Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

inch rear, comb ini ng to pr od uce a light, maneu ver abl e V-tw in with good highspeed stability , says KTM. Pro jected sea t heigh t is 34 inches, and twin front d iscs are currently envisaged both for the off- . roa d LCB Travel End uro, an d the new V-tw in road bike tha t w ill be launched at the same time - the Duke Ill. A total inves tment of around $6 mi ll io n is envisaged to bring th e LC8 p ro ject to market. Segale ready toroll At the othe r en d of the volume-production scale fro m Aprilia is one of the last of the limit ed- ed ition "artigiana le" Italia n ma n ufacturers , Segale, which launched its latest mod el based on the -, [vTRI00 0 Honda in rolling chassis protot ype fo rm a t th e 1997 Mil a n Show. Now, two yea rs later, and havin g opted to save money by staying away fro m Milan '99, Luigi Segal e is read y to start produ cti on of the SVR I000 R in the worksho p beh ind his Honda main d ealership in Vigevano, south of Milan, at a t a x-fre e pri ce ex -works of a bo u t $16,000. Tha t's a very com pe titive price for a hand-built mot or cycl e, says Segale, in spite of the all-new chassis and quality cycle parts w ra pped around the stock, unmod ified VTRI 000 engine. This is fitted wi th a special Termign oni exha us t created for the bike, with tw in silencers d ouble-stacked on the right side, like on th e works RC45 V-fo u r Su perbike, to create thefirst-ever Sega le twi n-cylinder d esign since the innovative alloy-fra med Pantah-engined prototype he built for the Du cati factory over 20 yea rs ago . By contras t, the Honda-p owered SVR1000R uses spec ial square-section chromemo ly Columbus tubing for the tub ular spacefra me, w ith an al lov subfra me for the gra cefu lly tapere d ~arbon-fiber single se a t, a n d th e tra d em ark Segale cas tmagn esium sing le-sided sw ingarm pivoting in the engine crankcases. To improve chassis stiffness over the stock VTR pa ckage, Segale has mo unted a br acing-plat e connecting the fram e to the swingarm pivot, but has retained the r Honda side-mounted radiators, as well as the VTR fairing whic h help s extrac t hot air fro m them via the low- pressu re zo ne in its fl anks . Forks are fu llyad jus table 43m m upsid e-d own Cerianis, w ith a two-degree variab le s teeringhead ang le, fro m 23 to 25 degrees, while at the rear, the Ceriani shock ru ns a specia l Erga l link running on needle-roller b earings. Th e w heelbase is 141Omm. Brak es are top-of-the-li ne Brembos (of cou rse - this is an Italian bike), wit h tw in 320mm fro nt d iscs an d a 220mm rear, all fu lly fl o ating . Dr y weig h t wi t h fu ll street equ ip men t is 385 pounds, including the use of magnesium Marchesini w heels. And th e rear is a big 6.00-inch one. The sea t heigh t is ad jus table, from 30 to 32 in ch es, to su it ri de rs of a ny s ta tu re, a nd th e 4.6-gallon alloy fue l tan k is slim eno ug h to capitalize on the b ike 's narrow build . Delivery time is three months from the d ate of orde r. For more information, fax L'Automoto Luigi Segale at 39-00381-42985. Foxy Voxan If Segale has finally made it into productio n with his !talo -Japanese V-twin sportbike afte r two yea rs of R&D, ma ny visitors to the 1999 Paris Show will be hoping they don't have to wait so lon g to be ab le to buy its 100-percent Gallic eq uivalent - the undi spu ted star of Paris '99 . The first Fren ch Superbike since the abort ive three-cyli nd er Siccard i prototy pe ba ck in 1981, th e beau tifu l new full y-faired, four-headlamp Voxan VBl K TMtosell H usaberg? KTM's managemen t team , led by Stefan Peire r, is reportedly preparing to d ivest itself of the Austrian firm 's small four-stroke specia list Swedish subsidiary, Husaberg, wh ich it acquired in 1995. KTM has invi ted Husaberg d irectors to submit plans for a managem ent buyout that would see the compa ny revert to Swedish ow nership. That deci sion probably explains KTM's choice to switch outgoing 500cc World Champ ion Joel Smets to KTMs for next season, awa y from the Hu sabergs on which the Belgian wo n his su ccessio n of world crowns, but w hich proved increasing ly u nre liable for him during the 1999 season. With a n annual p roduction of less than 10 percent of KTM ' s ne ar -30,000 bik e vo lume, H usa berg is pro bab ly see n by Peirer & Co. as an increasin g drain on profits, especiall y after their rece nt rep urchase of the ma jority of KTM eq uity. And, ab ove all, in light of the ca pital invest ment needed to develop the mu ch-need ed line-up of nextgeneration Husaberg models, to replace the current range built aro und the existing light, com pact, but so me w ha t elderly SOHC, four-val ve eng ine dating from 1989. Hen ce