Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Eurofile BYALAN CATHCART ATriumph 600 and aTriumphpowered ttalje t? en en en 4 One company about to enter the 600cc Su pe rs port ma rket is Tr iumph . Se t to move into a new era in the year 2000, with the coming of the new millen iu m u sh ering in th e second of owner Jo h n Bloor's lO-yea r p lans for the expa nsio n of the reb orn Britis h m arq u e, a fuelinjected 600 is apparently on the way. In addition to the completion of Triumph's new factory, currently under construction near its existing Hinckley plant scheduled to begin production in October with initial targets of 24,000 bikes to be built in 2000 (up from 18,500 in 1999) two major new models will be launched this autumn. One of those will be a fuelinjected four-cylinder 600cc Supersport contender, and the other is the half-faired Sprint RS sports bike revea led in this column at the end of last year. A n d th ere ' s m o re n e w s from Trium ph . In addition to th e four-cyli nd er Dayt ona 1200 eng ines being supplied to power the Reynard -chassised Stra thcarron SC-2 ul trasports roa d car due to en ter prod uction in 2000, Trium ph (for the first time ever) has agreed to supply engines to another motorcycle manufacturer. A Tri umph engine will power a st reet bike bu ilt someplace other than Hinckley - or, for that matter, Britain . Th at com pa ny is Italjet, th e Bolognabased scooter spe cialist w hose hu b-cen ter Formula and Dra gster mod els brin g lead ing-ed ge chassis technolog y to th e perso nal -tran sp ortation secto r, a longsid e their mo re retro Veloc ifero mod el lin e, and whose Dragster 125 is the only tw in-cylind er pe rformance scooter in th e marketplace . Wit h its 180 worke rs p roducing 34,000 pow er ed t w o- w heel ers eac h year in th e com pany's bra ndnew, ultramod ern factory near Pescara, Italjet su ccess fu lly rid es the top end of th e Eu ro pea n scoote r boom as it cele bra tes it s 40th birthd ay this yea r. To help celebra te tha t fact, the compa ny is p lanning to la u nch it s fir st full -si zed m o to rc ycl e in 25 y ea rs at the M ilan Show in September - and a three-cylind er Triu mph engin e will power it. Found ed in 1959 and initially producin g sm all-capacity ru narounds powe r ed by M Z , Sa ch s a n d M in arell i e ngi n es, former Du cati wo r ks r ider Leopo ld o Ta rtarini's family co m pa ny later not only act ed as d esign consultan ts for th e likes of Ducati (Tamburini s tyling a dorned all th e early V-twin desmos, includi ng the benchmark 750SS a nd the goo d- loo ki ng 900 Da rm ah model), it also produced good-ha nd ling, well-s ty le d upd ates of British s por tb ik es , combin in g A ng lo engineeri ng with Italian all ure. Th e first of these was the Italjet Grifon 500, w hich appeared in 1965, using the Triumph Dayton a twincylinder eng ine in an Ital jet tw in-loo p fra me to produce an Ita lian versio n of th e Tri ton cafe ra cer , follow ed soo n 'after by the 650 Crifon , powered by th e Bon neville mot or. Other Tartarini hybrid s included Italjet -bui lt mod els bad ged as In dians, in ag reemen t wi th th e Ll.S , brand ' s th en-o wn er Flo yd C ly mer, using Vel ocette 500 and Royal Enfield 700 In te rceptor m otors, before Italjet se ttled down to carve ou t its own reputation for inn o vativ e s ma ll-capaci ty products. Tw o ye ars ago, so urces close to the com pany insis ted that Italjet w as plannin g a m ot orcycl e co meback, u sin g a Japanese eng ine (at ,firs t rumored to be the TRX Yamah a, th en more recently the Su zuki SV650) - but now it's confirmed that suc h plan s will reach frui tion with the d eb ut of a new spo rts cru iser at the Milan Show in Septem ber, power ed by th e ca rbu re te d o lder-version T300 Tri- Almost-due Vdue Bim ota is se t ro spring one o f the m ost unexpect ed and unlikely comebacks in recent s treet-b ike hi st ory at the Mil an Show in September when the s tar of its d isplay w ill be a co mp le te ly re-eng in eered ve rsio n of th e Vdu e 500 t w ostroke V- t w in. Re member, it wa s th e Vdu e' s tro ubl ed d ev el opment th at brought th e Italian perf ormance specialist to its kne es 18 months ag o, lead ing to its r es cu e b y fo r m er Laverda owner Francesco Togn on . Since completing the takeover of Bimo ta nine months ago, Togn on has employed a separate specialist research-and-d evelopment team from outside