Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

deliver 98 hp at 8250 rpm at the crankshaft, so with added midrange torque compared to the Mille Rrruono. The twin-headlamp nose fairing provides some minimal wind protection, while the single-sided swingarm fitted allows the single 2-1 exhaust's quite bulky twin-exit silencer to be tucked in closer than with a conventional design, and the shapely fuel tank incorporates the header tank for the engine's liquid-cooling system in its front section, with two grab-handles fixed BMW F650CS-style to the rear part, for the passenger to hang on to. The Mana's appearance in prototype form at Bologna was evidently designed to elicit public response to determine whether it's worth putting into production - a similar ploy to that adopted at the Milan Show with the Boxer Design-produced Blue Marlin V -twin cafe racer. Aprilia has now confirmed this will be produced next year, again as a limited-edition model. In spite of the steep drop in smallcapacity scooter sales in Italy, down 43 percent in the first six months of 200 I, Honda launched two new such models at Bologna, the Dylan 125 and 150 liquid-cooled four-strokes with 13-inch wheels and aimed at the upper end of the PTW market - or, maybe, at those old enough to remember Bob and who aren't yet knocking at heaven's door. BMW also debuted the final piece in the makeover puzzle of its Boxer twin range at the Motor Show, the R850RT sports tourer which is every way is a smaller-capacity version of the bigger R 1150RT, featuring full bodywork with electrically-adjustable windscreen, and the Evo brake system complete with ABS. Compared to the R850R, the smaller-capacity flat-twin engine has been developed to produce more power in RT guise, with peak power up to 70 hp at 7000 rpm from 54 hp at 7250 rpm, and maximum torque raised from 77 Nm to 80 Nm, both at 5500 rpm. Claimed top speed is 1 18 mph. One other new motorcycle model made its debut at the Motor Show from a surprising source. Founded in 1958 by Learco Malaguti, the eponymous Bologna-based concern has A second Aprilia was a big hit at the show - the V-twin ETV1000 Mana. Closely based on the Caponard, the Mana was on hand at Bologna as more of a test than anything - a public test to see if the bike should be put Into production. until now always focused on scooters and minibikes, with resultant exposure to the peaks and troughs of this volatile market. Malaguti's son Antonino, now in charge of the company's development, has recognized the dangers this policy poses, and as the first step in a process of targeting the full-size motorcycle market, which will also see Malaguti going GP racing in the 125cc class next season, the scooter company displayed a prototype Supermoto streetbike at Bologna powered by an air-cooled Yamaha single-cylinder motor. Designed by Alberto Strazzari, principal of local R&D house Engine Engineering (which is also responsible for the Malaguti GP racer), the Super Climber 600 is not a trials model but a said to be inspired by the legendary Ducati 450 Scrambler built across town 30 years ago, which current Ducati management has so far avoided _reviving. The Super Climber's twin-tube perimeter steel frame resembles a little the chassis of the Benelli Tomado Superbike, with a tall aluminum rear strut into which the tubes are glued, but with a twinshock rear end and 18-inch front/17inch rear wire wheels, the latter shod with a 160-section rear tire. Front brake is a single 320mm Braking disc with Grimeca six-piston caliper, and dry weight of the whole bike is said to be less than 308 pounds, complete with minimal street equipment. Given the flourishing European Supermoto market, Malaguti may have chosen well in opting to kick off bike production in this niche sector especially as the formation of Miamibased Malaguti USA (an event marked by the company's sponsorship of Playboy Event 2001 on the Florida sands, and the production of a series of scooter models emblazoned with the trademark Playboy bunny) gives the company a toehold in another key potential market for this type of motorcycle. eN Aprilia has revealed its RS3 four-stroke Grand Prix contender for the new MotoGP category and it's a small, compact three-cylinder machine aimed at taking full advantage of the new class' reduced 297 -pound minimum weight limit for triples, compared to 319 pound for fourlfive-cylinder machines, which is in every way a smali-scale version of a current Formula J racing car engine. Unveiled at the Bologna Motor Show by Aprilia owner Ivano Beggio and the boss of Aprilia's race division, Jan Witteveen, the RS3 employs a DOHC dry-sump in-line threecylinder engine developed in conjunction with Cosworth in Britain, which also assisted the Italian company with R&D of its RSVl000SP Superbike. "Part of our design objective was to contain both weight and the size