Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

action in Serbia, the company is seen by stock market investors as a good longterm bet. "TPG ha performed a seriously good management consultancy on Ducati," says one London-based investment banker, who prefers to remain unidentified but who sponsors a Supersport racing team, "and the turnaround they've achieved looks et for the long term. I'd have been happier if they'd kept closer to 50 percent of the equity, but this isn't a bail-out, just profit-taking. Ducati is a model example of how to turn a niche product into a global brand with lasting value, and everyone has come out of it better off - TPG themselves, Ducati's employees, their customers, dealers and the banks. Even the Castiglionis got a result: It's a win-win situa tion all around!" But hold everything. Plans to launch the uccessor to Ducati's current 5year-old 916 Superbike at the Milan Show in September have been deferred by a year in the wake of the company's stock market flotation, according to company insiders, with the new otto valvole range now scheduled to debut in tead at Intermot 2000, rather than Milan '99. Several reasons playa role in this, with the most fundamental being an apparent disagreement between one faction within the company, which wishes to retain Ducati's traditional 90-degree V-twin format for both hi todcal and marketing reasons, and another, which wants to develop the more compact engine package that the proposed 75degree cylinder angle would deliver, citing the adoption of the 9G-degree format by Honda and Suzuki as a strong commercial reason for Duca ti to develop an all-new engine format rather than be seen to follow the Japanese companies by rotating the cylinders around the crankcase as they must do on a new 90degree motor in order to obtain a more ideal weight distribution and chassis package. The need to present a sense of "business a usual" immediately before and after the stock market flotation, coupled with fhe period of readjustment after going public and the desire to maximize continued sales of the existing range, have all caused this hard decision to be deferred_ with the new-generation Ducati Superbike now coming on line only in the 2001 model year. Carl Fogarty's dominant performance in the seaon-opening WSC round at Kyalami will only have reinforced this deci ion as well as the hands· of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" faction in the company. This decision leaves Ducati needing a high-profile new model for the homebase Milan Show in September, and word coming out of Italy is that the decision has now been taken to supply fhis by putting the Pierre Terblanchedesigned MH900e show bike that was the hit of Intermot '98 into limited, hand-built production - retaining as many as possible of its avant-garde features, and above all the new-millenium retro-styling, but replacing others such as the siIesium brake discs which have yet to be proved in street use with mOre conventional technology. To retain the exclusive appeal of what will remain a small-volume, limited-edition dream bike rather than build the customer version on the Bologna factory assembly lines, it's likely that prod uction will instead be subcontracted to an outside company - perhaps to Bin10ta, with which Ducati has an ongoing relationship to supply desmodue 900SS engines (such as those that power BMW takes over F650 production Production capacity at Aprilia's oale base has been loosened up for the forthcoming expansion in the RSV1000 lineup by the ending of the Italian firm's con tract to assemble the F650 single-cylinder range on behalf of BMW. Since its launch at the 1993 Frankfurt Motor Show, the past five years have seen more than 50,000 units sold to date of what was originally projected to be a niche-market product, thus handsomely exceeding BMW's expectations - in part thanks to Aprilia's high standards of quality control. But now BMW has opted not to renew its contract with the Italian firm to assemble the bikes but After contracting with Aprilia to build its F650 since the model's Introduction in 1993, BMW has taken instead to bring prod uc- over manufacture of the bike and moved it to Germany. hon in-house by moving manufacture to it Berlin set to be the first fuel-injected, volume-production street single factory, where the first F650s began rolling off the assembly from any manufacturer. lines earlier this vear. However, with BMWs recent victory in the Granada-Dakar The German ~ompany is known to be working on a heavily desert marathon underlining the German firm's off-road crerevised version of the Rotax-engined Funduro range, based dentials, it's likely the new single - rumored to debut at Interaround a new liquid-eooled, four-valve twin-cam motor to be mot 2000 - won't only be aimed at the street, like the current exclusively manufactured for them, like the current F650 power F650. With increasing environmental considerations (especially unit, by the Canadian-owned Austrian engine specialists. in the lucrative American off-road market) prompting a future While retaining the same bottom end and five-speed gearbox emphasis on cleaner-burning fuel-injected four-strokes, a hardof the existing F650, this i understood to be otherwise