the Rimi ni facto ry to w ork on a compreh en si ve ove rha ul of the tw o-str oke spo rtbike project that p romised so m uch but d eliver ed so litt le - thanks to flaws in d esign a nd d efects in engine m anufa cture. Besides Birnot a , Togn on owns a group of u ltra- high -tech com pa nies working for majo r pla yers in the a u tomotive wo rld, inclu d ing Ferrari and Lamborghini , and he's br oug ht in key engi neers fro m various sectors to add ress the Vdu e's problem s. The resu lt promis es to be a spectacular improvem ent in the per formance and reliability of the Vdue's crankcase reed -val ve engine package, with the tro u blesome direct-injection EFI syste m jettiso ned in favor of Dell 'Orto powerjet carburet ors specially d esig ned for the Vtwin tw o-stroke motor. Moreo ver, th e Vd ue will get a d igital ignition developed fo r th e bike by one o f Tog non ' s sa te lli te com pa nies, which fo r th e firs t time ever o n a road bi ke w ill inco rporate a full-ope n powershifter gea r-change ca pa bility. Th e 90-degree twin-cra nk cra nkcase reed -valve en gine has also bee n comprehensively re- en gineered , with s pecial attention pa id to re vised cy lin d er porting, reed-va lve d esign and intake angle, as well as an all-new six-speed gea rbox. Thoug h . the use of carbs means an increase in em issions compa re d to the origi na l fue l-injected version , Bimo ta clai ms to be able to market the EvoDue throu gh ou t Europe and in Japan and Austra lia, and cou ld fit a catalys t exhaust to the bike to meet stric ter emissio ns reg ulations elsewhe re - albeit with a 20-percen t ho rse po w er penalty. Th ough special em phasis has been laid on reliability and rid ability , the perform an ce of the EvoDue package appears se t to es tablish a new benchma rk in perform ance m otorcycling, bringing a level of GP performance to the street tha t its flawed ancestor promised but failed to delive r. Acco rding to company insiders, in a four-d av test at the end of June be hind closed d oo rs at the Rijeka circuit in Croa tia, the proto type 500 Vdue Evolu zione covered more than 1860 miles at bo th ra ce pace and in sim ula ted road conditions in the hands of a tri o of test riders - all w ithou t any mechanical problem s being expe rienced . "We had to stop in th e end because we sim ply ran ou t of tires! " sa vs one who w as there. Th is wa s with th e bik e running in an 'o pen' configuration, u sin g ra ce exhausts, fitted with no air cleaner and using 39mm carbs. In this form, th e Evo Due de livers 140 bhp at the crank, say fact ory so urces - a fig ure w hich, if tru e, places th e 72 x 61.2m m Italia n engi ne o n a par with a good p rivateer H onda NSRSOOV V-twin GP racer. However, w he reas the Honda race motor revs to just 10,500 rpm in its present 68 x 68.5m m guise th e same as the o riginal fuel-injected Vd ue, w h ich moreo ver had a very narrow 25OO-rpm usab le powerba nd - the shorterstro ke Bimo ta roa d-bike m otor no w peaks at 11,500 rp m , sa y insiders, and is safe to 12,500 rp m . And fitted with the 35mm Dell'Orto carbs to be used on th e stree t ve rs io n scheduled to d eb ut at Mila n, ou tp u t d rops only a littl e, to 125 bhp at the crank, bu t with st ro ng p o w er fro m as low as 6000 rpm . It shou ld all add up to a more rida ble m otorc ycle. umph th ree-cyli n der engi ne - in the same form as is cur re n tly fitted to th e 900 Trop hy . D es ign ed of co u rse by Leopold o Ta rta ri ni hims elf, the Ita ljet Grifon 900 is a dramatic-looking aked Road ster wi th tu bular-a luminium fra me and cafe-racer sty ling. Desig ned as an ultra-modem u pd ate of the original '60s Grifon 650, with Suzuki Ka tana overton es , th e born-again Ita ljet -Triu mph w ill be offe re d in tw o ve rs ions w he n man ufactu re begin s in March 2000. One w ill be a baseline. model pri ced to compete with the Du cati Mon ster 900, and it will be join ed by a more-cost ly versio n, re pl et e w it h magnesi u m and ca rbo nfi ber par ts. To ta l prod uc tion is not ex pecte d to exceed 1000 units, but the bikes will be marketed for sale all over the w orl d . With Italjet also hard at work d evel- The original Simota Vdue soon to be replaced. Thi s revised mec ha nica l pa ckage will be fi tted i n th e sa me- al loy c ha ssis as th e origina l sw eethandling Vd ue 50 0, th u s p ro , vid ing a means of recycling th e 200 -p lu s recalled