Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

u p con trolli ng th e s port. That's w hy we're doing th is," With MuZ-We ber rider Ju rgen van den Goo rberg h taking pole position for t h e Ca talunya GP wi th a Swissa uto motor, Team Roberts' move is a typically as tute one - as well as the d ecision to keep on ra cin g the ex is ting Mo denas triple, u ntil the new V-four is pro ved to be better : Expect to see the new Mod enas KR4 on the 500cc GP grid before the en d of the season. M ean w h il e , fu r t her evi de nce of Kenny Roberts' visionary talen ts is prov ided b y wo rd th at h e ' s re p o rt edl y already in initial d iscussions wi th BMW Motors p ort d ir ector Ge rha rd Berger. The German, hims elf a motor cycle fan , who's se t to race a Man x No rton alongs ide h is fr ie n d Ba rry Sh ee n e in t he Goodwood race meetin g on Sep tem ber 20, has been con tacted by Rober ts abo u t the po ssibility of BMW (sc hed u led to retu rn to F-l car racing in 2000 wi th the Williams tea m) d evelop ing a mo torcycl e raci n g engi ne o n be ha lf o f Team Rob erts - sho uld the exp ected con ver sion of Gra nd Prix racing to four-stroke take p lace, The Roberts / Swissau to V-fou r may provid e the basis for an avant-ga rde GP bi ke w hich British chassis s pecialist H a rr rs Performa nce is rea d y to con'stru ct, using the visionary ideas of former GP race r Eric Offenstadt. Du ring his time in mo torcycle racing in the ' 60s and 70s, before moving on to drive for Team Lotus on four wheels and then opening a res ta u ra n t near Pa ris with a world-famous wine cellar, _ Offenstadt was responsib le fo r the d evelopmen t of many then-revolutionary techn ical features w hich are commonplace today. He was the firs t to race with u p s id e-d o wn forks , th e firs t to m anufacture cast-alloy or magn esiu m wheels (under the SMAC label), and on e of the firs t to u se d isc brakes on a motorcycle. He also built a huge variety of av an t-ga rde mach in es wi t h mo nocoque chassis and /or trailing-link fro nt su sp en s io n - lik e th e BUT 25 0 a nd Baranne-Kawasaki 750, "Eric and I go t togeth er abo u t fou r years a g o," says Steve Ha r ri s, "a n d once 1 go t to unders tand the purpose of his id eas, which are com pletely practical, I beca me a convert. Basically, he has two pa tents, one cove ring the front en d , the other the rear, both aim ed at wo rk ing togeth er to co mbat th e effec ts of weig h t tran s fer under b raking and aga in und er acceleration. Eric's co rne up wi th a b lin din gly simple concept If not G or Harley, uzzi thenhowabout P iaggio? TPG may no t be talkin g to HD, but th ey are reportedly negotia ting to em ba rk upon ano the r Italian ven tu re after th eir successful - and p ro fitabl e - Du cati rescue ope rati on: Pia ggio . T he It a li a n scooter gian ts are understood to be on the ma rket after the tragic early d eath of ch ai rman /CEO Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, who d ied in his mid 30s fr om ca nc er tw o yea rs ago . H is m o th er - the las t surviving dau ghter of Enr ico P iag gi o, w ho found ed th e co m pa ny ba ck in 1946 b y . inventin g th e mot or scooter and ca lling it a Ves pa - has sad ly also passed away since th e n, repu ted ly of a broken heart. However, her relation s hi p b y m a rr ia ge to th e Agnelli famil y - w hich co ntroIs the gian t Fiat car em pire - means that the Agnellis are effectively in charge of Piag- Having resc ued Ducati, TPG is reported to be interested in proc uring another Italian motorcycle gio's fortunes. But with Fiat maker: Piaggio. its elf r ep ort ed ly un d er takeover threat from various major players in the au tomowha t in recent years has been considered an under-performing tive wo rld, it' s understood that the Agnellis have decided to company which has fai led to capitali ze on the inherent free themselves of a distracti on w hic h, in spite of being the strengths of its Vespa scooter and Gilera motorcycle brands. wo rld 's thi rd -lar gest manufacturer of po wer ed two-wheelers So will TPG take ov er Piaggio, split Vespa and Gilera and (with an annual production in Europe an d India of around one ru n the Du cati turnaround scenario a second time around? million units), is not seen as central to the family's core au tomoCould be. tive bus iness. Therefor e TPG's rumored in ter