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/128238
tha t the show b ikes all sported Pirelli tires, a m uch -needed sa fety m o ve. Production has already started on the 650 Comet, wh ich w ill reach Hyosung im porte rs arou nd the world at th e end o f thi s year, w it h the A q uila following next spring in 650cc fo rm , an d t he full 995cc ve rsi on reportedly ready for a laun ch this time next year at Mun ich. The Hyundai of two whe els rea ll y is here , at last - only a few yea rs ahead of th e multitude of m an ufac turers fro m China , m a n y of which also displayed their wares at Milan . With o nly on e exce pt io n these we re all still very ut ilitarian in appea rance a nd f unc t ional in na ture - but the mediu m -s ized Wuyang marq ue ha s cotto ned on q uickly to what's nee ded to m ar k et it s m od els in t he West , and it has empl o y ed leg end ary designer Giorgetto Giugia ro 's cr eative house in Turin to p rod uce a 125c c four-stroke m oto rcycle th at is bo t h clean and crisp -loo k ing, ~ith that unmist ak able touch of Italian class . Gi ugiaro Design is currently work ing with three other Chi nese manufactu re rs o n ot he r m o dels , including scooters (of which there were inevi t ably a huge ar ray at Milan. fo r su re making a comeback com m ercially after the rocky road of the pas t couple of years) as well as full-size motorc ycl es. Only a m atter of ti me before th e rest of the manu facturers on th e As ian la nd mass fol low in Hyosung's wheeltracks ... Speaking of scooters , among t he many sh ow spe cials - incl udi ng o ne eac h f ro m Yamaha , H o nda and K aw asak i - was a c u rio us-looki n g hybrid scootab ike from Gil era , fruit of the in qui ring techni cal mind of Piagg i o ' s c h ie f e ng inee r Lu ci o M asu t. Gil era 's managem ent hinted the bike c ou ld reach production more o r less uncha nged - tho ugh th at d ecision is essentially no longer the ir s, g iven t he assum pt io n of co ntro l of th e heavily Triumph Thruxton 900 Rivaling Triumph for new-direc tional hardware on show at Milan was the Austrian king o f the off -ro ad wo rld , KTM , whose serious intent to give Ducati and A p rili a a hard ti me in the future by deliveri ng multic y li nd er tarmac m odels w ith a sp orting fl ai r was underli ned with the launch of the customer vers io n of the 990 Duke. Pow ered by the firm 's D ak ar -w inn in g 75 -d eg ree V -twin eight-v a lve LC8 motor, th is was displayed fo r the first time in fu ll o ne -lite r guise, spo rtin g Keih in EFI co m pared to th e carbs of th e d ua l-pu rpose 95 0 Adventurer, wh ic h ki ck ed off KTM's street ran ge a ye ar ag o. Ultracompact and, at 123.2 pounds , a lso very light, th e L C 8 m otor has bee n bored and st roked to pro du ce 999 cc v i a 10 1 x 6 2 .4mm dlrnen si o ns , in whi c h gui se it now de li ver s an officia l 12 2 bh p at 9000 rpm , with 73 foot -pou nds of tor qu e at 70 00 rev s, enoug h to deliver startling p erforman c e in the streetrod sec tor fro m a b i k e w e i g h i n g just 393 .8 pounds half-dry . Fitted in a tubular steel spa ceframe w ith 48mm upsid edown WP f ork s and a canti l e v er sh oc k fr om th e same firm ( wh ic h is owned by KTM), the aggressive-looking S up er D uke i s still a y ea r away fro m appearing in sh owrooms , but the fa ct that it' s such a fr esh , new take on a most signific ant m arket for Eu ropean marques - sales of the riv al Monster have underpinned Du c at i' s ra c e p r o gram and entire co rpo rat e strategy for the past dec ade - means that KTM must now be ta k en as seriously by its European tarma c competitors as it already m ost c ert ainly is by it s Ja panese off-road rivals . As customary at Milan, in the fa ll year betw een bienn ial Inte rmot shows in its ho me city of Munich, BMW had l itt l e of n ote th at was trul y new, showing o nly the R 1200C Montauk cruiser alr eady t est ed by th e world 's press in the weeks leading up to the sh ow , alo ngside an uprat ed version of th e R8 5 0R entry -le vel N a k ed ro adste r, now fitted with a closer-ratio six - speed gearbox , hydra ulic cl utch and vari o us o th er detail improvements. N o sign of the four-cylinder replace m ent for the K -series family kn own to be under development, both in Kompress or form and w it h o ut a superch arger - thoug h the sna t ched spy photos of one of these be ing tested , which German magazines published alongside the ir M ilan Show reports, co nfi rmed th is is indeed on the way . This tim e ne xt yea r, fo r sure... That's wh en we c an expect to see th e fu ll 1000cc v ers ion of wh at i n ma ny wa ys was th e m ost sign ifica nt pa ir of bikes sho w n at Milan '03: the lead in g edge of the long-await ed co n tine nt al -A sian wedge of manufacturers t ha t threaten s to dominate world m ar k e t s i n the co m i n g d e ca d e s . T hese w e r e the two 650cc V - t wi n m o del s from Hy osu ng in Ko rea , th e GT650 Comet naked sportbike - an A sian riva l to Su zu k i' s best -selling SV650 , at what is e x pec te d to be three-quarters of the pri ce - and the smartly -styled ch rome -bed ecked GV650 Aquila cus tom w ith belt final drive, also present ed on th e Hyosung stand at Mil an in pro to ty p e GV 1000 fu ll o n e-l it er g ui se . T hese are pow ered by Hyosung 's own si x -s p e ed wate r -cooled 90 -degree V-twin eig ht valve eng i ne s , wi t h c hain -d ri ven dohc, which in 647cc Com et guise . p rod uces a claimed 79 bh p at 9000 rpm and 50 foot -po unds of to rque at 7500 revs . The Com et f ra me i s a dual -t ube st eel twin- spar design fitted w ith 41 mm upsid e- down fork s and m on osho ck rear end, whi ch togeth er with th e 300m m fro n t brak es a n d four-pot c alipers are all loca ll y made in Korea , but it was interesting to see cycle n e vv s O CTO B ER 2 9 ,200 3