Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

veteran star Franz Glauser, Dutch champion Adrie de Ridder, and the cream of British classic racing talent, such as John Cronshaw, Bill Swallow, Bob Jackson and Glen English, all mounted on Manx Norton and Matchless GSO-powered singles, wi th a handful of other makes - but as yet, no liiulticylinder, more-exotic bikes. Beale says he's studying a wildcard system to allow the three final places .on each 36-bike grid to be taken up by local stars, and he is already working on an expanded 1999 race series. History remade IT The British Isles still leads the world in making the past come alive, though and it's perhaps in recognition of this that Honda has decided to hold the principal European two-wheeled cele.bration of its corporate 50th birthday this year on the Isle of Man, during TT fortnight. A massive influx of the Japanese company's employees and dealers will be coming to the island from all over the world to attend a variety of celebrations as well as the TT race program, in which Honda will be going all out to make a dean sweep by winning every race. This even includes the Singles TT for Supermono machines, a class in which Honda has so far not produced a competitive entry at the international level. However, by flying the Yajima Honda that dominates one branch of Japanese sho,rtcircuit SoS racing to Britain especially for former Singles TT winner Jim Moodie to ride in the race, Honda is hoping to take care of this one weak link. The main celebration of a historic nature of Honda's big five-oh during TT Week will be a parade of historic Honda race machinery of every kind - mainly road racers, but MX World Champions and Paris-Dakar winners, too! - between the opening Formula One and Sidecar TTs on Saturday, June 6. To ride them, Honda is flying in a star-studded lineup of its former works riders, some of whom will be making their Isle of Man TT debut. Top of the list of such debutants is none other than former 500/250cc World Champion Freddie Spencer, alongside French endurance star Jean-Claude Chemarin and enduro ace Cyril Neveu, along with established TT stars such as Ron Haslam, Ralph Bryans, Luigi Taveri and Steve Hislop. Honda's former TT Formula One World Champion Carl Fogarty was invited, but will be trying to regain his World Superbike title on a Ducati at Monza the same day! The bikes taking part in the Honda Parade will then be displayed in the main square of Castletown the following day - Mad Sunday, it's called alongside the other historic racers taking part in the 1998 version of the annual Lap of Honour, to be held on June 8. These will include the monocoque John Player Norton with which Peter Williams won the F750 TT exactly 25 years ago in 1973 - now owned by Spanish enthusiast Joaquin Folch and set to be accompanied in the parade by three other JPNs, as a tri.bute to the Norton company's 100th birthday this year (that's right - twice as old as Honda!).. But sharing star billing in the '98 Lap of Honour will be the Ducati V-twin that the great Mike Hailwood took to a fairytale victory on the Isle of Man on his return to TT racing 20 years ago, in 1978. The bike has been lent by its American owner to the man who prepared it for Hailwood to race, Steve Wynne, and it will be ridden in the parade by Phil Read, whose works Honda "Mike the Cub crawl Honda's growth as a company - becoming the world number one in motorcycle manufacturing - was founded on the commercial success of the C90 Cub step-through scooter, introduced in 1948 and still being built in updated form today. When Honda motorcycle production passed the 100 million mark earlier this year, more than 25 percent of that remarkable total was comprised of production of the bike that kicked off volume production 50 years ago: the Cub. . More than 27 million of the practical step-throughs have been built to date - making the achievement of Britain's Adam Paul, earning himself a place in the Guinness Book of Records aboard a C90 Cub in Honda's 50th-birthday year, all the more likely to be appreciated around the world. For .that's where Paul rode his Honda C90 - around the world, becoming the first person to circumnavigate the globe by motorcycle from Cape Horn in South America to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa - the long way around, via Siberia and Alaska! Paul, who celebrated his 30th birthday during the trip, traveled through 36 countries and across five continents during his joUrney, which for the purposes of the Guinness record covered 36,687 miles. However, taking into account one or two . ' sigh tseeing excursions and general running around en route, the total mileage on his Cub's speedo now reads 48,400 - all achieved without any mechanical problems of any kind for the little bike he calls "Nelly." Apart from 23 services which Adam carried out himself, the Honda re.quired only normal consumables such as tires, air illters and spark plugs to help him complete his trip. The C90's worldwide popularity meant he was never far from a source of spare parts - which was a good thing, since he crashed three Bike" caught and passed that day en route to a memorable win. I hope seeing it in action again doesn't spoil Honda's birthday party - but then, it is D,:,-cati's big 