est in acquiri ng in volving a lot of lateral th in kin g, to address the problems yo u encounter in these two situations. But the important . thi ng now is to show how it works in practi cal terms, a nd tha t' s why we're talkin g to Kenny Rob erts, w ho's int er es ted in th e project, about build in g a bike u sin g his engin e, to d em on stra te the wor th o f th e Offens tadt ideas in road racing terms. "We' ll bu il d t h e b ik e a t ou r ow n expense a t Ha rris, bu t yo u ' ve go t to h a v e a co m pe titive e ngine to s how prop erl y w he t her i t wor ks o r n o t, through meaningful tests. We design ed a p rot ot ype a ro u n d th e Suzu ki GSXR750 motor wh ile we were ru nning the race team for them, but the Japa nese just cou ld n't get their heads aro und the idea - perhaps because no thing in the design is w ild ly radical. It still uses telescopi c fo rks , for exa mp le. WP b o u g ht an option on the fron t end patent from Eric, which KTM no w owns after they bought th em , but it expi res in January 2000, and though I understand they did tes t it o n McWill iams ' bik e last year, n o th ing ' s co rne of i t. Er ic . went to Ba rcel on a for th e GP las t mon th and spoke to Urs Wenger of Swi ssauto abo u t getting an eng ine, a nd they're inte rested , but the geographical logistics ar e too difficu lt - ev en th ou gh, ver y typically, Rolf Biland is very kee n on try ing it out. But we nee d someone closer to horne we can work with, so th a t's why we're in discussions with Kenny, and hop e very mu ch so me thi ng co mes of it. I'm convi nced this is a ma jor ste p forwa rd in chassis develop ment, in the making." Rent·a-racer KTM is investing in the fu ture of off road sport, and not only through their works motocross and rall y teams. The Austrian manufacturer ha s established a p rogr am called KTM Rally Customer Service, whereby anyone of an accepted level of riding skill will be ab le to rent a bike fr o m the m on an all-incl usive package basis for any of the majo r offroa d ralli es in the 2000 season - specifi cally, the Egyptia n Rally, the UE Desert Ch a llen ge h e ld in Duba i, th e Pa r isDa kar 20 00, t he O ptic 2000 h e ld in Tu nisia, the Master Rally, and the Rally of Sardinia. The cos t va ries acco rding to the length and natu re of each rally, but in each cas e includes a factory -p rep ar ed com pe titive bike, all tra nsportation and other logist ical backup, a full traveling s pa r parts service, and detailed assistance on the grou nd at each eve nt. For further deta ils, contact yo ur local KTM importer, or fax the factory in Auslria at 43 /(0)77425290. eN W inningS uperbikes, losingS upersports Du cat i's domination of the 1999 World Superbike Championshi p has been paired with the company's total decline in the corres po nding World Supersport series , where on ly a handfu l of.the pre vious ly all-conquering 748 desmo V-twins still ru m ble a roun d at the back of the fie ld. Th ey do so behi nd Paolo Casoli's singleto n works bike, which the d etermined Italian sta r has rep ea ted ly thr own away by presumab ly havi ng to ride it too hard to keep up with the horde of R6 Yarnahas, which now clus ter at the front of the field. With zero d ev elopment on the 748 in th e past year from Ducati's race engineers - whi le they concen tra ted on more pressing su perbike busin ess - Cas oli's task has been a hard one. But for 200D he'll have so me thing mu ch mor e com petitive, in the form of the new 750R wh ich Ducati is set to laun ch at the Milan show, openin g on September 15. It's understood that the new bik e, while retain in g the same overall look, has been resty led to make it sma ller and mor e aerod ynamic, and tha t a com prehensive R&D upgrade for the first time since the 748 was intro duce d in 1994 to give it more power, using spin -off technology from the 996 su pe rbike progra m. In add ition. the chassis will be heavily modified to make the bike light er and better-handlin g, and the result is likely to be pa ckaged in an exclusive race-read y version, wi th a less cos tIr s tree t equiv alen t also marketed for hom ologat ion pu rpo ses . ~ Q; .c E Look out, Yamaha: The new 750R threatens to make Ducati as se rious a pres ence in the s upersport class as it is in the Superbike category. '" is. en '" 5

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