com- er-edged F650G i street enduro capable of ready transformapletely redesigned, with an all-new cylinder head specially tion into an effective dirt sled/desert racer/outback tool looks developed to accommodate a Bosch EFI package, making this set to debut in the new millenium. the MH900e) for the born-again specialist manufacturer's new DB4 entry-level sportbike. Other whispers in the wind for new '00 Ducati models are the long-awaited otto va/vole version of the Monster using the same 916cc 105 bhp engine spec as the ST4 sport tourer (thus facing the challenge represen ted by the debu t of the Cagiva 24 head on), and a power-up ST4S with the 996cc motor from the Biposto sportbike. However, though this is a logical response to the demands of the marketplace, as yet these are unconfirmed rumors - but watch this space. Bike guy makes good The fact that TPG got in a position to make a healthy profit by exercising its expertise in curing Ducati's corporate influenza was thanks to the Castiglioni brothers' purchase of the semi-defunct company back in 1984 from the Italian government's IRI (Instituto per la Riconstruzione Industdale) pool of stateowned industry, which in turn had 'acquired the company from the Ducati family in the late '60s. The man heading up the IRI at that time - who therefore approved Ducati's sale to Cagiva for around $3 million has since gone on to even grea ter things: Romano Prodi, as prime minister of Italy from 1996 to 1998, is credited with cleaning up the country's economic act well enough for it to be permitted to join the nine other members ohhe European Union who opted to join the Euro common currency when it was launched on January 1 this year. Prodi has now climbed even higher up the political ladder, having been appointed president of the European Commission at the EU's Berlin summit· in March in the wake of the clearout of the previous Santer administration affer the damning report on fraud and nepotism which led to its downfall. Wha t next - John Bloor for prime minister of Britain, and Willie G. Davidson to succeed Clinton...? Bike guy makes bad Another figure with previous motorcycle form in the world news lately is Hutomo Putra - better known as Tommy Suharto, youngest son of the former Indonesian president who was •ejected from office last year after a quarter-century of dictatorial rule of the world's fifth-most-populous country. After using his family's dubiou ly acquired wealth to fuel an international spending spree, the bike- and car-mad Tommy at one time not only owned the Italian Lamborghini exotic-car marque, he wa also a (controlling?) partner in the Rome-based F1ammini Group, promoters of the World Superbike Championship. The upheaval in Indonesia coincided with the American-owned Octagon media conglomerate's interest in moving into motorsports, as a result of which they acquired Suharto's interest in Flammini. This is just as well, since Suharto has now been arraigned to stand trial in Jakarta in April for suspected involvement in a multimillion-dollar land fraud during his father's rule. Is that why there's no more Sentul round in the WSC - nor any seasonlong sponsorship or trackside banners from any of Tommy's compani~s? Sound of plugging The annual Coupes Moto LegendI.' (May 15-16) looks set to be one of the major historic bike events of 1999 on the European continent. Held as usual on the famous MontThery speed bowl outside Paris, it is a festival covering both Vin- tage and Classic eras that offers a unique combination of road- and racebike nostalgia, and it attracts thousands of enthusiasts from every corner of France as well as allover Europe and even further afield. This year's edition will be focused on two themes: the 40th anniversary of the Triumph Bonneville, which ent~red production in 1959 (a special exhibition will celebrate the Bonnie's unique place in motorcycle history) and the 70 years of running of the world's most famous Endurance race, the Bol d'Or 24 Hours, which was first held in 1922 and, apart from a sevenyear gap during WWII, has continued unbroken ever since on a variety of tracks including Le Man, Paul Ricard and, yes, Montlhery. A special display of bikes which have taken part in this race over the years will be held, and for Endurance enthusiasts the chance to see and hear bikes such as the RCB Honda, Godier & Genoud and Performance Kawasakis, Japauto, Laverda twins, triples and Vsix, Benelli Sci, essie, Mead & Tomkinson BSA single, Kuhn BMW and so many other very special long-distance racers often distantly based on production street bikes of various eras, will be a memorable trip down memory lane. There will also be a series of demonstrations of post-WWII Grand Prix racers, featuring a diverse range of machinery from the four-cylinder RC162 Honda 250 to the KR500 Kawasaki monocoque, as well as a pair of 1920s World Land Speed Record-breaking Brough Superiors; all of which will be taking to the track. A huge 300-stand trade show and various other sideshows add to the spectacle, which last year attracted 20,000 enthusiasts to the MontU1ery track, 15 miles south of Paris. As they say in the Michelin restaurant guide, vaut Ie voyage - worth the trip! _ 7

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