Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Paris Show 2001 By ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY KYOICHI NAKAMURA ....iJ ust nine days later after II Salone off in Milan, the second installment of the EuroBike 2001 new model spectacular, held this time in Europe's third-largest powered twowheeler market, opened its doors in Paris. The news that France's solitary motorcycle manufacturer, Voxan, had been given a last-minute lease of life with a cash injection that allows it to keep operating more or less normally until the end of the year, while the search continues for a more permanent rescuer, gave a fillip to the proceedings - even if the French company was a no-show after previously canceling its exhibition in anticipation of the worst. Instead, it fell to Voxan's high-profile customer Boxer Bikes to wave the 'tricouleur' flag to best effect - not only with the Blue Marlin cafe racer prototype unveiled at Milan and again displayed here by Aprilia, who commissioned it, but also with an impressive display of its own Voxan-engined products powered by the French brand's 72-degree V-twin, eight-valve motor and, in the case of the VB 1 sportbike already in series production, also using the distinctive Voxan twin-spar steel-tube frame with castalloy steering head and swingarm pivot assemblies. But alongside the base-model VBl Sport with 100 hp restricted motor required under the home-market French regulations, Boxer also launched the high-spec VB 1 Racing streetbike targeted at export customers, with ] 28 hp at the rear wheel and Ohlins suspension, • costing around 30-percent more and likely to form the basis of a future French Superbike contender - if Voxan stays in business. If not, thanks to his Blue Marlin g' kicked 42 OCTOBER 24, 2001 • cue connection, Boxer boss Thierry Henriette already has the offer of Aprilia engines on the table, whose 60- . degree V-twin. format would fit quite neatly in the Voxan chassis and has the added advantage of being drysumped, just like the French motor. However, with Voxan's new lease of life, it may not come to that. But the biggest novelty on the Boxer stand was the B2 Roadster, the company's first model built using its own chassis and for which Henriette is constructing an extension to his Toulouse factory in order to put it into volume production at a very competitive price of around $] 1,000. This Gallic competitor to the 54 Monster and Cagiva Raptor again employs the fuel-injected 72-degree V-twin Voxan engine, but mounted in the company's own well-triangulated, polished aluminum tubular spaceframe which is likely to form the basis of other future Boxer models. Instead of the Voxan frame's castalloy swingarm pivot and integral oil tank, with horizontal rear suspension mounted under the motor, the Boxer B2 has the tubular alloy swingarm pivoting in two cast uprights, with a separate oil tank for the dry-sump motor located under the engine and cleverly disguised, while the vertically located rear suspension is a Fournales air shock whose sophisticated intemal valving removes the need for a progressive link - the shock is bolted directly to the frame and the swingarm, with no linkage. Scaling a claimed 396 pounds dry with 100 hp from the French-market engine (but with a more powerful version easily available, if needed), with 43mm upside down Showa forks and a ]460mm wheelbase, the Boxer B2 has the mark of a serious contender in the booming Naked bike sector. It's distinctive looks are underlined by Boxer's trademark conical exhaust Yamaha waited until the Paris Show to debut its new TDM900 everyday, go-anywhere motorcycle. silencers and the added advantage of offering modular styling - the customer has the option of unbolting the wings on the sides of the fuel tankcum-airbox and replacing them with any of up to 20 different designs, says Thierry Henriette. Aprilia dealers must be wishing they had the B2 to sell against their Ducati and Cagiva competitors. Instead, Ducati underlined its range's growing diversity by displaying once again the Multistrada 'polivalente' prototype unveiled at Milan -

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