Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Tigcraft tools up While Bimota's revival will be based on big-bucks, bigbore Superbikes such as tl,e SB8R, furtiler down tile scale in terms of botil capacity and price, British chassis pecialist Tigcraft is aiming to provide a sportbike option to the booming sales of budget middleweights, with tile successful debut on tl,e race track of its prototype frame kit for the Honda CBSOO/ Suzuki 500 Bandit/Kawasaki EXSOO parallel-twins. "We're not woriliy to be mentioned in tile same breath as Bimota - but we do provide championship-winning design expertise for tile common man, at prices he or he can afford:' states Tigcraft boss Dave Pearce, whose bikes dominate Supermono grids around the world, and who has also been responsible for designing many new proto. type models for otiler manufacturer , including MuZ and Norton. "Thousands of people around tile world dream of riding a Bimota or a Ducati 996, but in reality they have to settle for owning someiliing much more humble and commonplace. But Kawasaki, for example, has made over 150,000 bikes in tile EX/EN/GPZSOO twin-eylinder family, which means there's a readily available, costeffective basis for what we're doing. We're taking cafe racing back to its roots by providing customers with the chance to build affordable sportbikes with mass-production engines, using our chassis kits. Alternatively, they make a great basis for a competitive club racer, as the success of our Special K prototype has proved." Indeed, for as part of tile race-track R&D process for the new Tigcraft twin, which began in March, rider Tony Rodger has come to dominate SuperTwins racing in the south of England this year, with th"Kawasaki EX500based Tigcraft Special K now unbeaten in 12 races, even by larger-capacity TRX850/900sS/VTR1000 rival, and comfortably leading his local club championship. Satisfied with tile proven worili of his overall design, Pearce has now begun work on tile first road version, for which Tigcraft's customer has specified using tile Honda CBSOO engine, which in a masterpiece of understatement Pearce terms "extremely ubiquitous"! This will use a street vering pace in Italy's leading cities, as well as elsewhere in Europe. ltaljet to go full-size Only a rumor, tl\is - but word in Bologna is iliat one of Franco Morini's customers, ltaljet, is in tile process of developing its first motorcycle (as opposed to scooter, or moped) for a quarter-eentury. Back in the 1970s, Leopoldo Tartarini's family company not only acted as design consultants for the likes of Ducati (Tamburini designed tile goodlooking 900 Darmah model, among others), it also produced good-handling, well-styled updates of British sportbikes such as the Velocette 500 (badged as an Indian, in agreement with then-brand owner Floyd Oymer) and Royal Enfield 700 Interceptor, before settling down to carve out its own reputation for leadingedge scooter products, which it maintains to iliis day. Already, two years ago, sources close to tile company insisted tilat Italjet was planning a motorcycle comeback, using a Japanese engine (rumored to be the TRX Yamaha) - but now it seems that this time tile plans will reach fruition and tilat Italjet will launch a new sports· cruiser at the Milan show in September, possibly built around supplies of the Suzuki SV650 V-twin engine. More later.... History on the blocks If Moto Morini's family affair appears to be having a happy ending, there are still some relics from all tile company's yesterdays that are looking for a home, having been cataloged for sale by Ducati at prices that may well prove a little optimistic. These are the various prototypes and historic racers acquired by Cagiva as part of the company buyout, many of which used to line tile hallway on static display outside Gabriella Morini's personal office. These include a single example of the Provini-era 250cc four-valve GP racer, a snip at $666,000 complete with spares (including botil three- and two-valve heads), or tile sole 500cc Turbo prototype at $110,000, as well as various otiler street models val- sion of tile same chassis kit as tile Special K, which lives up to its cheeky reference to Kel'Iogg's calorie-counter breakfast cereal by weighing in at just 281.5 pounds ready to race witil a gallon of gas - compared to 369.5 pounds dry for the stock Kawasaki, and a projected 319 pound for the Tigcraft Special H street bike. The heart of tile bike is a twin-cylinder version of Tigcraft's trademark large-diarneter tubular-steel perimeter frame, using 50mm chassis tubes to create a light but strong structure scaling in at just over 17 pounds, witil an Aprilia-style carbon-fiber subframe comprising the seat. An alloy swingarm sourced from a Kawasaki KRl5250 is fitted, mated via Tigcraft's rising-rate link to an Ohlins shock. The high-tech Swedish hardware may come a a urprise on a cost-eonscious saver-bike like iliis, but Pearce has done his tallying. 