Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

.,.. - . - . 1..1 ket, I th in k ," confided Du cati's Pierr e th r e e o f th em, so y o u hav e hi gh By m ak ing th ree different models co u ld do a lot of th ings - the TT-Fl Terblanche, "e ven th ough the Japan ·7 5 0 rac e b i k e w o u l d b e o ne t h at in the Sp ortClass ic fam il y , T erblanche carry-o ve r co m po ne ntry, an d t h e ese have known about it for 15 or 20 would be very nice to do , especiall y investmen t to m ake them is low ," feel s t h at D u ca t i has c o vere d th e yea rs. It's tak en us a littl e while - we in endurance trim wo uld be great to Terblanche said . "This wa s treated as bases with respect to custome rs. need ed m or e ti me to fig ure it out. I do. The one we 've got in' the museum " I think people will b e a bit sur like a family of cars , where yo u have mea n , i t w as a shame t o w alk with a big light stuc k on the ou tside is a sedan , station wagon an d a cabrio; prised by ou r customers," he said. "I a great-looking bike. A single , howthrough ou r m u seum, look at th e gor we have the same here. When man th ink the Sport 10 0 0 will draw geo us products and not do something eve r, would be a problem. We don 't ag ement has to decide, ' Do we pro younger customers , esp eci all y with abou t that. I th ink [management] have a motor that's suitabl e , now . duce it?' It 's always useful wh en we the colors we've chosen . I think peo We'll have to invest in a lot of money, underestim ated how fascinating thes e can sho w th em that we can get high ple will look at the y ellow on e and go , bik es are, even to the general public. and that's up to managem ent. " sa le s numbers with a small inve st'Wow.' I think a lot of people will also Ma n y pe opl e [ in management] And what ar e the c h ances for a bu y th e GT, especially when it ge t s m ent. This is essentially th e sam e. h aven 't understood wh y Harle ycomeback for th e 9 16? p ainted in a red or ye llo w o r some Th e wheel s ar e th e sa me o n all of Davidson sell s." " We cou ld do tha t eventua lly one th em , swi ngarms are very sim ila r on other co lor that' s brighter. Th e gree n Ducati's new product li ne is ca lled day," sm iled Terbl anch e. tw o m od els , th e electronics, the air, ish color looks great outside, but fl uoSport Classic . Th e first three models rescent li ghti ng is a bit of a problem . b ox e s , etc. A f t er we've d on e t he K TM are the Paul Smart 1000, a solo Th e Paul Smart 100 0 will ap pea l to investment on one of them , th en we KTM sho wed a p rotot ype of its RC8 m oto rcycl e with a half-fairinq pa inted hav e all three . That w as key : It' s a m o re t rad iti on al an d o l d er pe op l e, ro ad- go ing supe rbike at Tokyo. Si l v er Meta lfla ke ( t hi nk of form er bec ause it looks a lit t le m or e retro famil y of bikes , not th ree indivi d ua l Th e anqul ar and orange Austrian Cycle magazine editor Cook Nielson 's bikes. It' s one bike, really. " than th e o t her s . I wouldn't gr oup Sup erbik e fe a tur ed a s wi n g a r m Du cat i Superbike , Baby B oo m ers) , Vi su ally th ere are diff er en c e s th em too much , because peop le like m achined from bill et and many one th e b right Yellow Sport 1000 (th ink among the three sim ilar models , and th em a c ross the b o a r d , w hich is off c om p on en ts . Engine dis p lace 1973 Sport 750) , and the GTl OOO, a this is true of ergonomi cs as well . nice ." ment was given at 999 .8cc. Whi te Green- Gray grace fu l trad itional road Wi th such a ric h his to ry , more "T he Pau l Smart 1000 is rac e bike , Power suspension com po nents are ster (th ink 19 71 GT 750 ). so i t ' s pre t ty m u ch l i k e a 999, " Spo rtCl assics are su re to come. fitted , fron t and rear. "Th ey are th e first , seco n d , and explained T erblanche . " Th e Sport Terblanche just smiled when asked , Given the rough shape of the prothi rd [V -twins] we've buil t , essenti al " What' s next?" 1000 has the handlebars raised by totype, don't ex pect to see a produc ly ," sai d T erb lan che. "We did them a bout 35mm. T he GT i s really an " We ha ve a ve ry large m useum tion version for a couple of years to all. Didn 't have to make a choice, we com e. easy touring bike." that's all I can say, " he rep lied . "We I:N just did them all . "O n