Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The 37th Tokyo Motor Show v iew m on itors , a n ti -l oc k b ra k e s , audio system, etc. Bu t all t he effo rt o n the fea tu res d idn't allow time t o complet e other ess ent i al ite m s. " Unfortun ately, it's not rid ab le," adm it t ed Ogawa . "We have not fi ni shed the layout of some ai r cleaners, fu el tan k s , and som e othe r fea t u re s. It co ul d b e run , I think , b ut it' s never been te sted. It doesn 't move." A s fa r as n ew pr o du c t releases from Suzuk i at T ok yo, the big pu sh was on the ST250 lightw eig ht m ot orcycle. 'T he ST -250 is a street bik e th at pursues simple and beautiful rid in g ," said Suzuki ' s p res id ent and ch ief ope rating officer, Hirosh i Ts uda. SUZUKI "It has all the necessary func ti ons for Su zu k i' s T okyo Motor Sho w t he me everyday ri di ng, and it i s a c lassic was "Po wer to the Future." T he commodel motorcycle that is familiar and pa ny that gave t he world the nearly somewhat n o st al g i c. We have two 200 mph Hayabusa saw the futu re as types : One is ST -250 w ith basic a 916c c s u p e r - sc o o t er nam ed Gattractiveness, and the oth er is STStrider. 250E with a more sophisticated finLike Hon da's Griffon, the Suzuki 's ish . Als o, we have two de sign models G- St r id er i s half- motorcycle , halfbased on ST-250 to propose how to scooter. Bu t the s i m il a r i t i e s end have fun with ST -250. " th ere. In th e scooter cla ss Suzuki intro "At fi rst I wa s try in g to combine duced the Choinori SS , where SS motorc y cl e and scooter," explained stands for "street smart" to differenti K az uta k a Ogaw a from S u zu k i' s ate it from the regular Choinori , a St yl i n g D esig n G r oup . " B u t t h is $500 plai n sc o o t er for those who --,,",,,de'it-'th{,.seet>ahteil;J~ti~!:,,,!:~~·o:W'-"""""-see moblli no _ _",5 mil li m eters , very l o w . O n th at 6 ..;0 " T he Choin ori h as been received b ike you pu t yo ur feet forw ard . It's a well right from the start," said Tsuda . ve ry new rid ing position. Just li k e a "Up to Septe m ber we have sol d abo ut sports car. It's new kind of automatic 5 1,0 00 un its. It's bee n a big hit. We motorcycl e, I thin k. " h a v e ex p a n de d t h e co nce pt i nto Th e G - Strid er i s power ed by th e Choi nor i SS, ap pea ling to yo ung peo 650cc twi n-cylinder Burgman scooter ple with styling . Dow n th e roa d new engine en large d to 916cc. A co nt inu Choinor i co nce pts will be proposed to ous ly vari ab le t ra nsmission is used expand it s wo rld ." that in clu d es a six -speed m anu al Tw o co nce p t mo to rcyc les we re option. pr esented by Suzuk i th at were highl y Siz e d oesn 't end with the eng ine; leveraged from existing m od el s and th e G -S t r id er wh eelb a se is a goo d co uld, theoretica lly, be in p rod uct ion foot lon ger than a Harl ey. within a matter of m onths. "T he wheelbase is 18 00 m il lime T he fi rst con cept m ot or c ycl e was t ers [7 1 in ches ]," said O g aw a. "I t's t he GSX 14 0 0 - d at a , a GSX 1400 k ind of a huge A me rican cruiser type. naked streetbike fitted with suspenBu t the fr ont st eering system , the sion, accele ration and GPS sensors, cen ter hub steering, it can be more and a simple data acquisition system . comforta ble for steering and suspenA special ignition k ey c ontain s a sion . We can separate the steering memory chip that can be fitted into a and the suspe nsion. It can be more special PCMCIA card that is insert ed controllable for riding a motorcycle. into a computer for revi ew ing th e data . Software allows data tra ces to So i t 's a lon g wheelbase and very be overlaid so one can see, say, suslarge, but it could be more control labl e, I think ." pe nsion movement and vehicle loca The rakish styling for the G-Strider tion along a route concurrently . Sus wa s insp ired b y non m o t o r c y c l e pension setup advice could be sources. " T he im age is fro m 19 8 0 ' s provided f rom Suz u k i by simp ly sci en c e fi ctio n and c o mics ," said emailing a data file and information about the rider's w eig ht and riding Og awa. " It' s ki nd of our cult ur e from style. So me Su zu k i staffers were our generat ion." On e n ov e l id ea u sed o n the G un sure if riders really want this kind Strid er is co rn er ing li ght s that ai m o f techn olo gy , so if you want this on your next Suzuk i, st art writing letters light ba sed o n ste er i n g angle and ban king ang le. now . M a n y o t h e r b ell s - a n d - w h i st l e s Th e other co nce pt m otorc ycl e was th e DR - Z 4005 Su p erm o tard . Th e were on th e G-Str ide r, such as a DVD pl ayer, nav