Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

2001 Milan Motorcycle Show Continued from inside cover which will make its debut in Munich a year from now, says KTM boss Stefan Peirer, though this is likely to take a back seat in terms of volume to the LC8 Duke streetrod which will debut alongside it, and will mark KTM's entry into the large-capacity streetbike market - as well, inevitably, the Austrian firm's first serious step toward the Superbike sports model that must inevitably come, and is freely spoken of off the record by key KTM executives. KTM's single-cylinder range featured detailed improvements and freshened-up styling based on the orange and black colors that have become the company's trademark though three new competition models based on the bikes that brought KTM riders world-class success were launched at Milan. These included the 250 E/XC two-stroke based on the machine which took Finland's Juha Salminen to the overall World Enduro title this season, and two LC4 fourstroke singles - the 660 Supermoto factory replica of European Champion Thierry Van Den Bosch's machine, and the customer version of the works desert racers which swept the first five places of the 200 1 ParisDakar. With 200l-year production up 40 percent over 2000 (to 45,500 bikes of all types), and still failing to meet demand, KTM is on a roll - and the Austrian firm still has its V-twin family waiting in the wings. tion 998cc version of the hitherto limited-edition 996R Testastretta, fresh from winning the World Superbike manufacturer's crown in its debut season, as well as taking Troy Bayliss to the World Superbike title. More logically known as the 998, this retains the 996R's 100 x 63.5mm shortstroke dimensions compared to the 98 x 66mm 996 range it supercedes, and comes in two forms - the 123-hp bllse model with dieCllSt crankcases, and the power-up 136-hp high-spec 998S version with new Marelli CPU and sand-cast engine cases, which help in bringing the weight down to 411 pounds from the base model's 435 pounds. Chassis and bodywork on both models are the same as the 996R, with Showa suspension - but while these will form the basis of Ducati's customer Superbike contenders for 2002, the factory team will have something even better, in the form of the Ohlins-equipped 998R. To be built in the first year at least just as a 500-unit limited edition available from February 2002 onward at a worldwide price of Euro 27,000 ($24,918), this heavily oversquare desmoquattro has engine dimensions of 104 x 58.8mm, which together with a hike in compression to 12.3:1 from 11.4: I, increases power in street guise alone to 139 hp at 10,000 rpm. However, the real benefit of the new ultra-short-stroke V-twin engine will come in competition form, with the race version proved in dyno testing to be safe to 15,000 rpm at sustained speeds, and to 16,000 rpm in short bursts, according to Ducati technical boss Luigi Mengoli, who, however, declines to specify exactly how much more power than Bayliss' 2001 world title winner this delivers, but says merely "Quite a lot!" Suddenly, the specter of a V-twin Ducati GPl contender defeating the· Japanese multis in Grand Prix racing, just as they have in World Superbike, doesn't seem so improbable - nor, indeed, does the embarrassment of a street-based Superbike out-performing the new generation of GPl contenders on tracks they'll be sharing next season. GILERA A company that still has to prove itself all over again in bike terms is Gilera, Italy's oldest motorcycle brand dating from 1909 and relaunched at Milan by owners Piaggio after a decade spent as a badge-engineered understudy to the scootermaking giant. But the steep decline in scooter sales called for urgent measures to get Gilera back into bikes, and without the time available to wait until it had its own range of large- KTM Coincidenta lIy, to be found on a neighboring stand was KTM's equally dominant range of World title-winning off-roaders, headed by the LC8 Rally 950 prototype of its fuel-injected 60degree V-twin range which made its debut a year ago at lntermot and will make its competition debut three months earlier than projected in the Egypt Rally next month (provided this goes ahead as planned, given the troubled world situation), rather than in the Paris-Dakar early next year. While still at this stage in rally guise, it's not too different from the customer LC8 Adventurer enduro 38 OCTOBER 10.2001 • cue I capacity four-stroke engines fully developed, Gilera has taken the same step it already embarked on a decade ago when it signed an abortive deal with Honda for the supply of CBR600 Supersport engines, only this time with Suzuki. The result of this collaboration made its debut at Milan in the form of the bright red Gilera Supersport 600 powered by the Japanese firm's current fuel-injected GSX-R600 motor, transplanted into the Italian firm's cycle parts in completely standard 115-hp form. This employs the Sllme J-bike Nippondenso EFI rather than a Marelli engine management system, but with a different airbox and all-new exhaust system - though making the Akrapovic titanium-can design pass Eur02 noise and emission barriers has to be an interesting challenge for the Siovenian performance exhaust specialist. While slightly slimmer than the equivalent Suzuki, thanks to the single central air intake instead of the Japanese bike's twin lateral ones - though the controversial-looking result is stylistically reminiscent of a pug-faced Ducati Supermono - the Gilera twinspar alloy frame is deliberately overengineered for the 600cc engine, admits project leader Claudio Vema. "We designed it this way so we could have the option of installing a 1000cc four-cylinder engine in the future," he says. "The result would be very light and give excellent performance." Yes, but would that be with a Suzuki GSX-Rl000 motor, ingegnere - or the one-liter F5 engine which your new companions in the Piaggio family, MV Agusta, are about to launch in a year's time? Place your bets now but, either way, be sure that Gilera will have a four-cylinder contender ready for one-liter Superbike racing from 2004 onward. Scaling a class-leading claimed 356.4 pounds dry with all street equipment - 2.2 pounds less than the already flyweight Suzuki whose engine it shares - the Gilera has an imaginative chassis design, which sees the twin-spar frame's extruded alloy beams welded to a fabricated hollow headstock incorporating central Honda RC51-type ram-air dueting to the airbox. This is, however, braced laterally with titanium struts for extra reinforcement, providing a suitably stiff home for the fullyadjustable 43mm Paioli upside-down forks, set at an angle of 23.5 degrees. Wheelbase is short even by Supersport class standards. at 1392 mm, with a Sachs shock and alloy swingarm , while brakes are a classleading 320mm Brembo package with four-piston calipers - ideal hardware for World Supersport racing in which Gilera have two slots reserved for the 2003 season. Production of the lightweight Italian contender is set to begin in September 2002, and price will be "somewhere between a Japanese 600 and a Ducati 748," says project leader Verna. The question is - are there enough customers ready to pay a 15-20 percent premium for an Italian 600 Supersport fitted with highspec components and Latin styling, over the Japanese bike it shares its engine with? Bimota previously found the answer was - not really: Gilera enthusiasts - as well as Piaggio management - will be hoping the allure of the historic brand which invented the four-cylinder transverse in-line motorcycle format and won six 500cc GP world titles half a century ago in the hands of Geoff Duke and his teammates, will rectify that. Just to underline the reasons for using the Suzuki motor in the new Gilera 600, Piaggio also displayed the prototype of one of its family of Vtwin engines currently under development, the first of which is expected to reach production.in 2003. On show was an 850cc motorcycle engine with SOHC four-valve cylinder heads sourced from the Piaggio XP 500cc scooter engine, which with 85 hp at 8000 rpm will be destined for an everyday model where performance is less important. However, Piaggio's technical chief Lucio Masut revealed that his technical staff is working on a range of engines from 650cc up to 1200cc. aU fuel-injected 90-degree V-twins that thus remove the need for a balance shaft. These will, however, vary 'in design, according to their intended use, says Masut, and include a DOHC 8-valve 1000cc V-twin Superbike engine with the cylinders rotated backward on the crankcases, HondaBMW .howed off Ita F850CS • the lIhow. The fuel-inJectecI .lngIe . . . . . a h...". em. . . . on _ t r I clll_ • It .... a low seat, 1_ center of gl'llVity, aoft and compliant ....p.nsIon, etc. • n __ s

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