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/128218
.... . . . . . . . . _:-1.1'1 • .... - .I"~.'-II- Happenings In Motorcycling [fjJ@71@{?@'jJ@D@0 DUD [fjJ@\}!JD@0 [fjJ@{?@ [fjJ@\}!JD@ [fjJ@71@{?@'iJ.J.--@_D_@_0 Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. is teaming up with Warner Brothers to promote the global premiere of science fiction movie, The Matrix: Reloaded. The Matrix: Reloaded, is the first of two sequels to The Matrix, one of the most successful movies of all time. The film features a dramatic road chase on a Ducati 998 Superbike. To celebrate the film's opening, Ducati bikes were featured on MTV's live show TRL ("Total Request Live"), which was broadcast live from Times Square, New York, on May 13. "Ducati is thrilled to be a part of this hugely exciting film event, and similar Matrix events are being organized in Germany, the UK, Sweden and all over the globe," said David Gross, Ducati creative director. "Movies don't get any bigger than this, and the Matrix bike chase scene - without giving anything away - is 90in9 to be mind· blowing. " The Indian Motorcycle Corporation has just unveiled the T3 Limited Edition Indian Chief motorcycle. The Indian Chief T3 Limited Edition motorcycle marks the return of the infamous cyborg sent to Earth from the future to save mankind in Amold Schwarzenegger's new release, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The newest addition to the Indian Chief motorcycle line, the Chief T3 Limited Edition celebrates one of the most memorable movie franchises of American pop culture and Indian Motorcycle Corporation's return as an American motorcycle OEM. Indian motorcycles were chosen to appear in T3 as police motorcycles and can be seen in the most breathtaking action scene of movie-making history. Setting this collector's edition motorcycle apart from its Chief brethren is an exciting, hand-finished graphics scheme that captures the imagery of the cyborg's battle to save mankind from total destruction. Each of 50 limited edition motorcycles comes with a unique, custom paint job with no two motorcycles looking exactly alike. The effects applied to the Chief exterior are fast and exciting, as if you were riding the bike through an explosive scene in the movie. The MSRP of the Indian Chief T3 Limited Edition is $26,995. For more info go to www.indianmotorycie.com BY ALAN CATHCART - • More Voxan Rumblings Another bom-aglilln marque risen from the dead in recent weeks is France's Voxan, which in spite of a healthy order booll has been in the hands of the receivers since June 200 I. Founded at the end of 1995 by millionaire industrialist Jacques Gardette, Voxan's range of three different models (Roadster, Cafe Racer and the innovative Scrambler) powered by the firm's own fuel-injected eight· valve n·degree V-twin 996cc engine designed by renowned French GP engineer AlainChevallier, carved a healthy slice of their home Frenoh marllet after production began in July 1999, as well as commencing export sales to Germany, Switzerland and Bendux,. But persistent problems with suppliers in a COUlllry with no modem history of four-stroke motorcycle production brought Voxan to its knees, and in spite of successive injections of fresh capital by Gardette and his Dassault aviation industry partners, Voxan was put into liquidation two years ago and closed its doors. A subsequent rescue plan in early 2002 by a Swiss-based Industrial conglomerate named MerkerYshima came to naught. when this was found to have. Mafia connections resulting in an intemational arrest warrant for the company's princlpalsl Now, however, Voxan is back in business. with the first examples of the back-ordered Scrambler rolling off the company's production lines at Issoire, just south of Clermont·Ferrand in the center of France, on April 14, as the first of a total of 800 bikes split among the three different models that it's projected will be bWlt this year by Voxan's 32 employees, aU drawn from the 160-strong previous workforce. The man responsible for the firm's comeback is Bordeaux-bDSed industrialist DidIer Cazeaux, a dedicated motorcyclist since his youth who made his fortune in property before acquiring boat manufacturer Guy Couach in 1996, since wilen he's built up the French cpmpany into a significant - and profitable - force in the worldwide lWOll'Y yacht market. Since acquiring Voxan from the Oquidator In June 2002, Cazeaux has pumped 2.5 million euros into the company to restart manufacture and plans to invest even more as he expands productiOn and adds to the range of models. By reducing the number of suppliers of the 2200 components comprising each Voxan motorcycle, with 30 percent of them new to the firm, Cazeaux has addressed the problems of _ price, quallty and on-time delivery !bat speIIect the end of Voxan the first time arotmd, whOe also redudng the cost of rnanuflld:ure of each bike by one-third. At the same time, his R&D engineers have made detailed improvements to the three models. including revised cylinder heads and hetId gaskets for the V-twin engine, whlch is currently limited to 100 bhp (85 bhp for the Roadster), In accordance with French government rules, as well as new Remus exhausts and a more efI'lc:ient waterpump and lubrication system, both to redress the over.haating problems of earlier models. Chasslswlse, the bikes have a new cast-aluminum swingarm, revised WP upside-down forks and new front brake discs, while the oldest model in the range, the Roadster 1000 naked-bike competitor to the Ducati Monster, has been refreshed stylingWise. Price increases are minimal though - less than 100 euros for two of the three models - and the firm In its rebom guise already has a healthy Ost of orders from its 40 Frencb dealers, which wlll fuel its return to export markets with unrestricted engines in 2005, when annual production is projected to increase to more than 2000 bikes, as part of a gradual expansion to the 3000-a-year capacity of Voxan's current Issoire plant. These will include the volume production version of the Boxer VB I Sport, the acclaimed Voxan-englned Superbike produced four years ago by Thierry Henriette, who earlier also created the Scrambler model for the French marque. Launched on the Voxan stand as the undoubted star of the 1999 Paris Show, complete with distinctive four-headlamp "face," slim lines and the kind of classy allure they sell in expensive bottles of French perfume or vintage champagne, the 125-bhp VBl Sport was the joint creation of Henriette and his French-based British design consultant Glynn Kerr, USing a Voxan Cafe Racer rolling chassis but badged as a Boxer. Two years later the Boxer VBl Sport actually began production In the ultramodem, purpose-bullt 4950 sq. ft. factory which Heqriette had constructed in his home base of Toulouse, whence the first 30 customer bikes built there had already been delivered, when Voxan went Into liquidation. cuttlhg off his supply of bikes and engines. This aborted the launch of the second new Boxer model due to be launched at the 2001 Paris Show, the 108bhp B2 Roadster streetrod that Henriette targeted in terms of performance and style as a competitor to the Ducati 54 Monster. This second model would have used only an engine bought in from Voxan, located in Boxer's own oval-section aluminium spaceframe . but now both it and the VB I Sport design are understood to have been taken over by Didier Cazeaux, and they will be launched at the Paris Show in September as Voxan models, to be built in the lIrm's own Issoire plant. The Voxan soap story has bad its ups and downs, in best Hollywood fashion ~ but the fact that bikes have already been manufactured and shipped to customers by Cazeaux's new company makes it seem likely that this time around, there'll be a happy ending. Just that, given the current frtlst in Franco-AmerIcan transatlantic relations, It presumably Isn't any part of the new owner's business plan to be shipping bikes to the USA anytime soon... TD casl YDur vDIe, IDg Dn ID . ""'--~"'Ihllp:/ IWWYF.'tytlecnews.CD Nicky Haydon 17. 19% Colin Edwards ..........•.............. 15.35% John Hopkins 6 JUNE 1 1 , 2003' cue I • neVIl's .....••..•..••.••.•..••....5.30%