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/128217
accord and strike off on their own. That's exactly what happened in South Korea to Suzuki with its link to a local manufacturer, now on the verge of striding onto the world stage with a range of V -twin motorcycles powered by its own engines. Welcome to the Hyundai of two wheels: Hyosung. When, at the 1999 Milan Show, Hyosung displayed a range of seemingly well-made, if uninspiringly styled motorcycles fitted with its own design of air/oil-cooled 75-degree Vtwin eight-valve engines in 125cc and 250cc capacities, rather than the bought-in Suzuki singles that had hitherto powered the four-stroke models in its growing range of worthy but unexceptional Asian-built products, it served notice that this was a company worth watching. One year later, at Intermot 2000, the display on the Hyosung stand of the prototype water-cooled 600cc 90-degree V -twin Comet roadster with six-speed gearbox, told you which nation's motorcycle industry was following in the tire tracks of its automotive counterpart. Now that model is about to enter volume production in July in 650cc guise, just as Hyosung president Jung Soon Kim reveals that the Korean company's R&D operation in Japan is hard at work on a 1000cc 90-degree V-twin eight-valve engine tion line!). ended up making a deal with Suzuki to help it get started. Production of a pair of two-strokes - the FR80 stepthrough and GP125 motorcycle - began in 1980 at Hyosung's freshly-built Changwon factory near Busan, in the south of the country, and the 15,000 bikes built that first year swiftly rose to an annual peak of 150,000 units produced during Hyosung's mid-'90s boom years by the company's 440-strong workforce, of which around 10 percent are female, and no less than 12 percent are today employed on R&D, says the company's export director, W.K. Park. But restrictions placed by Suzuki on exporting Korean-made products bearing the Hyosung name but using its engines encouraged Kim & Co. to establish their own R&D operation in Japan, headhunting a group of a dozen engineers from Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha to develop a range of engines and the bikes to install them in, to the level of 2-3 new models each year, each displaying increasingly sophisticated technology and build quality. This has now led to the V-twin family of models currently plotting their inexorable way up the capacity scale, and a growing emphasis on export markets - with 68,000 bikes sold overseas in the model year 2000 - make Hyosung an effective standard-bearer for Korea's eral Park reasoned that as crucial a resource as the automotive industry had to be protected as much as possible from any future North Korean attack, so he chose a location near Busan which, close to Korea's south coast and thus as far as you can get from the Communist North, had remained in UN hands throughout the war. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, Changwon was chosen for its natural defenses and proximity to the country's main port and is today the location not only of the main plants of all Korea's car companies, as well as both the nation's motorcycle manufacturers, but also many of their suppliers and subcontracters. For example, Hyosung's site, containing the bike manufacturer's two full-time assembly lines, is flanked on one side by its supplier of springs and on the other by a washing-machine manufacturer where the company's laundry is processed as part of that firm's R&D cycle. Yes, really! Dating from the 1980s, Hyosung's factory isn't ultramodern, but it's spotlessly clean and well-tended, equipped with good-quality modern tooling featuring a high degree of automation, with one worker monitoring up to five or six different machining oper.ations. Quality control seems high, with each component subjected to rigorous checks for compliance to came very close to opting for a parallel-twin engine format, rather the Vtwin layout Mr. Kim says they intend to make its trademark. As the attached photo of the prototype GA300. made in the mid-'90s shows an eight-valve 300cc twin that wanted to pretend it was a four by doubling up on the number of exhausts for each cylinder - such a project came close to being tooled up and launched and was only cancelled in the face of open hostility to the idea from Hyosung importers around the world. Instead, the company's R&D staff began work on the first of their Vtwin family in 1998, and just 18 months later it entered production for the 2000 model year, in 125 and 250cc forms. Now comes the 650 Vtwin range, production of which is about to start this summer, powered by a 647cc 90-degree chain-driven dohc V-twin engine measuring 81.5 x 62mm, running 11.6: 1 compression and fitted with 39mm Mikuni carbs. This