50 this year, too! Aprilia to buy Bimota? Though both parties deny all knowledge of any link (well, they would, wouldn't they?), persistent rumors in Italy suggest that Aprilia is set to purchase Bimota outright - rumors perhaps fueled by the fact that former Bimota chief engineer Pierluigi Marconi recently moved to Aprilia, supposedly to set up a new R&D studio for the company a stone's throw from Bimota's Rimini factory. Buying Bimota and using this as Aprilia's high-end R&D base might be much more cost-effective, as well as ensuring that Marconi was reunited with his proven team of carefully chosen engineers. Bimota is known to be strapped for cash because of the delay in getting its troublesome two-stroke 500cc Vdue into production, and though the line of credit extended by its bankers - the Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna, which also owns 15 percent of the small manufacturer's equity - is.stifficient to keep it afloat Britain's Adam Paul and friends toast his around-the-world trip on the Cape of Good Hope - as well they should, since he made the 36,687-mile trip on a Honda C90 Cub! times, fortunately without injury or undue damage to the machine. Not surprisingly, Adam didn't receive a single speeding ticket during his marathon journey. But he was robbed once (in Peru), and was stopped by police four times - for going too slowly on freeways! pending the arrival of the new SB8R, cash-rich Aprilia's offer for the company, if real, could be hard to resist. Suzuki's holdup in delivering supplies of the TLlOOOR V-twin engine which will power the SB8R isn't helping, but with its own such bike delayed in reaching prod uction, there's no way around this. Bimota's shareholders may decide to tough it out - but a takeover could make sense, especially as Aprilia already has its own engine-supply agreement with Suzuki (for the RGV250 motor used in the ApriLia RS250), and with Bimota • increasingly focusing on using Suzuki engines for its bikes. However, Bimota management insists that the company has ridden out the Vdue debacle, with much-improved versions of the fuel-injected two-stroke . now ready for delivery to customers around the world - a year late. Under new company president Camillo Mar·tinotti, Bimota is set to return to its roots, with an increasing emphasis on the link between racing and its roadbike range that was responsible for bringing Bimota to the fore back in the 1980s. This will certainly entail a return to the World Superbike series in 1999 Shiver shoved Remember the Aprilia Shiver, the distinctively styled V-twin cruiser show bike that made an appearance or two around the show circuit a couple of years ago? Well, it has failed the taste test and won't be put into production, says company boss Ivano Beggio. "We presented the Shiver to various customer clinics all over Europe," Beggio told France's Moto Journal magazine, "and it didn't receive the necessary approval to justify being' readied for production. That's disappointing, but it won't stop us from moving on. We'll remain faithful to the idea of doing things our way rather than copying others, because this policy has been proven to work. Seven times out of 10, the choices that we make have been shown to bear fruit." Though the disappointing sales of the Philippe Starckdesigned Moto 6.5 helped make up part of the Aprilia's 30-percent failure rate, expect Starck's rival design for a custom cruiser - which Beggio personally was know.n to favor aU along, compared to the more radicaHooking Shiver which was pushed hard by Aprilia's own styling department - to be dusted off instead. "We're very happy with our collaboration with Starck, and it will be pursued," promises Beggio. "I ride a Moto 6.5 myself, with a high-profile factory team using the SB8R V-twin - but it also means a new Ducati-powered sportbike, the DB4, set to be launched at the Munich Show in September. This will be very much a year-2000 version of the classic DB1, which bailed Bim.ota out of bankruptcy the first time around in 1983, but using the oval-section alloy-tube frame of the Mantra/DB3, though with sportbike styling that will be much less radical and more purist-looking than the Lakic-designed Mantra sport cruiser. Fitted with a fuel-injected version of the two-valve desmo V-twin engine from Ducati's own 900SS - Ducati has -reviewed its decision to break off its links with Bimota, and agreed to supply engines for the new bike, according to factory insiders - this will enable Bimota to deliver a high-end sportbike powered by the classic two-valve desmo motor (and so more costly than Ducati's own such bike), and to compete in the increasingly popular Sound of Thunder World Series and related BEARS/BoTT racing classes worldwide, aiming to regain the World Series title the Italian marque won in 1996 with the works DB2 tuned by Vee Two Australia, ridden by yours truly. 1]1; and it's a good bike which allowed Aprilia to become better known, even if it didn't have the sales success we expected." After failing the taste test, Aprilia's Shiver won't be put into production. The bike's designer, Philippe Starck, will continue to collaborate with Aprllla, and his design for a custom cruiser will likely be produced.

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