'The Ohlins is now the cheapest proprietary aftermarket shock, which is why tiley're back-ordered for months!" he says. "We'll sell tile bare cllassis kit and allow a customer to choose his own suspension - but if he's smart, he'll go for an Ohlins on tile rear and Japanese proprietary forks up front." That's what Pearce did on the Special K prototype, which has 41mm Showa forks off a Honda RS250, whose 24-degree head angle delivers a 1375mm wheelbase, witil 90mm of trail. The result is clotlled in a close derivative of the bodywork fitted to the TSR-Honda 250cc GP bikes, with, in street guise, a single headlamp sourced from an RS250 Aprilia. Pearce says engine tuning will be up to tile customer, but as a guide to the perhaps unlikely performance tilat can be extracted from tile EX500 Kawasaki twin-cylinder engine, Tigcraft's Special K prototype has been independently tested to deliver,78 bhp at tile rear wheel at 9000 rpm in 599cc form, overbored to 81 x 58 mm (stock bore is 74 mm) via a big-bore kit from EDCO in Los Angeles. So Cal also provided tile Megacycle cams ued at $27,000 on down, such a a supercharged 125 roadster. Also on offer are a huge range of parts and mementoes, right down to tile framed posters and FIM world-record certificates which used to line tile walls of tile Moto Morini corporate offices Though the collection has been on the market for a couple of montils, it seems Ducati's ratiler creative book values may have deterred any buyers: As any used-bike dealer will say, "Make Offer!" - to Ducati Museum curator Marco Montemaggi at tile Bologna factory (fax 011-39-051-406580). Troubled Jawa still kicking Czech bike manufacturer Jawa used t be part of tile old Communist industrial structure in former Czechsovakia, but tile collapse of the Iron Curtain hasn't brought the hoped-for takeover from tile West - or East, as in Japan. Potential partners have been deterred by tile huge cost of modernizing the company's archaic, sprawling old factory in what is now the Czech Republic, as well as upgrading a product line based on iliirsty old two-stroke designs unable to pass ever-more-stringent emi ions tests. Czech engineers have a fine reputation, though, and Jawa has been actively seeking a means of exporting its technology. ow it seems that tile company has taken the first steps toward that goal, witil tile announcement tilat a new Jawa factory will be built in Tashkent, capital of oil-rich Uzbekistan and one of the large t cities in tile former USSR's Central Asian hinterland. With a projected start-up capacity of 10,000 bikes a year, this is initially aimed at serving the local market previously dependent on Japanese imports or tile products of the old Communist system - but rumors persist of a link with Harley-Davidson, aimed at offshore production of Milwaukee's finest. Yes, indeed - back in tile former USSR. ... Bimola gets its due Also just published is tile long-awaited book that plugs a major gap in motorcy- and oversized valves, but the six-speed tran mi sion is stock, and the cylinder-head porting barely cleaned up. "This has tile power-to-weight ratio of a bigger bike, but tile agility and easy handling of a 250 race replica or a Supermono:' claims Pearce. "People who've ridden it have come away astonished at the performance, and even more when tiley hear tile price." Tigcraft is offering identical replicas of tile Special K racer - including the big-bore kit and engine tuning from £7800 (about $12,870 - all prices before tax), or a street version witil untuned/reconditioned motor for £5600 (about $9240). The Tigcraft Special K/H/S chassis kit starts at £2900 (about $4785), including frame, engine mounts, swingarm, carbon