igat ion sys tem, smart k ey , name basically says it all : a su per mo GPS, wi rel ess co m m unications , rear tard ba sed on Suzuki's great li quida 16 -in c h re a r wheel , and a 235pound dry wei ght . Yam aha also showed a littl e 50cc Trick er named Chiv ic k er (" chi vi" is Japan ese for " sho rt ") . On ly a conc ept m o d el at this t im e , o ne c an imagin e that if Tricker is a hit, Yam aha ma y make a family of bikes based on th e Tricker, incl udi ng th e Chivick er for k ids. One can see the da y when the XGames has 10-y ear- olds do ing aero bati cs on Chi vi ck ers and kids acro ss th e country begging mom and dad for a Ch iv ic k er for Christmas . We' ll all have Yam aha to tha nk for sa ving the spo rt of m otorcycli ng. 22 NOVEM BER 12. 2003' a U c I ne'UVs Ducati went full retro at the Tokyo show, showing off b ikes such as the Paul Smart 100 0. c o o l e d thumper mot or that was released two years ago . A ll the good motard h ardw are was mounted , including a Darth Vader mini -fairing (painted black, fittingly) and electric st art . Ag ain , start writing your letters now. Last but not least, a sweet technical gem that cou ld be the next big thing in Suzuk i's engine technology . Suzuki displayed a SV6 50 V- twin c Iind er m otorc c1e engine m od ified to operate the Miller cy cle . lns ead of using a throttle va lve to restrict the volume of air drawn into the engi ne t o regu late power , Suzuki 's Miller engine c ha ng es the lift and durati on of th e in ta ke v alves (t he exhaust v alve lift an d durati on are also changed , but rath er insignifica ntly) . Suzu k i d oes th i s by f itt in g wid e, sl id e- abl e cam lob es with unusual three-dimens io nal profile s. At id le th e int ake v alv e is opene d onl y O.5mm fo r ju st over 90 deg ree s. As th e rid er twists th e throttle g rip, an electro nic co nt rol uni t sends a sig na l to a ste ppe r motor that, in turn , moves an ac tuator th at slides the cam lo be re la tive to the roller on the va lve follower. Int ak e valve lift and duration are increased until at maximum power the valves are opened 8.5mm for just over 270 degrees. Three advant ages are realized by th is mode of operation . First, at parti al -throttl e settings, pumping losses are significantly reduced , the reby in creasing fuel economy . Suz uk i cla ims that the Miller cycle SV650 can highway cruise with 40 percent b ett er fu el efficiency. Secon d , ca m profiles can be optimized across the entire op era ting range of the engi ne , thereb y prov iding smoot he r engi ne torqu e profiles. And lastl y , by eli mina ti ng pum pi ng losses, engine br ak i ng i s signi fica n tly r edu c e d . Th e red ucti on in eng ine brakin g is so sig nificant that Suzu k i will need to "a dd some bac k in," wh ich it cla ims co uld eas ily b e d on e th rough elec t ro n ic cont rols. The challenge in commercia lizi ng t he Mill er-c y cl e engine is m anu facturing the three-dimensional cam lobe. Computer controlled machining sim plifies the task, but the g rin ding still takes significantly more time than fo r a two-dimensiona l cam lobe. KAWASAKI S ad l y , K a w a sak i rarely in t roduc es an y m oto rc y cl e s of intere st at th e T ok yo Motor Show . By th e time the ne odeI intro world tour reach es home, Kawa sak i has a reaay p a ed all its cards in Paris and Milan. For the Japanese, K awasak i ha d its new Ninj a ZX- l0R , t he N inja ZX- RR M o toGP ra c e r , the VN2000 su p er cruiser on displa y , an d the ZZ R- X co nce pt high -speed to ure r ( which has been shown before ) . To help fill up the stage, Kawasak i had th e motorc ycle Megumi T ak em ot o (a fe m ale bas eball play er ) ro de across Au str ali a on vacation . Makes one wond er wh at th e ba lance shee t look s like. DUCATI For tra ditional motorcyclists, th e big surp rise at T o k y o came from t h e unlik eli est of sources : Ducati. Over in the main hall the car companies unveil new cars throughout press day, with much fanfare and bal lyhoo. For whatever reason, this has never caught on with the motorcycl e companies. But come m id day, Ducat i called the media to co me to order . and off came the red shee ts that had co vered th ree motorcycles th ro ughout th e day. To say that the bikes were shocking was an understa tement - but in a good way . Du c at i has noticed, fi na ll y, th at th er e is a ma rke t for nostal gia . Th e t hr e e n ew m od e l s i n tr o d uc e d at T ok y o we re m odern versio ns of the fir st three V-twin desmo motor cycles Ducati ever sold . "In t otal , it has tak en Ducati about five yea rs to recognize th e retro mar-

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