Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

past three years, bu t its R&D has h iccuped as the company 's fortunes passed th rough ye t a no ther o f it s pe re n nia l period s of crisis. This now appears to. have bee n resolved , leaving the company' s engineers free to resume d evelopment of the liquid-cooled, fuel-i njected, . DOHC 899cc engine pr esently measuring 85 x 52.8mm, but ca pable of being stretched to 1000cc and 1150cc vers ions . Though the decision to fit the genera tor, however sma ll, at the end· of the cran k does make the engi ne look bulkier and wider than its Benelli rival. A mong the a rray of upd at ed twin cy linder m od els al ongside it at Milan i ncl u di ng th e 750 Super Sport, introduced as a h a lf w ay s por tbi ke hou se between the 7505 and 750 Form ula - was on e new o ne, the 750 Black Strike Cafe Racer - the uprat ed version of the limit ed-ed ition 50-off 650 version produced earlier this yea r, but with the more powerful (and more mod ern ) water -coo led 750 e ng ine repla cin g th e air-'c oo led 668cc motor. Th is has th e high er n-hp s pec o f the 75 0 Formula, but w ith revi s ed cam d esign to a d d m o re midrange and a smoo ther torque curve. Bimota's restructuring in the wake of the Tognon takeover a year ago is now nearly co m plete, with consolidation of th e model lineup reinforced at Milan bv th e, display of th e unclothed version ~f th e limited edition SB8R Superbike powered by the Suzuki TLlOOOR V-twin engine - which will bring the specialist Italian company back to World Superbike next yea r. Underpinning this is the Ducati desmodue-powered DB4 range, further extended at Milan with two new versions - one for the first tim e available wi th a hal f-fairing, the o ther fully- faired as ,befor e . Each u ses the fuel-inject ed version of th e 90055 en gin e, which d eliv ers con siderably more performance th an the ca rbu re ted ve rsio n o ffered to date, albeit at the cos t of elimina ting an y potential fo r the home tuner - thou gh Bimota plan s to ha ve its ow n aftermarket tuning parts ca ta log ue av ailable in time for next spring . Th ere was no sign of the EvoD ue 500 V-twin two-stroke , now fi tt ed with 39'r' m De ll' O r to ca rbs to repla ce th e tro u bleso me direct EFI. It ' s rea dy fo r relaunch , com p lete with revised livery , but th e co m pany m anu fa c turin g the instrumen tation / igni tion module at the heart o f the rev is ed s pec is n' t ye t up to s peed o n pr odu cti on: Expec t this too to ' jo in the two-s tro ke festival of novelty a t Bol o gn a in December. Arguably th e most unlikely but m ost s ty lish new m od el fro m a n It a li a n co m pa ny launched a t Mil an w a s sc oo ter s peciali st Ita ljet' s new Gri fon '00 road ster, pow ered by the old er-ty pe ca rbu rete d Triumph threecy li n de r en gine as fitted to the Trophy 900, supplied direct from th e Hin ckl ey fa ctory und er an ex clus ive d eal. Created by Ita ljet bo ss Leo po ldo Ta rtarini in celebra tion of h is company's 40th birthday, the new triple is a m od ern remind er of the 650 Bon neville- en gin ed Grifon of the 196Os, but th is time around based on an aluminum tubular chassis designed and built by Verli cchi - then clothed with Tartarini's s tyli ng . Th e 144 6mm wheelba se, 24d egree head a n g le a nd 46mm Pa io li full y ad jus table upside-down forks coupled with the 320mm Brembo brakes, all say s por tb ike - but t h e 15-inch rear wheel. twin-shock rear sus pens ion and laid-back riding stan ce all reply, spo rt cru iser. Italjet plans to start production in September 2000 of the 800 bikes projected , around 20 percent of which will be lim ited edition versi ons, with extensive use of m agn esium and carbon fiber for a m ore cos tly finish. Th e Triumph engi ne is co m p le te ly stock, but Tartarini intends to develop more motorcycles alon gside his expand ing scooter production, with a 600cc mod el m ost likely to co me next. Funny , Triumph ha s ju st suc h an en gine about to en ter production . But not ye t - fo r ·the lau nch of th e fo u r-cy li n de r Su pe rs po r t co n te n der from th e British br and is se t for Birmingh am in No vember, leaving th e