Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

sho rt-track racer l), it would also allow at least par t of the prod uction to be bu ilt in Europe, with the po ten tia l for sa les to o the r NATO forces. The profi ts from military sa les are a po werful incen tive to ge t hitched . KTM chai rma n Stefa n Pierer and his board hav e repeatedly stress ed the nee d for a global partner to combat the market supremacy of the Japa nese big four. Li n ki ng wit h Ha rl e y to a ch iev e th a t would create a marriag e o f op posites tha t mig ht well be a happy one . Look ou t for an an nou nce me nt - one way or the other - at Munich on Septem ber 15, Aprilia comestoAmerica TIle RSVI 000SP' s d ebu t will coincid e nicely wi th Aprilia's long-await ed en try int o the Ll.S. market, sched uled for January 1999, wh en th e co m pa ny's ow n ope ra tio n in A t lan ta , Geo rgia, w ill swi ng int o action. Aprilia USA plans to focus initially of course on the RSVI 000, as well as the Pegaso five-val ve street sing le and the RS250 tw o-stroke s por tb ike, which though it can' t be legalized for street use here - Apr ilia hopes to market as the basis of regional one-make race series, as well as for track day use by American customers. But the co m pa ny 's bi gges t ga m ble will comeif it makes good on p lans to succeed w here ot he rs have failed , an d ma ke scooters styli sh in th e U.S. of A. Ap rilia' s in ten tio n is to target co llege camp uses , initially in the Sun Belt, marketin g th e bi g -w hee l Sca ra beo 50cc scooter tha t' s becom e an instit u tionalized featu re of Italian urban traffic as a m ea ns o f chic ye t practica l p erso n al transp ortation . Good luck, amici - it's a great idea, bu t you may nee d it! Superbike fortwo Meanwhile, back at the Munich Show, also join ing Ducati's new-mod el lineu p the re is th e 996 Bipost o, a s a vo lume p rod u ct ion o n e -li t e r v ersio n of t he superbike, com pa red to the much more ex p ensive (a n d m ore p erfo rmin g !) 996SPS h omo logati on s p ec ia l, w h ich will cont inue to b e offered in limited quantities - though as yet there's no confirmation wh eth er Ducati plans to reveal the resty led, m ore a erod ynamic 916 bodywork they' ve been wor king on in th e Fe r ra r i wind tunn el , in ord er to homologate it on the limited-edition SP5 in a n e ffo rt to re d ress H ond a' s topsp eed ad vantage in the '99 season. How ever, it' s also expected that the 750SS ver sio n of th e new Terblanche- Aprilia R SV1000 SP N o t yet co ntes ti ng th e spor ttou ring class is Apr ilia - but afte r the positive rea cti o n fro m th e new w o r ld ' s p re s s t o its RSVlOO superbike, senior manO age me n t of the Italian com pany has d ropped so me pre tty bro ad hints tha t the next all-ne w mod el they p lan to lau nch in th e projected fam ily of bikes pow ered by the Mille' s 60-degree V-tw in eng ine w ill be the sport-touring versio n. Th is w oul d be closel y based o n th e spo r tb ike alrea dy lau nched, bu t w ith new styling incorpora ting eve n more prot ecti ve bodywor k w it h a tall er scree n, a more comforta ble dual sea t, and b uil t-in lugg age , as we ll as a revamped engine wi th remapped Ni ppondenso EFI. So - an Aprilia chall enger to the VFR800 an d S T4, developed o n t h e sa me ba s is as its two su perbike-derived class rivals. Expec t this to be lau nch ed at After the warm reception "the RSV1000 receive d at its ri d ing debu t in Spain, Aprili a has hi nted the Milan Show in September '99 strongly t hat it will be pr odu ci ng a sport -to uring version of its ·superbike. Also , an SP ver si on of - but before tha t, Aprilia has con- t he RSV is on it s way. firm ed it' ll be d ebu tin g a n SP version of th e RSVI 000 a t th e end of this year (mos t probab ly at the Bologna Show in Decem - focuse d sportbike a potent th reat for the stree t su premacy curber ), with incr eased perf orm an ce th a t w ill mak e th e more ren tly enjoyed by the 996SPS Du cati and Rl Yamaha. design ed 900 Supersport will also make its debu t at Munich, thou gh wheth er the h a lf -fa ired desmodue w ill a lso b e launched there is still un confirm ed. G says "O uzzi uch!" It hu rt s when you lose a ny lo ngtim e customer, especially whe n it' s to foreign co m petit io n. Im agi ne, therefo re , how Moto Guzzi managem