motorcycles which ha ve been eating up storage space in a Rirn ini wa re ho use for m o re th an a year. Som e cha ng es ha ve been made to the Paioli suspension in preparation for the relaunch of the revi sed mod el, which at around 334 pounds wi ll also weigh a little less th an the origi na l bike. To und erline the major differ ences between old a nd new, th e Evo Due wi ll be launched at Milan with an all-new color sch eme for the Robbiano Design bod ywork, em phasizing Bimota's house colors of red, w hite and black . Th e p rice w ill be the sa m e as the origi nal injected Vd ue, and a 400cc ve rsio n is also p la nned fo r th e Japan ese mark et. Further dow n the line, a 250cc sing le-cyli nder version, represen ting one-ha lf of th e cu rre nt eng ine , is also spo ken of as a means of brin gin g budget-p erforman ce biking to a new market of Bimota owners. But this is d estined for the fu tu re , and it all dep ends on the success or otherwise of the born-again V-twi n model. All of thi s has be en devel oped comp lete ly ex tern ally from the exis ting Bimo ta ope ration, and will be manu factured in a sep arat e factory . Togn on is evidently conce rn ed that the little matter of taking care of unfinished business, two-stro kewise, w on't impact in a ny w ay o n Bim o ta's es ta blishe d fou r-s tro ke m anufacturing ope ration. With an uprated fu el-inj ect ed vers ion of th e Ducati 900SS-engined DB4 also due to be la u nc hed at Mil an, and d evelopment of the race version of the SB8R well under w ay in preparati on for Birnota 's return to the World Superbike se ries in 2000, this seems to make sense - es pe cially as rumors of an evercloser collaboration between Bimota and other manufacturers, including Du cati, whereby th e spe cialist Rimini concern constructs sm all-volume modellincs on a hand-built, sub-contracted basis, are evidently well-founded . But by keeping faith with d isappointed Vdue customers fro m th e first tim e around , as well as those who con tin ue to look forward to the day that GP two-stroke techn ology can be brought to the street, by revamping the Vdue in this way, Togn on is se t to re-establish Bimota as a lea ding-edge engineering company. A company that offers a product u n iqu e in the marketplace, whose rumored p er formance also poses one more obvious question. Will Bimo ta bu ild a 500cc GP race versi on, eit he r for a fac to rv race team (a nd Tog non is u nd erstood to have a major spo nsorlined up alread y for when Bimota goes World Supe rbike racing) or in cus tomer gu ise, to' replace th e inc re asing ly elderly NSR500V Hondas? Watch th is space... opi ng a 125cc GP racer - a bike that has already achieved podium finis hes in the hotly co nteste d Italia n Na tional 125cc C ha m pio ns hip - w ith a G ran d P ri x debu t o n line for 2000, th e revitali zed com pany is on a roll. Sales of its rad ical Dragster 125/ 180 scooter ra nge is booming, and a 250cc Milleniu m 'scootero ne' is d ue at the end of the vea r with a fours tro ke M ina re ll i e ngme. to fur the r ex pand th e range upw ard . For ge nial, pip e-smoking, Jag uar-d riving Leopold o Tartari ni, the revival of th e Grifon na me o n a n It al je t m ot o rcycl e u s in g a T riumph engi ne is a n a p p ro p ria te landma rk for his compa ny's ex pa nsion. " I respect th e man ufactu ring excellence of Japanese products," he says, "but in my heart, I'm a European who likes to combine traditional quality with innovative design. This is the ltaljet philosophy th at h as brou gh t u s so m u ch s uccess . down the years: Now it's a good moment to a pply that form ula once agai n to a fullsize motorcycle, and in d oing so to celebrate our 40th anniversary." The Italje t deal underli nes Triu mph's new int en tion to follow in Suzuki's foo tsteps, by acting as an eng ine supplier to rival m anufacturers. "Jo hn Bloor has never had a poli cy agains t se lling eng ines for use in o ther co m p a ny's pro d uc ts," says Trium p h expo rt boss Ross Cliffo rd . "Bu t with the engine package representi ng over 50 pe rcent of th e u nit cos t of any motorcycl e, interested parti es often balked at the price we quo ted them to do so. Leopo ldo Tartarini is bot h expe rienced in this business a nd realistiq; and in any case his 40thanniversary Grifon won' t compete with ou r Speed Tripl e - not least because it

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