subframe, fuel tank and bodywork, and can be supplied at any level up to a complete bike, ready to accept any of the three Japanese paralleltwin engines for which it's designed. Contact Tigcraft, fax 011-44-1252-372649, for details. cle publishing - tile first-ever hi tory of one of the most prestigious names on two wheels, entitled "Bimota - 25 Anni di Eccelenza." Written by Italian Bimota club president Giorgio Sarti and published by Giorgio Nada Editore under ISBN #887911-197-3, this lavishly illustrated, beautifully produced work is not only an authoritative history of every aspect of this small but prestigious marque, it's also self-evidently a labor of love. From my own personal connection with Bimota as factory rider and journalist down tile years, I'm in a position to give Sarti's work an A+ rating - not only for tile way he's covered every model, major or minor, in tile Bimota casebook, but also for the inclusion of a whole host of human detail iliat allows you to appreciate tileir creation all tile more. All the Bimota creations of cofounder Massimo Tarnburini, his successor Federico Martini and most recently Pierluigi Marconi are detailed here, as well as tile roller-eoaster corporate ride the company has enjoyed over tile past quarter-century - up till the recent takeover by Francesco Tognon, which could make an alternative title for the book "Bimota - tile First 25 Years." The huge amount of technical and archive material included in tile book makes tl\is a master reference work - but what comes over so well in reading it, or even just looking at tile vast array of photos, is tile continuous ribbon of avant-garde engineering that has rightly earned Bimota its deserved reputation for leading-edge design. You don't have to be a Bimota owner to appreciate owning tili book - nor do you need to read Italian, for alongside tile large amount of text is a huge selection of period photos. Complimenti, Giorgio! More on Tigcrafl... One name conspicuous by its absence from the Tigcraft Special engine roster is Yamaha - Dut Dave Pearce is already working on something even more unusual involving a donor engine from Iwata - a WR400-based Supermono road racer! "This is tile most beautiful commercially available four-stroke single-cylinder engine ever made," says Pearce. 'The box it came in was hardly bigger tilan a biscuit tin, and it's a rna terpiece of design and packaging. The architecture of otiler trailbike motors obliges you to build a 250cc GP-sized road racer around tilem, but on tile Tigcraft WR we'll be basing everything on Yamaha TZ125 proportions, as well as parts like suspension and bodywork, where possible. It's early days yet, but we'll have tile bike racing by tile end of the summer, and I'll be very disappointed if we can't get at least 45 bhp out of tile engine straight away, which, in a bike weighing a probable 198 pounds or less, will give pretty good performance. But we'll need a small, light 125-size rider to make tile most of it - and I have a can- didate in mind!" Guess former l2Sec World Champion Valentino Rossi, now pushing the 6-foot mark, need not apply, then.... ",And still more The iliird string to Tigcraft's bu y bow is a big-bore kit tile British tuning specialist has developed to pu h Suzuki's new SV650 V-twin engine out to a full 750cc capacity. "I suspect there were political reasons Suzuki didn't make it a full 750 at birtil," says Pearce, "mostly to do witil a fear it'd be compared with the Ducati 748 0110 valvole, rather than the 750SS desmodue, which is its true rival. But it's a far better bike in every way than the Ducati, and we've had customers asking us to make it a full 750 - 0 we have. Of course, the fact the bike comes with carbs rather than fuel injection which can't be reprogrammed to.let you reap III the benefit of performance tuning is a ~ big help - Ducati really missed tile boat !lllI by ~topping their enthusiast customers liii from working on the new 750/90055 Q engine as they have for the past 20 years, and the Suzuki is now set to take g: over from it - and at much lower cost. ~ The big-bore kit is just the first in a ~ series of tuning parts we plan to Q) develop for what is set to be the cafe- • § racer engine of choice for the next ..., century." 5 II I

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