the sale; watch th is sp,ace to see if the management bu yout comes off. Joe l Smets en route to the SOOcc Wor ld Championship on a Husaberg. Next year, Smets will ride a KTM. Spo rt - as in Voxa n Boxer - is based on the same m od ul a r -d e sig n twin- tube chassis and fu el-in ject ed eight-va lve OO HC 72-d egr ee V-twi n 995cc engine as the French com pany's existing trio of models, and owes its attention-g rabbing looks to a collabo ra tion be tw een Boxer Bikes b os s Th ie rry H e nri ett e and Fr ench-ba sed Br iti sh d esi gner Gl ynn Kerr, w ho prev i ou s ly d e si gn ed t h e Aprilia Pegaso-engined Boxer Scram bler 650 for him. This time around, it' s Henrie tte w ho is largely res po nsib le for the design, after selling his Toulouse-based mo torcycle operation - France's thi rdla rges t bik e d e aler sh ip - in order to fina lly esta blis h Boxer as a small-volume, h and -built ma nu facturer in its own righ t. Two yea rs ago , wo rking on his own, He nrie t te d es ign ed th e Voxa n 1000 Scrambler mod el for the Fre nch company - a bike that was also displayed a t Paris bu t is now in fina l preproduction for m. The Scrambler will go on sa le in April next yea r. Henriett e used his con ta c ts wi t h co m pa ny b o ss Ja cqu es Ga rdette to arra nge a su pp ly of Voxan rolling chassis that he will clothe and sell in VBl Spo rt gui se under the Boxer name. Alt ho ugh to begin wi th the bik e will use the sta ndard 120 hp tune of the Voxan Cafe Racer, in due course there'll b e an Evo lu tion ve rsio n w ith m ore ' power, w hich w ill surely represent the long-a waited first all-French su perbike. Using the distincti ve stock tw in-tub e Voxan chassis d esign with a sta inlesssteel finish, and the sta ndard swingarm braced an d anodized in cha rcoa l, Henri- ette has fitted upside-down Showa forks to the VBL He also has added an Ohlins rear shoc k, horizon tall y located und er the 72-d egr ee V-twin engine (like th e producti on V ox an s) as we ll as top-line Brembo bra kes and a com pletely revised exhaus t sys tem exiti ng in twin silencers under the seat. The carbo n-air intakes to th e fuel injectio n system's full y-sealed airbox protrude forw ard from the nos e of the bi ke, to com bine w it h the fou rheadlamp "face" to crea te a unique an d very d istinct ive look. Henriett e hopes to sell the bik e fora little mor e th an $16,000 whe n production begins in 2001, if all goes well in d evelopmen t. It looks like the French "t ricou le u r" is abou t to wave a little m o r e p r oud ly in t he t w o -w h e e led wo rld . CN Aprilia's goal Aprilia has two ove rriding objectives to accomplish in the next five years, says com pany boss Iva no Begg io. The first is to complete full expansion of its range, including both the V-twin RSV four-stroke family, a nd th e new fuel -injec ted per sonal transportation two-stroke models; and the second is to se ll these products in volume around the world, especially in key new mark ets such as the USA and Japan. Using the enha nced prod u ction capability provided by the three new factories it has opened in the past two years, including an eng ine plant in San Marino, Aprilia has launched 18 updates of existin g mod els a nd 12 all-new ones in the pa st yeJ r, says Beggio. An d that d oesn 't include the ran ge of new scooters sched uled to debut at the Bologna Show in December, fitted with the DiTech direct fuel-injecti on techn ology d eveloped under license from Western Aus tralia's O rbital Engin e Corp. The direct fuel injection is claimed to ena ble Aprilia to meet the stringent ne w Eur02 emissio ns s tan d ards, mandated for 2002, with their tw o-stroke engines. The sys tem is said to make the engines run su fficiently clean and efficient, while rem aining adequa tely pow erful, to produce em issions, fuel econo my and performan ce figu res supe rior to the four-stroke engines hith erto touted as the solu tion to two-whee led PTV emissions problems. With Aprilia's Am erican start- up jus t begin ni ng d elivery, Beggio says the com pa ny p lans to sell 3500 machines there in the next year, altho ugh there won't be an Aprilia team running in the AMA Superbike Champions hip just yet - maybe in 2001. But he confirms that the Italian manufacturer will indeed join Ducati in unveiling a 750cc Su perspo rt version of th e RSV Mille V-twin Su perbike, th ou gh no da te has been se t for its introduction. But Aprilia is se t to d ouble-up on its World Superbike involvement in 2000, with a second rid er joining Peter Goddard (who wiII be in the secon d yea r of a two-year contract) aboard the short-stroke 60-deg ree V-twin. Aprilia head man Ivano Beggio and the new SL1000. 5

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