th ese we didn 't want to go too re tro. We wanted to take the essence Site' s, but my con tract is with HRC . I am waiting for HRC . and HRC are of th e old ones but make them very waiting for Ro ssi. So I am wa iting for Rossi! " modern , which I think we 've man U kaw a co nfirm ed th at he has heard t he rum o rs t hat he w ill not be in aged . If you put th em next to the old M otoG P for 2004 . ' There are so many rumor s right now - I WIll go to The V a lentino Rossi to Y amaha rumor picked up mo re mo mentum b ik es, they have noth ing t o do with Britis h Superbike or 250 or.. . I want to stay w ith Hond a. su re . at the Tokyo M ot or Show. based on comments Honda' s president and th e ol d ones; they 'r e totall y different. because I know their machines wel l. - Ukawa added that there have been CEO Takeo Fukui made to Italian journalists at a dinner function on Octono discussions between him and non-Honda teams. " I have no idea wha t ber 21 and to media following his o pe ning speech o n O ctob er 22 . Bu t when you see th em, you think of I will do If I do not get a con tract from Honda . Yes. sure, a works team is " Reganding Ro ssi. it's a diffi cult situation: said Fukui. " Al ready I to ld the ol d ones." much better. but I want to stay with Honda. Any category is okay. some Italian journalist the night before that we - Honda - are serio usly Though you indeed th ink of he old preparing to fight Rossi next year . Wh en asked about his op inion of Honda' s mo torcycle business in Nort h _ """ones ucati has.man ag ed to m ak e........ Acconding to HRC boss Sug u ru Kanazawa . the Ro ssi contract situaAm er ica. C EO and pr esident Takeo Fukui said: " tr's basically very m od ern components look app ro priate tion has not been resolved . • At this moment. of co urse. we want to kee p good . including the ATV business . The competition is gett ing severe . in fo r th e peri od . him. But it depends on his decision . W hen I wa s in Portu gal. at that time. I ATV especially. In motorcycles. Harley-Davidson is very good . very sucsaid to every journalist that we had taken a letter of inte nt with Rossi. W e cessful. and very good competition . " T he b i k e i s t ot a ll y mo d e rn ," had tho ught he was gO-percent finishe d with his de cision to stay wi t h exp lain ed Te rbla nche. "It's th e late st Honda . But maybe he doesn' t think so . Right now we are wa iting for his W hen asked if the re is anything new that Honda shou ld be doing in N orth en g ine, the twin -spark , th e best we deci sion . America. Fukui said: "W e need some new strategy. especial ly in ATVs. c u rrently ha ve as fa r as air -c oo l ed It' s an iss ue for us. The marke t is steadily grow ing . and we need mo re Kanazawa co nfirmed that a co ntract oHer has bee n forwarded to Rossi market share. W e need to improve our product and custo mer satis factech n ology go es. Ver y good t orqu e but has not been returned w ith signature. " W e are wa iting to hear from tion . ch ar acteristi cs, and eno ug h po wer for him . W e have give n him an offe r, many times. " Regarding a deadline for Ro ssi to sign, none exis ts, acco rding to Kanazawa. "We do not have any th is k ind of bi k e. T hey' re goi ng t o be Ducati's deci sion to launch th e SportCla s s ic family in Japan caught deadline with him. We sti ll have a co ntrac t With him through the end of many by surprise - especi ally since the originals that the SportClassics pretty ligh t ; th ey w eigh abo ut 185 this year. So the end of the year is the deadline. I think. " were based on we re not wid ely marketed in J apan. " W e know that the kilos [407 pounds] so they 're pretty Japanese love this kind of motorcycle. wh ich is co nvenient becau se we According to Kanazawa. the only rider who without question will be riding easy t o ride, simp le to u se, and so had other mode ls at the M ilan show. and we didn't want to take press a RC21 1V in M ot oG P next year is Nicky Hayden. Hayden is contractaway from that. - said Pierre Terblanche . " So this wa s a convenient way on . We 'v e g ot the wi re wheel s with ed directly to HRC . and th e Repsol Honda Mot oGP te am is own ed and to present them. very nice qua lity and Brem bo br ak es. managed by HRC . - Nicky has a tw o-year co ntract wit h us. so sure. he Upsid e-d own forks are from Showa , will ride