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/127860
l - - -_ - - ' - - - -_ _ mounted hi gh und er th e single sea t (whose silence rs are actua lly shaped to form the rear fend er). Ditto for the two head lights, one above the other in the sha pely front fairing - the lines of which rep lica te the last Cag iva 500cc GP bike raced by John Kocinski in 1994. Interesting ly, there's no recogniti on of the increas ingly du biou s Elf/Honda Singl e-sided swingarm patent on the bike, the first in-line four-cylinde r st reet bike to be so equipped. Tarnb urini originally planned a double-stack four-headlight layout , onl y to scale back to a sing le -s ta ck d es ign du e to h eadlight regulations in certai n key po ten tial markets. And instead of the local hardware you might expect on s uch a prestigio us Italian bike, Cagiva has concentrated on si m p ly using th e best : The F4 ca rries 310mm front brakes and speci ally mad e si x-piston calipe rs (all from N issin in Japan), w hence a lso cam" th e 49mm largest-dia meter upsid e-d own forks yet made anyw here - exclusively developed for Cagiva by Showa - com plete with the F4 logo cast into the slid ers. The rear shock is a n O h lin s. th oug h, a nd the ultrashort-stroke 73.8 x 43.8mm engine's multipoint EFl is a specially deve loped Webe r-Marelli system with huge (for a fou r) 47mm thro ttl e bodies . In stree t guis e, it delivers a claimed 125 bhp at 12,000 rp m to a bike wh ich weighs just 3% pounds dry in fully equipped street fo r m - th ou gh Cagi va engi ne chi ef Andrea Goggi says the power is held all the way to the engi ne's 14,000 rpm revlimiter, enough for a claimed top speed of 171 mph. Cagiva pla ns to build the first ba tch of 200 MV Ag u sta F4 street bikes by ' hand in its Varese race shop, starting in April 1998 - just as Ducati did 25 yea rs ago with it s firs t d esmo V-twin , the 750SS- and will only sell the indi vid ua lly numbe red bikes for an expec ted price of 50 million lire (about $28,000) to custom ers prepa red to sign a gua rantee they will not resell them within a fiveyear period. "We want these first bikes to go to people who will actually ride them and use them." says Claudio Castiglioni, "in orde r to give u s feedback before we beg in series production in Septembe r next year in our new Cassinetta factory, just 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) fro m the old MV Agusta oficina. The four-cylinder family will grow, with many models ' bea rin g th e Cagiv a and MV Ag u sta names already planned a nd, in some cases, designed . But this historic first model is the most import an t step, and w e mu s t be sure it wo rks perfe ctl y before beginning series pr oduction ." MV's ren aissan ce w ill underpin the comeback of the Cagiva marqu e, fueled by Castiglioni's sale of a majority stake in Duca ti to American investors TPG and its associates. With the two nowseparate companies' sta nd ing [uxtapositioned a t Milan, the di fference in operating ethos was immediat ely noticeable. Cagiva is still very mu ch a n Ita lia n company in terms of language and twowheeled culture, with its revival based in the short term on the new 125 Planet w hich entered vo lume producti on the day the show opened . The prod uc tion ve rs io n of the N I prototype first di spl a y e d he re tw o years ago (and d esigned by Ducati Monster creator Miguel Angel Galluzzi), the Planet is a nak ed road ster based on the Mito ru nning gear. It has a 15-bhp power ceiling th at allows it to be ridden w ith a ca r license and without a separate motorcycle tes t, as well as by 16- y ear-olds, under European Union law. Though the literally hun d red s of new scoote r mod els lau nch ed a t Milan in recognition of the scoo ter boom (which the aforementioned law has helped fue l) by every manufacturer from Honda and !limota dow n to the sma llest back-street co nstructor aren' t withi n the ambi t of th is report, it's worth no ting th a t the IDEA-d esign ed 50cc big-wh eeled Cagiva Cucciolo run abou t launched two years ago was also d is played , in the form it'll begin production in Italy next March . It was origi nally sla ted to be built in Cagiva's Czech CZ opera tion. Crossing the aisle to Duca ti was like taki ng a trans-Atlanti c flight, with English the lingua franca in a company now run along distinctl y Am erican lin es . ~~ This has not only changed the script of the Ducati name to reflect its new ow ners hip but also adde d a new spl it-circle log o, wh ich s ke p tica l loca ls held to resem ble the gel/o ne token used for a n Italian car-wash. But more important than cosmetic corporate image- massaging was the hard ware on display, headed by the long-overdue new 900SS, now rena med the Su pe rs po r t 900F E (as in "Final Edition"). The 900 was fast -forwarded by TPG management and is du e to enter production next March, according to Ducati boss Massimo Bordi. Designed in the record spa ce of just six months by Supermono creator Pierre Terblanch e (who now heads up Ducati 's == :za:a;:: c u::c "'2LSJ %, i (Top) The long-awaited Aprllia RSV Mille was overshadowed by the MV. but it was stili a popular attraction at the show . The bike's 60-degree V-twin engine was first displayed some three years ago In Milan, but now the complete bike Is ready for product ion. (Above) The new and longoverdue Ducati 900SS headlined Oucati's presence at the show. r-, 0\ 0\ ...... 00 .... CJ .0 o ~ u o 25