Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1998 06 17

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Other applications such as a sport tourer may be forthcoming, but meanwhile all Laverda sportbikes will continue using the l8O-degree motor. Benelli building success As reported here some time ago, Benelli is developing a new three-cylinder 900cc superbike for launch - at least in prototype form - at the 1999 Milan Show. Benelli' range of radical-looking scooters is having a sellout success ,in Italy and doing well to provide the funds needed to fulfill owner Andrea Merloni's ambition to build big Benelli bikes. Chief engineer Riccardo Rosa (formerly in charge of the Cagiva 500cc GP and MY Agusta F4 engine development) is well-advanced on the fuel-injected Vthree DOHC 12-valve engine design, which is reported to have ultrashortstroke dimensions aimed at delivering a high rev ceiling and more power. The Vtlu:ee engine format will allow the engine to be placed fu rther forward in the ncould happen.., Guzzi's possible acquisition of Bimota from SCM opens up a fascinating dream scenario: the creation of the uLtimate wishmachine - a V-eight Moto Guzzi street bike! Don't reach for your dleckbook yet - this is still strictly conjecture. But still, here's the deal: SCM management bought a controlling interest in its Pesaro-based woodworking machinery rivals Morbidelli five years ago, and tlley have now completed an outright takeover of the firm. As part of the deal, they also now own the rights to the Morbidelli V-eight motorcycle project which company founder Giancarlo Morbidelli - winner of four GP World Championships in the 1980s with self-built bikes bearing his own name - had developed and built in the Pesaro factory, and which has since only ever been displayed in public at woodworking-machinery exhibitions as a promotion of the technological expertise of the Morbidelli/SCM group. Morbidelli originally plarmed to build one bike a monili for customers, and did in fact receive several orders, in spite of 'the V-eight's steep price. Now, however, it seems that none of the four bikes built so far will ever find their way into customers' hands, because SCM's new bosses have pulled the plug on the whole operation, and the V-eight bike project has been aborted. This leaves Laverda's Tognon gone !t was in the cards, and now it has happened: Former Laverda boss Francesco Tognon, the ftalian one-time national rugby football star and textile millionaire who rescued Laverda from bankruptcy five years ago and set if on its present course, has left the company "to pursue other business interests," Tognon, a Laverda enthusiast and active street rider who sunk a vast amount of his time and money into turning the company around, still retains a 5-percent share in the business, with his friends the Brazza1i brothers continuing to hold 20 percent. But this means that the Spezzapria cousins whom Tognon brought in as partners more than six months ago have now effectively taken over Laverda, with Nadir Spezzapria in c1large of day-to-day operations and. responsible for the significant improvement in the production quality of Laverda's '98 model range, which has been remarked upon around the world. wheelbase so as to maximize forward weight bias for improved grip and handling. Ducati superbike successor With the 916 now clqcking up five years in production and starting to be discounted in showrooms around the world as it loses its marketplace glamour compared to cheaper, newer rivals like the Yamaha Rl, Ducati engineers are redoubling their efforts to fast-forward the next generation of Bologna-built V-twins - not all of th!!m necessarily desmos. Recognizing the crucial importance of the 916's successor, Ducati management has decided to delay the launch of the ST4 sport tourer - essentially a 916-powered otto va/vole version of the two-valve ST2 - while it focuses attention on the new superbike range. This means that the only new models Ducati is likely to launch at the Munich Show in September

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