compa ny' s other new '00 mod el to debu t on r Milan ets dirt A lm os t a s extensive a s the list of stree t offerings was Milan 's off- roa d lineup, as befits World Trial s ch ampions Beta's home sho w - but it was the four-stroke MX array tha t most impressed . Alongside the beefed -up YZ426F productio n sp inoff of And rea Ba rto lin i' s Yamaha World C hampion, KTM lau nched the customer version of Pe te r Jo ha nsson's w orks p rototype 520SX world titl e runnerup . Th is u s es th e fra me o f the 250SX two-strok e to house th e . very c.ompact liquid~cooled 95 x 72mm 510cc four- or six-speed en gin e producing 55 hp, With Its hydraulic clutch a nd FCR 39 Keihin carb, and weighing 235 pounds in MX form, or 246 pounds in end uro guise (400cc version pictured). Also launched at Milan was one of its Italian rivals, the small TM marque's firs t four-stroke mo torcycle, also available in both MX and end uro form, and als o using th e company's 250 tw o-stro ke race cha ssis to house th eir new 92 x 60mm 398cc 50HC four-val ve, four -stroke motor. The cylind er head of this has been designed to accept the fuel-injection package th e firm is already wo rking on, with the fuel tank under the seat and replaced by an airbox in pr eparation for EFI. No longer c ontent to produce mere . scooters, Italjet celebrates company bo ss Leopoldo Tarta rin i's 40th birthday with this Trlumphpowered Grifon. its own in Milan: the three-cylinder Sprint RS. Triumph ' s e n try into the VTR /TL e n th us ias t s p o rtb ike cl a ss , the halffaired R5 uses the same 955i fuel-inj ected e ng ine (prod u cing 108 hp a t 9200 rpm) and twin-spar aluminum chassis as the Sprint ST sport tourer, but has a twin-sided swin garm to reduce weight a n d m anufa cturin g cos ts - th ou gh wh eelba s e is s t ill the . s a me r an g y 1470mm , and the conventional cartrid ge-type for ks are retained . Scaling 437 pounds d ry (17 pounds less than the ST, and even two pounds lighter than th e 9550 , the RS slots in between these tw o in terms of performance, but undercuts th em both pri cewise, Under its new management's reali stic policy of only showing a new model when it's production-ready, Moto Guzzi had nothing new of note at .Milan, and s ma ll s peci a lis t manufacturer s lik e Segale, Magn i and Vertemati (now free of the VOC connection) saved. m oney by stayi ng away. But o ne wh o m ad e hi s mar k was Ven eto-based sing le specialist Umberto Boril e, who aft er many ye ars of dedicated work is now ready to put th e retro si ng le bearing his nam e into production next spring. Av ailab le in three different versions (monoshock B500SS sportbike, B500T base mod el and B500C E trailbike), th e Bo rile range is ba sed around th e sa me a ir-coo led 87 x 85mm fou r-va lve 500cc sing le mot or wi th cha in- d rive n 50CH d evelo p ed by Bori le h im self over the pa st four years - usi ng the cylinder and hea d fro m the World Speedway tit lewinning GM engine bu ilt nea rby , mated to his ow n crankcase d esign incorporating a proper oil pu mp, oilba th clutch and 5-speed gea rbox , with kicks tart, Mounted in Bo rile's own aluminum tube frame with WP u ps ide-d ow n forks a nd monoshock rea r suspens ion, 17inch w heels and a single 315mm front di sc, th e Borile B500SS engine delivers over 45 hp in s treet guise, enough to give good pe rfo rmance in a bike weighing just 228 poun d s w ith full s t reet equipmen t. O ne to watch for en thusiasts of all our yesterdays. A no ther s tree t sing le of a m od ern nature w as al so launched at Mil an , in the shape of the latest in th e series of Su zuki-engined m od els d evel oped by th e Dutch-owned Sachs marque from Germany. Alongside the Target Designs tyled VX800-powered Big Road ster alread y launched in Munich a year ago and now about to enter product ion next year, Sachs also u nve iled a t Mila n their DR650-based Roadste r single, a cla ssi cally sty led thumper d escrib ed by the company's R&D boss Hartmu t Hahn as "a n honest, timeless German- made bike." Says it all, really - but with the Fritz Egli-designed TLlOOOS-powered cafe race r just around the corner, Sachs ~ o U o 37

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