head casting. project, a sum matched by his three other financial partners in Upside-down forks and twin large-diameter front discs are used, with a horizontal rear shock located under the engine the project, one of which is in fact Michelin. The original plan was to develop an BOOcc fuel-injected four- (one reason why the Voxan's 72-degree V-twin engine is drystroke single which would be capable of powering a range of sump, with the oil tank incorporated in the rear chassis casting, off-road bikes as well as a roadster and a supermono racer, but is. to make room for this), 'worked by a rising-rate linkage off this was aborted in favor of the V-twin project after a detailed the alloy swingarm - this pivots in the crankcases, Ducati- (and marketing study showed this had more sales appeal, not only Honda-) style. With a 56.7-inch wheelbase, the 72-degree Voxan roadster's size is close to the 90-degree Honda VTR1000 sportin France but also abroad. Design and development of the Voxan V-twin engine has bike (56.3), with the 4.8-gallon fuel tank centrally located been entrusted to Sodemo, a leading French R&D house which behind the engine, under the seat. The fake tank contains the also constructs Renault's works Rally and SuperTouring cars, airbox, as well as a document/tool receptacle. Target weight for the production roadster is 418 pounds dry, including the Lagunas with which F-1's Tearp Williams currentwhile the all-important and apparently very distinctive (but not ly leads the British Touring Car Championship in Britain. Sodemo boss Bernard Mange has, however, employed for- bizarre!) styling has been entrusted to one of the several French mer Peugeot F1 engine-design staff to produce a liquid-<:ooled . stars of the two-wheeled design field, Sacha Lakic - designer of 72-degree V-twin eight-valve engine, with titanium connecting the Bimota Mantra and before that a succession of Boxer Bike rods sitting side by side on a common crankpin - but with no specials. Target selling price for the Voxan 1000 Roadster is 80,000 balance shaft. Considering that the last 72-degree V-twin to make it into volume production, the Morini, didn't vibrate francs (about $14,000), and Gardette says he's aware that for unduly, Voxan's assertion that a counterbalancer isn't needed this price, quality of manufacture and components is paramount - expect lots of carbon fiber, and a high level of finish. has credence: The Voxan engine shares the same 98 x 66mm.dimensions as Voxan's Clermont factory is already under construction, but Ducati's world champion superbike and the new Honda and manufacture will be along Aprilia lines, with Voxan assembling Suzuki 90-degree V-twins, even if, at present, Voxan insists the bikes from components sourced out-of-house, to its specifithere are no plans to build an out-and-out sportbike - although cation. Gardette aims to produce between 500 and 1000 bikes large 39.2mm inlet valves and 33.8mm exhausts hint at the kind per year, starting early in 1998. It's some indication of how seriof deep breathing a superbike would need. Total included ous a venture this is, that not only is Michelin a partner in the • valve angle is very flat, at just 21 degrees, while each four-valve enterprise, but former 500cc GP rider Marc Fontan has given up cylinder head has chain-driven double overhead camshafts, his successful job running KTM France to join Voxan as comwith the cylinders mirror-imaged like on the Honda VTR1000, mercial director, responsible for selling the new range in France to reduce manufacturing costs, as well as to permit a central air- and abroad. Goin' to ealnomia... One model right in the sights of the bigger-engined Voxan will be the Moto Guzzi California, Europe's longest-lived custom cruiser, which the Italian factory is producing this year in a silver/red limited edition of 750 individually numbered bikes, to commemorate its 75th anniversary. Never mind that this anniversary actually took place in 1996. When you started building bikes back in 1921 and are enjoying a revitalized lease on life under new management, who's counting? Guzzi sales rose by 21 percent in 1996, and the company's paid-up capital has just been increased from 5 billion to 12 billion lire (up to around $7.5 rnil1ion~ by the American publicly traded holding company Trident Rowan Group, who last January spent $6 millio acquiring a 20-percent shareholding in Moto Guzzi. This capital investment will underwrite' the continued expansion of Italy's oldest bike maker, and following on the TPG acquisition of a controlling interest in Ducati, underlines ·the current attraction of prestige European motorcycle marques to American financial institur tions. Maybe one of them would like t6 take a serious look at Norton - surely the richest potential corporate prize left on two wheels for any investment house? TIgcrafl says four British chassis specialists'Tigcraft has a solid record of success in the su permono field, with worldwide recognition of its single-cylinder frame expertise. So far, though, except for a run of Yamaha TOM twins and the fitting of the Folan V-twin motor in its supermono frames, the Farnborough-based firm has built only four-stroke singles - until now. Using the same large-diameter steeltube twin-spar format featured on the latest Tigcraft singles, constructor Dave Pearce is currently putting the finishing touches to his first four-cylinder chassis design - for the Honda CBR600 motor. "The CBR600 has been in production for the best part of the last decade, and there are tens of thousands of potential donor bikes available cheaply around the world that will allow a customer to build an Open-class four-stroke racer that'll be cost-effective to construct and to run competitively," says Pearce, who's already received orders for the Tigcraft CBR from the United States and Britain, where supersport homologation rules don't apply at club racing level, to save argument and cost. Fitted with Honda RS250 forks and a CBR900RR swingarm, with an Ohlins shock using Tigcraft's rising-rate linkage, the prototype bike has ram-air induction to a sealed airbox, fitted with a modified ver ion of Tigcraft's distinctive supermono bodywork. Target weight in race form is 308 pounds, but though the first bikes to be ordered are all racers, Pearce says he's planning to build a street version, too. "The stock Honda's a great bike, but it's built to a budget," he says. "It's heavier than it needs to be, and the components are volume production parts. We're taking the best bit, which is the engine, and giving it the rolling chassis it deserves - bu t for less than half the price of a Bimota YB9." Interested? Contact Tigcraft by fax at 011-44-1252372649 for more details. KTM and Britten linked? KTM~s confirmation that the ·Folan Vtwin will form the basis of its move into multicylinder production dismisses the

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