Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EURO FILE BYALAN C C ATH ART T595heads for M ontjuic Triumph has continued to s tee r a way from direct factory involvem ent in competiti on , bu t its im porter s have othe r ideas, es pecia lly when it ca n h a ve a d irect effect on sales o f the exis ti ng st reet ran ge. That's why a lead ing conten der for outrig ht victory in this year's g rueling 24 H ora s d e Mo n tjuic, th e Spa nis h marath on for production bikes ru n on July 11-12 on the Ca talu nya GP circu it nea r Barcelon a, will be a wo rksp repare d Trium ph T595 Da yt on a . en tered by th e British manu facturer' s Spanish importer Proeuropa and ridden by former GP s tar Carlos Ca rdus and World Supe rs p o rt con tend e r Ruben Xaus (bo th of w hom won the rac e last year on a Ducat i 916), paired with thi rd team member Ga llo Riquelme. Victory in th e hard-fou gh t race is a .key to comm ercia l success in the resurge nt Spa nish bike market, so Proeuropa boss Jua n Ca rabel w ill be hopin g Triump h' s ret u rn - to take part in a race they last wo n back over 25 years ago will pay off. M ackbike A very differe nt kind of m o torcycl e from what one no rmally expects is curren tly u nder d ev elopment in Brit ain initially to be built for the British Army, but with a civilian vers ion also a possibility. It's a sophisticated but sturdy sing le-cy linder di es el , which is b ein g developed in the Army' s home base of Aldershot, usin g a chas sis design ed by legend ary frame gu ru Eric Ch en ey to hou se an eng ine being developed with input fr om th e re n ow n ed hi gh- tech think- tank, the Cr anl eigh Institute. Originall y, th e engine featured an Enfield bottom end onto which a specially d esigned di esel top half was grafted, but th e obsolescen t Indi an cra nkcase design has now been ditched in favor of a more modern Kawasaki KLX650 bottom half. The Kaw asak i diesel hybrid is.now un derstood to be u ndergo ing endurance testing, with the aim tha t it will eventually su ppla nt the curre n t ran ge of 350cc Rotax-p owered ga soli ne- fu eled bikes su p p lied by Harley-Da vid son - which form the backbo ne of the British Army's tw o-wheeled motorpool. As such, however, the y a re a lmos t the on ly petroleng ined ve hicles u sed by a n army the bu lk of wh ose equipm en t - from tanks to tru cks, earth movers to Lan d Rovers - is V oxandelayed again Production of the new French ma rqu e Vo xan 's ran g e o f V-tw i ns la u nch ed at the Paris Show la s t Sept ember has bee n delayed again this time until the end of the yea r. But this is for R&D rea sons, not fi na n cia l o nes , acco rd ing to Voxa n 's found er a nd chai rm a n, Jacqu es Gardette. Speaki ng a t a p ress confere nce in Paris on June 4, he stated: "O ur prin cipal objective is to m a rk e t b ik es wh ich are reliab le, a nd so we ' ve op ted to delay th e s tart of Voxa n prod ucti on to ensu re that. This is certainlv a costlv decisio n in th e shor t te rm for ou r compan y, becau se we now ha ve 37 em p loyees w ho se w ag es mu st be pa id , without a ny correspond ing income. But Voxan's fina ncia l situation is secure, and we have the support of all our sharehold ers in taking this step." Th e holdup has its origins in the long- term test program which Voxan R&D staff ha ve un d ertaken on the three prot otyp e mod els lau nched at Paris last aut u mn , each powered by th e sa me fuel-injec ted 72-d eg ree V- twtn eig ht -valve mo tor design ed by Fren ch performance-car specialists Sodemo. In tens ive road testi ng ha s brought to light problems w ith the Sodemo-developed EFI, and it has now been rep laced by a Mag ne ti Mar elli pack age based on the engi ne-management systems it su pplies to Ducati , Lave rd a and Moto Guzzi. In ad d i- French moto rcycle manufa cturer Voxan has run into rel iabilit troubles with its 72-degree V-twin (left) and production has bee delayed until the se are resolved. The Cafe Racer (top) is one of th three models that will be delayed . di esel-powered, making plans to convert the next generation of military motorcycles to run on diesel fuel a logistical priority, entailing a single fuel sou rce. Though the project is curren tly being fund ed b y th e Brit ish milit ary , it ' s und er stood th at the Ll .S, Army is also involve d , and tha t other ATO a llies N Trium ew phalreadyinmuseum The bike th at kic ks ta r ted Tri u mph's return to interna tional road raci ng success during th e John Bloor era has been