Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

EURO FILE BY ALAN CATHCART KTM looks for su~ors .., KTM and BMW m ay yet s ta rt ta lking again about a possible me rger, after the cessation of the Austrian off-road specialists' takeover talks with Harley-Davidson was announced at Intermot. "Based on a detailed analysis of the current situation, we decided it was in the interests of bo th parties to remain independent," stated KTM p resid ent Stefan Pierer, citing w hat he termed "a lack of cultu ral synergy" as the main reason for the breakdown. . Many observers took this at face value, as rep resenting a clash between the European and American ways of life, but the real problem appears to have been a fundam ental difference in corpo rate cultures. KTM's emphasis on off-road compe tition and custo me r participation in sporting ac tivi ties m irrors Harley's d irt track involvem ent and HOG program on a d ifferent level, but the fear that a company producing five times as many bikes per yea r in a totall y d iffer ent ma rket m ight even tu a lly swa m p a more specia lized ju nior partner appearsto ha ve led KTM m an a g em ent to co nclu de tha t there wasn't enough ben efit in th e d eal for them. Th is m ean s KTM remains open to offers, as a flourishing company that has trip led prod uction in the past four years, wit h 26,214 bikes of all types built by the company's 420 em ployees in th e 1998 mod el yea r (aga ins t 20,544 in 1997), 60 percen t of them sold in Europe and 25 p ercen t in the United St ates. Th at includes, by the way, 1500 bikes produced by its Swedish Hu saberg subsidiary's 30 workers, together resulting in an after-tax profit of about $8 million - a good return for the holders of the 48 percent of th e company's sh ares float ed on the Vienna stock exchange, with 28 percent held by the five original partners who brought KTM back from the dead after it went bust in 1992, and 24 percent by the Swiss Exa ntra ven ture ca pitalists w ho underwrote the comeback. . This m eans tha t th ere isn't a lo t of opportu nity for a leve raged bu yout specialis t like TPG to become p ro fit ably involved, wit h or without its Ducati twow heeled ve hicle, lea vin g BMW as the most likely partner for KTM to get hitched to - thou gh insis tent voices whisperingly suggest Aprilia as a possi bl e partner, especially as this would provide the Italian company wi th the prestigious, readymade dirt-bike lineup tha t it currently lacks in its campaign to become a fifth force in world motorcycling. B kker'sbetter TL1000R a 00 0\ 0\ ,...... 00 N l-< a; . ,.D o ..... u o 4 While Bimota targets spring deliveries of its much-delayed SBSR V-twin spo rtbike, European spo rtbike enthusiasts will have the chance before tha t to buy a Su zuki nlOOOR-powered street racer, built by legendary Dutch frame builder Ni co Bakker. "The nlOOOR is an engine in search of a chassis," sa ys Bakker, kn own worldwi de as the ultim at e chassis doctor, to w ho m many com pa nies have turned in the p ast to w rap m eta l arou nd their engi nes and make the result handle pro perly. " It has significant po tential mechanically, but completely misses the point of being a V-twin : It's as wid e and bulky as a four-eylind er bike, and pretty heavy, too. And that's w ithou t consi de ring the rear suspension layout , which I th ink represents a fundamental design error." Bakker shou ld know, for one of his employees - [eroen Oudernan, who works as a fabricator in the Bakker Frames factory - has been racing a Suzuki nlOOOR this season, finishing third in the Supertwins Another trophy for BMW? After Rover, MG and Rolls-Royce, will No rton be the latest British trophy marque - and the first two-wheeled one - to be acquired by BMW? Could be... At the recent Intermot Show in Munich by no coinci dence, perha p s, th e Ge rman com pany's hom etown - the stand tha t had been reserved for the Am erican-backed Norton Motors Interna tional (NMIJ display was empty. Instead , No rton Motors Deutschla nd - the Brit ish m a rq u e' s forme r Ger ma n im po rter (which is run by Joe Seifert, w ho ow ns th e ri ghts to th e Norton nam e thro ug hout most of Europe, with the exception of Britain) displayed the fina l prod uction versio n of its lim ited -edition C652SM Intern ational street single on a rival stand . Launched in pro totype form at last year' s Birmingham Sho w, when it was ridden into the hall by form er World Champion Norton ace Geoff Duke, the swee t-ha nd ling C652SM has been refined in appearance and is now read y fo r p rodu ct ion in Britain , w hich Seifert pla ns to comm en ce in Novem be r, claiming he's already received a good nu mber of orders fro m severa l differen t countries. To commemorate the Norton company's l00th birthday this year, a total of 100 ind ividually numbe red bikes is projected, all powered by the same 652cc four -valve single-cy linde r mo tor exclusively supplied by BMW. This passed its Euro emissions test in the No rton app lication in September, clearing the final hurdle for homologation, while the han dling of the Interna tional's chassis has been refined in the Euro pean Superrnono series, again run as a su pport class to World Superbike this seaso n, where, at the Assen round the week before Intermot, Norton w orks rid er Steve Marlow led in front of the 4O,OOO-person crowd until the final lap, only to be passed at the chicane before the flag by Elliot Burgess's factory MuZ . However, while Seifert forges ahead with production of the first Norton street bike in half a decade, talks with Minneapolis-based NMI chairman Joe ovogratzabout combining the two Norton operations und er a single banner have now apparently foundered . "Six weeks before Interm ot, we reached agreement on a way to work together, after four mo nths of negotiations, based on a scale of licen se fees proposed by N MI," says Seifert. "Since then, we heard nothing