Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

amaha BT11 00 Bulldog turer currently offers such a thing in its catalog - but surely one weighing a claimed 505 pounds dry, propelled by a carbureted 1063cc air-cooled SOHC 75-degree V-twin engine, with only two valves per cylinder and without either a counterbalancer or offset crankpins to smooth out the traditional narrow-angle V-twin vibes, and producing just 65 hp at 5500 rpm, is a joke? I mean - a rival for serious sport-rods like the Cagiva Raptor or Ducati S4 the Bulldog surely isn't, not with that power-to-weight ratio. Monster-masher, not. Well, not until you look at the sticker price, and consider who it is this motorcycle is aimed at. Because at roughly $7500 in its country of manufacture, including a three-year warranty - effectively the same price as the Japan-built Tmax XP500 scooter - the Bulldog undercuts all Ducati's similarly low-tech, air-cooled desmodue M900 Monsters, and evenstevens pricewise with the cheapest of the five-speed M750 range, the Dark. But with Monster production just about to ratchet up to the 100,000 mark, the lack of performance isn't an issue here, only the stylish and carefree riding opportunities bikes like this promise. However, there's no getting away from the fact that the Monsters are targeted at younger riders, as their creator Miguel Galluzzi confirms: "The whole point of the Monster concept is that it's an outrageous, inyour-face kind of bike,' he says. Which by definition means that his take on an updated Monster, the Cagiva Raptor, is even more extreme - whereas the more sober-suited Bulldog undoubtedly is not. More Buell Thunderbolt than XtraRaptor. Yes, but as the average age of motorcyclists around the world continues its inexorable rise, there's a BY ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY KEL EDGE 1\1 0 contest. Only the most dogmatic proponent of any of the other Big Four Japanese brands would argue with the statement that Yamaha is by some way the most innovative and daring Japanese motorcycle manufacturer, in terms of product design. From models that became legends in their own lifetime, like the XTZ600 Tenere and RD350LC, or the V-Max, of course, and the Tenere's much-loved twovalve street-single forerunner, the SR500, right up to the groundbreaking R 1/R6 Supersport sisters with which Yamaha has reinvented the four-cylinder sportbike class, or the WR/yZ400F off-roaders, the house of the tuning forks has a proven track record of innovative responses to market trends with cleverly targeted products - some of them directed at niche sectors, others of wider impact. Of course, sometimes Yamaha's wilder R&D bets don't payoff at the box office, as the unloved V-four Royal Star cruiser and hub-center GTS 1000 proved only too well. But after riding the latest model in the company's product portfolio to have been concocted with a clear eye on a market others have yet to target (but which very surely does indeed exist), j'm prepared to wager Yamaha has backed a winner with its new Italianbuilt BTl 100 Bulldog Euro-bike. Developed by its Italian-based Belgarda subsidiary who, as a potent counter to escalating prices caused by the high Yen, will also manufacture it, with 5000 bikes planned for the initial year of production, the Bulldog's not too shabby. Still, a muscular-looking V-twin naked roadster is one thing - especially as no other Japanese manufac- 1 ... 36 OCTOBER 31,2001 • cue • _ n __ • significant number of older riders loolting for a bike that's simple but stylish, practical but fun, is easy to ride rather than a test of two-wheeled skill levels, has adequate rather than exceptional performance (and by definition is therefore not ultra hightech), and above all is priced to go. These are the men - and women, too: with it's 32.4-inch seat height, this is a bike shorter riders will feel comfortable cUmbing aboard - which the Bulldog is aimed at, some of them new to motorcycling, others many of them born-again bikers. Yamaha deserves credit for identifying this significant market that has black ink on its bank balances, and is ready to buy a bike they feel is tailored to their needs. But before the term 'Old Man's Bike' is slapped on the Bulldog with a derogatory sneer by those who look down on anything not fit for Racer Rd., just remember that a) twowheeled 40-something riders already outnumber those in their 20s in many countries, and b) the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the Western world has made a brilliant success of tailoring its low-tech pushrod V-twins to specific market niches in America and elsewhere, without earning such an epithet. Indeed, there's a case for saying that the Bulldog is indeed a kind of EuroHog, in the sense that it provides the enhanced level of performance and improved 'dynamics required by European road conditions, while offering an entry ticket to the same unthreatening kind of easyriding bikerdom that a Harley does but with added convenience. That's an impression confirmed when you fire up the Bulldog, and it settles into a lazy-feeling lOOO-rpm idle with an offbeat lilt to the twin exhausts which look like they came from Yamaha's TRX parts bin, but whose well-muffled close-coupled crack actually says 'Harley'. Same thing when you notch bottom gear on the five-speed gearbox and accelerate away from rest - noting as you do so that the cable-operated clutch has a smooth pickup and light action, spoiled only visually by the long cable run bisecting the left side of the engine. For in addition to the locomotive-like takeoff which so resembles a Harley, the chain lash from the drive to the SOHC heads does a pretty good job of replicating a Hog's pushrod clatter, while the unmistakable but not in the least unfriendly vibration that the big weights in the rubber-mounted handlebar ends only partly conceal has the same sense of mechanical happening as on a 45degree V-twin Harley. Call it character - and remember that many potential Bulldog owners have either spent a lifetime on two wheels, during which they've come to expect a little shake, rattle and go, or else came to bikes via the driver's seat of their Volvo or Nissan, in which case the last thing they're looking for is a two-wheeled version of their everyday transportation. Which is not to say the Bulldog is a boneshaker - but nor is it boring, either. To concoct it, the Belgarda project team, led by Claudio Consonni and his Japanese counterpart Hiromi Yamamoto, started with the wellproven 75-degree V-twin engine last featured in the XVS 11 00 DragStar. This means the XVS motor comes very cheap, having already had its R&D costs written off at least three times over - a key factor in the Bulldog's low list price. As plucked from the DragStar, the 95 x 75mm chrome-bore, dry-sump, SOHC engine has been re-engineered compared to its Virago days, with forged pistons and carburized connecting rods together delivering improved throttle response thanks to their reduced reciprocating weight, while revised cam profiles boost low to midrange pickup even more. All told, the Bulldog delivers a meaty maximum torque of 88.2Nm/9.0 kgm at 4500 rpm. That 65 hp power peak a thousand revs higher is actually 3 hp up on the motor's DragStar guise, thanks to the roadster's freer-flowing exhaust system, a bigger airbox, and improved jetting on the twin 37mm Mikuni carbs positioned between the vee of the cylinders, and eqUipped with a TPS throttle-position sensor for improved response and stronger acceleration. Performance is nevertheless more cruiseresque than sportbike, though even if the hefty torque means that the Bulldog practically pulls off idle and can be gunned wide open from 2000 rpm upward, all the way to the soft-action 7000-rpm revlimiter.

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