acquired by Brit ain 's National Motorcycle Museu m in Birmingham, where it's now on pe rmanen t display: the Saxon Triumph . The fruit of a collaboration between Ta ylormade Racing, Saxon chassis constru ctor ' igel Hill and the R&D department of the Triumph factor y (w hich donated the three-cylinder en g ines and advised on developmen t ), the Saxon trip le was based on a fi rst-generatio n 883cc Trium p h mo tor, eventua lly bored ou t to 980cc - in w hich guise it delive red over 150 bhp a t the gearbox. In sta lled in a bea ut ifull y bu ilt Saxon a lloy space fra me that is gene rally acce p ted to ha ve pr ovid ed the insp ira tion for the T595 Dayt ona' s simila r chass is, the Saxon Trium ph was, how ever, fitted wit h H ill ' s tra d emark Sa xTrak fronten d design, w hich is a lso featured on curren t BMW Boxers and the K1200RS~ in w hich form it finis hed th ird a t Monza in its 1994 debu t race, ridden by yo urs truly. Later that yea r, we scored Triu m p h' s firs t in ternational race victo ry in 21 years a t Aus tria 's switchback Zeltweg ci rcu it , then in 1995 pl aced thi rd at Da y tona in the 4 tion , the DOHC valve train has been red esigned in the interests of reliability. The ma jor ho ld u p, how ever, wa s caus ed by the need to develop and cas t new crankcases , to overcome ojl-scaven ging and filtration p rob lems which only surfaced in long-term road mileage and not fro m the previous dyn o runs and ens ui ng teard owns. Once the new bottom-end design has been com pleted , th revamped engi ne will un d ergo the sa me high-mileage testing to ens ure the problems have been overcome , says Voxan technical chief (a nd former 500cc GP chassis cons truc tor) Alain Chev allier . Production is now sla ted to begin in Nov ember. "Still, that wi ll be jus t on three yea rs since ou r compa ny was founded," he points ou t, "which is still a p retty remar kab le fea compa red with othe r ma nufac turers' start-u p time spans. And it's importan t to un derline tha t the sole reason for the delay ' the importance we place on making the Voxan engine reliabl for customer .u se - withou t in any way affecting performance ." The revised timetable now calls for each of Voxan's 62 French dealers to have at least one of the final production versions of th Sacha Lakic-styled Roadster in their showrooms before the end of the year, wit h deliveries of this model begi nni ng in January 1999, followed soo n after by the Cafe Racer, Production of the Th ierry Henriette-designed Scrambler will start in Spring next year, but expansion into other markets outside France has been delayed until 2000, while the French hom e dema nd is satisfied and any production problems are ironed ou t. ma y be in teres te d in ado p ti ng th e design , which wo uld also becom e availabl e for non militar y cust om ers fu rther down the line. B otabought im Looks like it' s a d one deal. Accordi ng to facto ry sou r ces, the race to acqu ire o pening round of that season's BEARS Worl d Series. Better was still to come, with victory over the exotic Britten in the Mon za round of the World Series, p lacing fourth in the titl e cha se a t the end of the season. After that, the Saxon Triumph became the Taylormade Triumph and moved to America, where Scott Zampach rod e it to competitive pl acin gs in th e Formu la USA series before suffering a terribl e acciden t on the bike when he tangled with a nothe r rid er at Loudon, New Ha m pshire, in October 1996, when the Triumph caught fire and was badly damaged. But now a year-long rebuild by race mechanic Alistair Wager and th e rest of the Tay lo rmade tea m has brough t the bike back to life in Saxo n Triumph form, in w hich gu ise it's been acqu ired by N a t io n a l Mot or cy cl e Mu s eum found er Ro y Richards , s een h er e a ccepting d eli very of the mo torcycle from Ta y lormad e Racin g' s Marti n Taylor and the rest of the team . The Saxon Triumph race bike that scored the BritiSh marque's first race win in 21 years has been placed on pe rma ne nt disp lay in Brit a in ' s Nat ion a l Mot orcycle Mus e um in Birming ham . Pictured are museum lo under Roy Ric hard s (Iell) and J oh n Bimota has been wo n by a wel l-fund group of Italian venture capitalists fro ou tsi de the mot orcycl e indus tr y, t identity of which will be announced the p re sti ge It ali an ma rqu e ' s 25 anniversary celebra tion s at the Mis a race circui t, July 15-16. Th ou gh th eir ba ckground does n

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