more, so I can only prcsume this option is dea d, and we must look elsewhere for the continued existence of the Norton marqu e." This contrasts with statements in the British weekly mo torcycle pres s that NMI board member AI Melling is continuing development of the V-eight Nemesis engine revealed earlier this year, and that production of the 750cc Manx four-eylin der su perbike - essen tiall y using one-ha lf of the 1500cc V-eight mo tor - wou ld commence "shortly". Aside from ongoing concerns abo ut NMl's sticking to an unrealistic sched ule for development of a ran ge of new mod els powered by a family of four d ifferent self-developed engines, the lPO corporate profile published on the Internet (in relation to the proposed Norton Mot ors Int ernati on al share offer tha t was su p posed to underwrite such developmen t) underscores the company's problems. The yet-to-occur public offering is aimed at raising a total of just $18 million - a comparatively stretched budget to develop one allnew multicylinder four-stroke engine for pr od uction, let alone four, especially w hen the balance shee t reveals that NM l's indebtedness already stands at $4.37 million, whi le work to re-equip the company' s dilapidated Shenstone factory for p rod uction has not, in fact, started, contrary to press reports. . Und er these circumstances, the future prospects for NM I don't look rosy. Perhaps this is one reason they d idn 't clinch the Seifert deal, let alon e appear with Seifert's permission as part of such an agreement, at lntermot. So w here does BMW fit into all thi s? Acco rdi ng to reliabl e sources, BMW top management has expressed an interest in picking up the Norton pi eces, shou ld the NMI /M ar ch a tte m p t to relaunch the marque fall apart, and has already discussed such an option with Munich- based Seifert , whose European rights to the marque would be an essential part of such a deal. Any rescu e act would surely entail a substantial investme nt in both new mod els and in a factory in which to build them , but BMW's parent car division has already show n it' s pr ep ar ed to do this with a pr estige niche-product marque like Rolls-Royce, and Norton would be no different. It is understood that BMW's motorcycle-division boss, Michael Cana l, and his executive team hav e asked to test-ride the C652SM International, and perhaps it's no coincidence that the man current- BMW, whose engine powers the Norton C652SM International (above). has a pparently shown some interest in acquiring the Norton name. The man beh ind the C652SM project is J oe Seifert , who owns rights to Norton in most of Europe. Iy in charge ofBMW's British operations (Rover, MG, Land-Rov er and Rolls-Royce) is Ca nal's predecessor as head of the company's mo torcycle di vision, Dr. Walter Hasselkus. It appea rs ever more probable that an y time NMI investors wan t to bail out of w hat increasingly looks like an overambitious attem pt to relaunch the Norton marque, BMW will be ready to take over. With a more realistic ap proach to engineering, coupled with the cash needed to relaunch Britain's most historic motorcycle ma rque on a firm basis, the German firm would seem to be a candidate to do so - per haps, in the current world economic clima te, the only one. The fact that BMW's motorcycle division is interes ted in acquiring outside ma rques is confirmed by indepe ndent rep orts from within each of the three com panies concerned ind icating that BMW has at d ifferent times explored a takeover of Du cati (before the TPG buyou t); KTM (earlier this year) and Bimota. The Rimini-based chass is specialist already has established links with the German giant, not only (in a pr eview of the curren t Norton tie-up) via the supply of BMW engines for the Bimota Supermon o but also by em ploying the Italian com pany as an ou tside consu ltant to develop the basic chassis package of the RI200RS BMW's first four-cylinder mo del equipped wi th bo th Teleleve r forks and a separate chassis - before this was taken over by BMW and refined for production. BMW has been approached at the end of last year by current Bimota owners SCM to take over the m mpany, if only as a chassis R&D operation, rather than continuing to build a range of spo rtbikes powered by proprietary engines from other companies. However, the deal foundered with the departure of Bimota chief engineer Pierluigi Marco ni and his top R&D staff to Aprilia, which removed most of the des ign expertise that BMW might have been interested in acquiring. This left SCM to explore other options and, at its Intermot press conference, Bimota announced the signing of a takeover deal with an as-yet-unnamed conso rtium of bu yers who are said to have already inves ted $5 million in funds to payoff a portion of the company's outstanding liabilities, as well as to fund the prod uction of new mod els. The first of th ese was on d isp lay at Munich: the carbureted Ducati 900SS-powered DB4sportbike that is a mod em evocation of the OBI, the bike that rescued Bimota from bankruptcy a decad e ago . Production is slated to start in December, by which time the identity of the new owners will have been publi cly annou nced thou gh, as reported previou sly in this column, it's known that exLaverda boss Francisco Tognon will be the man in charge, With the dela y of the official announcement of this fact being due to his need to divest hims elf of his Laverda interests first. Also on d isp lay at Munich was the final production version of OOR-p ower ed the carbo n /alloy com pos ite- fra med Suzuki TLl O SBSR manufactu re of which is du e to start early in the new year. , But with $1.2 million in cost sa vings iden tified for 1999 by the new owners' man agem ent consultants, Bimota loo ks set to be a leaner, slimmer compan y in th e future, concentrating o n its trad ition al product strengths. . g ood

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