Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128075
1999 Milan Motorcycle Show
revised ram- air ducting . Expect the allnew ZX-12 and heavily improved ZX-6R
due in Pa ris to sport a s imila r fa mily
resemblan ce.
Apar t from th e new XVS125 Dr a g
Star min i-V-t w in spo rtcruiser a n d a
Class ic version of its bigger XVSI I 00 sister, Yamaha had only upd ated version s
of their cu rren t ra nge, thou gh the yea r2000 version of the RI claims over 150
detail modifica tions, including a ' taller
windscreen and slightly revised bodywork - as well as special attention to
improving the gearbox and shift action.
Weight is reduced a little, to 385 pounds
dry - still heavier on paper than the new
Ho nda, but some will say the bes t just
got better.
Of the It ali a n m an u fa ct u r e r s for
whom Milan is a crucial biennial show case, most attention was reserved for the
rel aunch of the Cagiva marque by MV
Agu sta S.p. A. - as Claudio Castigli oni
has ren am ed his family com pa ny . Still,
MV itself wasn 't totall y ou t of the limelight, for as co m p le tio n of hand-built
production of th e 300 exa mp les of the
limited-edition F4 Serie d 'Oro nears, the
vo lu me-prod uction Strada 7505 version
ma de its debut at Milan , with aluminum
repl acin g ma gn esium through out, and
diec a s t rather th an sa n d cas t engi n e
cases.
Th e Strad a al s o debuted in tw oseater' Biposto form, known as the 750S
I + I , painted in s ho cking silver rather
than the legend ary bra nd 's trademark
"fire engine" livery: Buying one of these
mu st be the two-wheeled equ ivalent of
opting for yellow rather than red w hen
placing your order for a Ferrari...
But it was Cagiva's own renai ssan ce
that captured most attention, with a trio
of m odels all powered b y Su zuki ' s
TLl O
OOS V-twin en gi ne, as the Va rese
company severs fi na l links with th e
Ducati fa ctory it onc e o w ned . Thi s
in clud es repl a cin g th e 900 SS d esm o
engin e fo r m e r ly u sed in th e Gran
Canyon street end u ro with the Suzuki
mo tor, remapping the stock NO fuel injection for eve n mo re torque than in
TLl OOOS guise, ye t retain in g the sa me
essen tial design of the cleverly shrouded
sq ua re- tube s tee l chassis (but with an
18-inch front w heel a nd street tires
re moving all pretence at off-road ability), adding detail touches like a muchneed ed higher screen, and renaming the
resu lt the Navigator, by an y other name,
Su zuki's one step-removed TL-bas ed
competitor for the Honda Varadero, but
wit h Italian flair and a price tag expected to u nd ercu t the old , slow er, Gran
Ca nyon.
But it was Cagiva's duo of all-new
Raptor roa ds ters that took center stage,
crea ted by CRC designe r Miguel Ga lluzzi as ne w-Millenniu m re placemen ts
for the m yt hica l Mo ns ter he invented
seven years ago , when C agiva s till
owned Ducati. Excep t - Galluzzi's original Monster design used a fuel injected
888 "otto ualnole" eng ine, befor e it was
repl aced for commercial reasons by the
mu ch le s s p otent 900SS d e smodu e
d e s ign . So this tim e aro un d h e ' s
arg ua bly produced the bike he wa nted
to all along, but in two versions: classical, a nd avant-ga rde. On e is a rou ndhead lamp u p d at e on th e established
M onst er th em e ( tho ug h th e Suz u k i
engi ne is so w ell -int egrat ed into th e
design, you' d think it was developed to
su it, rather than vice versa), the other a
radical mega-Monster known as the VRaptor, with Jurassic looks and a preda