ent felt whe n they lost a n ord er for 80 new b ikes for the Italia n police force to - BMW! . Instead of the venerable push-rod Vtwin s ha ft ies o r lon g -stroke s i ngl es mad e in Ma ndello th at the Carabini er i ha ve b een eq u ipp ed with since tim e immemorial, an ord er 'worth $780,000 for a flee t of R850RT Boxer tw ins has been con firm ed by the Itali an govern ment , sweeping asid e G u zz i' s frantic a p pea ls to buy lo call y b u ilt bi ke s. A pa ge is turned .... D Ws in Audi m K useum The tortuous history of DKW motor cycles was punctuated by World .W~ r II, Modenas for the road Already mak ing its debut in Germany, bu t at the Sachsenring GP in July, wa s an ea rly prototy pe of the Mod en as road bike w hich, as revealed in "Eu ro File" earlier th is year, Kenny Rob erts' GP team is working w ith its Banb ury neigh bors Prodrive to d evelop and brin g to market early in th e next mill en nium . Hence the name of th e Mod en as Millennium which was disp layed in the team 's hosp itality a rea befor e bei ng presen ted as a gift to the head of the Mala ysia n firm wh ich sp onso rs the team. He should have no trouble riding it through Kuala Lu m pur gridlock in the Malaysia n rush hour, thou gh - for the sim p le reason tha t, behind the 916 Duca tiesq ue headlamps and fro ntal styling, slotted into a rolling chassis identica l to the KR3 GP racer' s, was not a d etu ned three-cyli nde r 500cc two-stroke GP engi ne but a Suzuki DR650 four-stroke sing le-cylinder motor ! Stilt no t only did the Millenn ium's de but u nd erli ne that the Mod enas wo uld make a great-looking stree t bik e, it also brought the team good luck, wit h Ken ny Roberts Jr. winding u p second on the grid for the 500cc Germa n GP and sixth in the race, one plac e ahead of teammate Ralf Waldma nn on a track that su ited the uniq ue th ree- cy linder bik es. And tha t w as before th e im minen t d ebu t of the team' s new engine, comp lete with balance shaft, which is hop ed to give them a decisive step up in performance. A possible vers io n of a Modenas street model made its debut at the German Grand Prix in JUly. The bike uses th e racer' s frame , but was fitted with the DR650's dual-sport ., eng ine. which resul ted in the German ma rque' s Zsc ho pa u fac to ry e n d in g up o n th e wrong si de of th e Iron Cur tain , a nd being re named MZ (and now , after the reunification of the DDR and West Germany, MuZ). Bu t as one of the fou r companies represented in the four roundels of the Au d i car ba dge, DKW su rvive d more or less intact in the West after the war, and buil t a -series of two -stroke cars an d especially innovat ive three- cylinder GP bikes in the 1950s befo re the marque was subsume d into the Aud i brand for good in the early '6 0s. Before th e\w ar, DKW had bee n th e leade r of the twp-s tro ke revoluti on, with its rau cous, su pe rcha rged sp lit-singles producing awesome performance by the stand ards of the era, en rou te to a seri es o f GP vic to ries in both 250 and 350cc classes. Even seeing, let alone hea ring, a blown "Deek" in the metal is a mot orcycling milestone for any connoisseu r of bike history - making the acqu isition by ·the Au di factory mu seum in Ingolstadt (w h ich is open to th e public) of seven p re- and postwar DKW wo rks racers in perfectly restored cond ition from a private collector - who too k an average of three years to restore each one - all the more significant. The bikes are now on d isp la y a lo ngsid e th e 70 o the r DKW road bikes and d ozens of Au to-U nion (Aud i, Horch, Wand ere r an d DKW) cars in th e m u se um , an d cove r th e years 1939-1954 in a m emorable disp lay of ea rly two-stroke technology . Wort h visiting, if you' re in Germa ny for any reason! Go,Grossmulter, gO! W h ile th er e, you may rema rk o n the growing nu mber of lad y bikers you see on the roads of Germ any - but, eve n so, yo u ma y not be prep ar ed for th is earths ha ttering sta tis tic published rec en tly by the l ocal motor ing mag azin e Ace. It see ms that 51 wom en over the age of 80 becam e motor cycle ow ners in Germany so far in 1998, mak ing the over-80 age g ro u p the n at ion ' s fas t es t -g rowi ng b a nd of m o torcycl is ts in p e r centa ge terms. Ju st th ou ght yo u sho u ld kno w o . '. that.

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