produces a claimed 69 bhp at 9000 rpm, five bhp more than its 600cc predecessor, and with 4Nm more torque it delivers 61 Nm at 7300 rpm and will initially be marketed in 650 Comet roadster guise, employing the quite Ducati-esque trellis frame of the Intermot 2002 prototype, which is a claimed 60percent stiffer than the current 250 ... after three decades ruling worldwide sales charts, the rising costs of manufacturing at home in Japan have caused all four J-marques growing concern, especially in terms of remaining competitive in the low-cost markets... design (also to be available in 800cc form), which is expected to debut in 2004 as the basis for a complete range of large-capacity Hyosung models, from sportbike to cruiser via street enduro and tourer. These are set to propel the Korean company onto the world stage as a volume manufacturer producing motorcycles squarely targeted at Western markets but available at a significantly reduced cost compared to its Japanese and European (and American!) rivals - just as Hyundai and Daewoo have already done on four wheels. A trip to South Korea allowed me to explore this fascinating country, perpetually in the news thanks mainly to the antics of its crazy cousins up North, and to check out Hyosung's pretensions to become a world player from up close. Hyosung Motors & Machinery Inc. was founded in 1979 as a subsidiary of Korea's largest leather goods manufacturer and after unsuccessfully pursuing a technical link with various European manufacturers headed by Moto Guzzi (De Tomaso unsuccessfully tried to sell it the Benelli produc- two-wheeled industry compared to its only rival, Daelim, a larger but less versatile Honda joint venture producing obsolete Japanese models. It's the exact same thing as comparing the low-tech, low-cost Daewoo operation with more self-confident, more upmarket Hyundai. Hyosung's HQ is located in in Changwon City, a sunny industrial town (with incredibly clean air thanks to its mountain location and a strict pollution policy), home to a population of 500,000 and set in the hills behind Busan (South Korea's secondlargest city, with 3.5 million inhabitants compared to 14 million in Seoul). Changwon is Korea's Detroit, home also to a couple of Hyundai's factories, as well as to Daewoo, Kia, SsangYong and the car plant belonging to the giant Samsung congolomerate. That's because, at the end of the destructive Korean War in 1953, the country's '60s strongman General Park decided to locate South Korea's fledgling automotive industry as far away physically as possible from the postwar DMZ/De-Militarized Zone splitting Korea into two halves. Gen- specification, and the firm's fully automated in-house paint shop has two separate sections, one for plastic components, the other for metal. The two full-time production lines - one for V-twin models, the other for singles - have a production ceiling of 500 bikes a day, depending on the model, and at the time of my visit were cranking out 290 units daily, with the accent on the more intricate V-twin bikes. The newest model just entering production was the 125 Troy (as in Bayliss or Corser), also known as the Karion in Europe where it retails for around 3000 Euros. The fat-tired four-stroke street scrambler is clearly derived from Yamaha's successful TW225 J-market cult-model, which Mr. Park says Hyosung is planning to punch out to 180/200cc for this September'S Milan Show and should have good potential in Western markets once that happens. But out of the 22 different models in its current range, it's Hyosung's twin-cylinder products that are likely to earn the company success in export markets - making it all the more interesting that its management cue I e V-twin's spaceframe. An Aquila custom version will appear soon after, followed later in the year by a fullyfaired sportbike with half-faired option, which will be a keenly-priced rival for Ducati's 620 Sport. Hyosung is already working on a 750cc version of the motor, but this is second in line to the forthcoming 1000cc engine set to debut in 2004. When that happens, the Korean manufacturer is going to be competing with the big boys - but nothing I saw on my visit to Changwon left me with any doubts that Hyosung is up to the challenge. And riding its present 250cc V-twin models for a day - later on in Australia, in conditions that its more demanding export markets are going to measure Hyosung's products by - convinced me that the Hyundai of two wheels we've been waiting for is finally here. Well priced, well made and increasingly well thought out, the first of the Asian motorcycle manufacturers outside Japan to be a serious challenger for world sales is about to make its mark. Hyosung: Remember the name - it's coming to a highway near you... CN n e _ os • JUNE 4, 2003 47