Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2002 01 09

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128136

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Continued from page 96 motorcycle vacation destinations, with trips to include the Isle of Man, Turkey, Tuscany and Corsica and Sardinia. New trips for 2002 include travel through the former east bloc countries - Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria. Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. For more information on the lotus Tours. call 312/951-0031 or visit their website at www.lotustours.com. Carl Fogarty's World Superbike Petronas team. Plater will begin testing the team's R1 in late January in Almeira, Spain. , According to a release issued by Pro -' Taper Handlebars, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas has ruled that the patent infringement lawsuit filed in August of 2000 by Tucker-Rocky Distributing and Easton Aluminum against England's Renthai America will go forward. The claims in the case revoive around Renthal's manufacture and importation of handlebars under the "FATBAR" name, which the plaintiffs claim infringe their rights under a U.S. patent. Pacific Track Time, a provider of track days with operations in Gilroy, California, have announced their 2002 schedule Venues for 2002 will include laguna Seca, Thunderhill Park, California Speedway, and the Streets of Willow Springs. For more information. call 877/809-2170. David Delong. 71, died on December 17 after a short illness in Savannah. Georgia. Delong was an artist. teacher. and life-long motorcycle road racer. He started his racing career by bringing a pre-war BMW racer back from Germany before moving on to a series of Parillas, Ducatis, Aermacchis, Manx Nortons, and various TD and TZ Yamahas, including a Harris-TZ750. His last race bike was a Round one of the 2002 FMF/AMA District 37 Big 6 Championship GP Series kicks off at los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale. California, February 2-3. For more information. call 818/367-4516,818/631-4249,310/6173419. c u o o o lotus Tours has announced its 2002 'I r L [ o c c • MZ Gathers Momentum Unlike their neighbors over the border in Austria, KTM. whose recenUy revealed 990cc V4 GPI project will have a street production spinoff, MZ does not intend to develop a hypersports version of its Oral-designed race engine. Instead, the German company will be focusing on longterm development of the 1000S parallel-twin sportbike which was launched at Intermot 2000. and is scheduled to enter volume production in September of next year. Before that, though, MZ management is understood to be planning a 150odd limited-edition version of the fuel-injected sportbike with new-edge styling by Peter Kaumann, which is due to be built next spring. It will be powered by an uprated version of the liquid-cooled dohc 8-valve dobe fuel-injected parallel-twin engine prodUcing over 130 bhp at 1 1, 000 rpm in prototype form, with twin balance shafts and ISO-degree one-up. onedown crank throw. If it goes ahead - and the final decision depends of the successful outcome of ongoing R&D - this will be fitted with carbon fiber bodywork and uprated Ohlill5 sus- Honda RS 125, and, at age 70, Delong managed to accumulate enough points to finish second in the CCS Southeast region GP singles class for the 2000 season. last year, after a mechanical failure resulting in a crash, Delong retumed to racing two months after suffering a broken clavicle, ribs and hand. He is survived by his wife, Harriette, and his son, David. With a new service provided by the AMA, computer-savvy motorcyclists can now get in touch with their state, city and county lawmakers and government officials on important issues with the click of a mouse, according to the AMA. The association has expanded its AMA Rapid Response Center that puts motorcyclists immediately in contact with federal lawmakers and government officials to include state and local lawmakers and officials. The Rapid Response Center is designed to make sure the voices of motorcyclists are heard when laws or regulations that could affect their future are being considered. It provides an instantaneous link that targets a message directly pension and Brembo brake packages, aimed at delivering a leading-edge sportbike product that would provide customers with the basis for Thunderbike or even privateer Superbike racing. The German company has no intention of going World Superbike racing itself - preferring to focus on four-stroke GP racing to help raise its profile - but a high-end version of the volume production 10005 sportbike would help convince the marketplace that the words MZ and quality are not mutually exclusive. Thereafter, MZ plans to launch at least one new model every year based on their parallel-twin family. which already exists in 600cc and 750cc engine formats - though the projected supercharged verson has been scrapped. says company boss Petr-Karel Korous, One of these will be a 750cc Supersport contender, as well as 600/750 and looOec naked roadster models, and a 1000ec sports tourer. Hong Leong bike boss Ron Urn confinns the funding is in place for this volume of product development, of which the 1000S coming next year is the lead-in product. Meantime production of MZ's good-selling trio of 125cc four-stroke streetbikes - the base-level RTI25 road version, and related Enduro and Superrnotard models - powered by its own four-valve engine continues to grow, with a total of 20,000 two-wheelers of every kind produced by the Gentian company in 2001, projected to rise to 30,000 in 2002 before manufacture of the twin-cylinder range comes fully on line. This has been sufficient to push the marque to a 7 percent 8 ~o o o o To cast your vote. lag an to http://www.cyclenews.cam. cyclenews.com reader poll question of the weel< Who will win th Western Regional I i!Scc SUllercrass Series? D. J.mes S ew.r H. D.nny Smith • ...---'l. Bobby Bands 98 JANUARY 9. 2002· cue • e n e vv s to the decision-makers. The Rapid Response Center is part of the AMA' s website: www.AMADirectlink.com.By clicking on the "AMA Rapid Response" logo, motorcyclists are taken to a site where they can send e-mail messages on current issues. The AMA StateWatch section of the AMA Rapid Response Center keeps motorcyclists abreast of motorcycling issues in their areas. The "legislative alerts and updates" section offers riders the opportunity to support local efforts to eliminate motorcycle tolls on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, support the creation of off-highway vehicle trails in Tennessee, support increased funding for rider education in Wisconsin, and comment on a variety of other motorcycling-related issues. -- The l.A. Sleeve/Pro-X Piston race support van will be on hand at the Supercross rounds this season with race representative Ted Heilbron offering riders help on Pro-X pistons, clutch kits, connecting rods and gasket sets. For more info call eN Niks Pro-X at 562/693-2746. market share in its German home market, before beginning an export push in 2002 which will see MZ motorcycles relaunched in the USA. ..... willi ....... Ilion to --..cIto _ ~ _ ... 1..-11 of ... ......1t 1ooos lIdIIIon willi elqlKtecl oat nut ......... praductl_ model............ ~ ............ of fn·.A,...,..d~ 1IIk

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