of the bike as a whole," says Witteveen. "We haven't done anything out of this world to achieve that, only that in our view, and apparently that of Honda, too, the MotoGP rules favor three- and five-cylinder machines. By using the three-cylinder engine, we have a ten-kilo [22 pounds] advantage over the four-cylinder bikes - but our motorcycle blends all the established knowledge we've acquired in both Superbike and Grand Prix racing in recent years, employing typical European engine technology, as well as certain design features from Formula One." On the RS3 this sees the upper half of the horizontaliy-split crankcase cast in a single piece with the cylinder block, for added rigidity, and gear drive to the twin overhead camshafts carried up the left side of the engine. Valve operation is pneumaticaliy controlled, as on all current Formula 1 cars including Cosworth's own V-IO Jaguar motor, which aliows the height of the very compact engine to be reduced compared to a valvespring design, and there appears to be no balance shaft, indicating that the engine has 120degree crank throws for perfect primary balance - though it won't be until we hear it run in public for the first time that we'li know whether the RS3 has the same Big-Bang configuration as the first version of the Benelli Tornado 900 Superbike. The 6-3- J exhaust system features twinport exhausts exiting aU three cylinders, each merging into a single large diameter header pipe, and the six-speed transmission with dry clutch has a side-loading extractable gearbox for ease of changing intemal ratios. The fuel injection system employs a single centraliypositioned external injector above each intake stack, with FJ -type ride-by-wire throttle control and Aprilia's own electronic engine management system, and the company claims a power ouput of 'over 200 hp at over 15,000 rpm' for the smali, compact power unit. Although as you would expect at this stage, Witteveen decines to specify the engine's bore and stroke, or even reveal its exact capacity, this is thought to be close to the class's 990cc limit, in which case a real-world rev ceiling of 17,000 rpm seems likely, given that the cylinders are only slightly larger than those of Cosworth's current Fl engine design, which already revs even higher and has a specific power output of around 270 hp per liter. A figure of 220 hp for the Aprilia engine in 990cc form - if it is indeed that big would not therefore be unlikely. However, the trick will be in putting such power outputs to the ground, and here again Aprilia has opted to foliow a different design route than its Japanese competitors' four/five-cylinder machines, by fitting the RS3 engine in a modified version of the RSWSOO V-twin two-stroke frame which Jeremy McWilliams put on pole position for the bike's last-ever race at the Australian GP one year ago. Aprilia has continued to test the then-retired machine during the 200 J season, and the RS3 unveiled at Bologna shows why. having almost the same compact physical dimensions as the V-twin two-stroke, in spite of an extra cylinder and up to twice the engine capacity. The beefy reinforced swingann (which may in future be made out of carbon fiber, if the RS3 needs extra help to reach the 297 -pound weight limit it's presently quoted as meeting) houses a J6.S-inch front wheel, matched to either a 17-inch or J6.6-inch front, though with Dunlop as the team's tire supplier, only the smalier one would likely be used. Ohlins 42mm forks and rear suspension are employed, and carbon brakes matched with radial-mounted Brembo four-pot calipers, with a J4JOmm wheelbase which Witteveen says can be varied by up to 30mm in either direction, to obtain ideal weight distribution and handling. With its steeply inclined cylinders, the Aprilia is quite low, even with provision for a 24litre fuei load in the rear section of the 'tank', with the forward part occupied by the airbox, fed by the twin ducts in the nose of the RS3's distinctively styled bodywork. "When I went to the Race Department to check on progress, and I saw the bike looking so beautiful, I asked them who had designed it," says Beggio. "They told me, 'The windl' This is undoubtedly the most important racebike in the history of Aprilia, and also the one which has required the greatest commitment in terms of time and money - but it embodies all our passion, as well as our finest technology, and our dreams. We expected there would be other European manufacturers joining us on the grid for MotoGP, but in the end there's just us against our Japanese competitors - and though we certainly aren't a small company, neither are we on the same scale industrially as they are. But in spite of this, I'm confident that we shan't disgrace ourselves any more than we have up till now," eye I e n e vv S • JANUARY 9,2002 19

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