our machine next year . But at this time I don't know about other The Japanese inte res t in Ducati s is not hard to mi ss. acco rdi ng to Honda teams; for examp le. Telefonica M ovista r. Cam el or Pramac . I don't sa me as on our 748 and so on . Terblanche : - Apart from formal market research. we also know the peo know which riders they will take next year . ple here are really passionate abo ut classic mo torcycl es; for exa mple. Ohf lns rear susp ension, a singl e Clubman and Rider' s Club magazines. they publish volu mes and vo lumes shock on the sporting ones and tw in The three sate llite team s are not owned or managed by HRC . Some of only on Duca ti. of all ages. The IJapan ese manufacturers'! stands have the riders on the satellite Honda teams have co ntrac ts wi th HRC . some shocks on the GT . retros and neo -classics: it' s a big thing here. W e have so many fans here, with the team own er , and in one case, the ride r is co ntrac ted to the team it was quite nice . quite nice for me to com e here as well! " "T he frame was des igned just for spo nso r. Kanazawa explained his knowl edge of the ride r co ntracts on the t h i s bik e, so the g eometry is very satellite teams to be: Ma x B iagg i: ' I do n't know exac tly if he wi ll be Littl e known fact about the new Ya m a h a YZF-R1 : Yamaha has develWIth us next year. But I underst and he has a three -year con trac t with M r. modern, as nice handling as the 9 99 . oped a stronger co nnecting rod and one with a rounder big-end bore Sito Pons. M aybe he will ride our machine next year ." Tohru Uka w a : The tires are Pirellis , spe ciall y made thro ugh a new proc ess called "fractured splitt ing.- An FS con necting rod - Not decided yet. It depe nds on his mind. and his result in the last race is made in one piece (the big-end bearing cap is one wi th the connec ting for the sho w. In production the y will in V alenci a. " (Note : U kawa is con trac te d di rec tly w ith H RC.> S e t e rod), and then . as the name says . the big-end bearing cap is fractured oH G iberna u : "H e has a direc t contract WIth Telefonica M ovistar. If Telebe the same p e rform a n c e as t he fro m the main connecting rod . When the rod is reassembled . the rough fonica M ovistar has a con tract with the Gnsm! team. for sure . he will ride Dragons. It's a proper sports tir e, but mating surface of the big-end bearing cap fits perfectly With the connectHonda. - Ryuic h i Kyo na ri : "This matt er does not depend on us. He ing rod . res ulting in atomic -level alignm ent precision. Big -end bearing w ith a nostalg ia pattern . The conhas a contract with M r. Gr esini: it's a Gresini matter." M akoto T e m a d a : ' Maybe he will stay . - (Note: Tamada is co ntrac ted directly with bo res are as round as w hen they were originally bored . st ruction i s modern , but as on the HRC .> Multistrada we've had th em design a Ohlin s was pro mo ting its ..Electronic Con trolled " suspension system at the Tokyo M ot or Show. This system is made up of a fro nt fork and rear brand -new pattern fo r us . These are Wh en asked about the rumor of Colin Edwards' returning to Honda for shoc k fitt ed w ith electric solenoi ds that adjust damping setti ngs based on 200 4 . Kanazaw a p rov id ed t he fo ltowmq ou t look on t hat possib ili ty : fantasy patt erns . Th ey don 't want t o output from an electronic control unit. No prototype s were shown, but an Maybe he has some possi bility to ride our machine next year. But at this show the fin al becau se it's act uall y Oh lins rep resentative for the Japa n marke t said the EC suspension sys moment . I don 't know . Sure. he will not ride [on the HRC teaml. We have much nicer th an th ese. We don't want te ms wo uld be on the marke t in 2004 . First systems w ill be for the N ic ky Hayd en . and ano the r seat we are prepa ring for Ro ssi. A t this Yamaha YZF-R1 and the Suzuki GSXR-l 000 . moment [C oli n Edwards] wi ll not ride on the HRC team . But he has a t o sho w th o se until we' re ready. It' s chance to ride our machine in the other teams. Gr esini team. I don 't similar to th ese, but different. " A ke b o no displayed a novel Superbike front caliper at the Tokyo M ot or know ; Pons team. I don ' t know." To k eep pr odu ction sta rt- up costs Show . The caliper and lowe r fron t fork leg (O hhns upside -down fo rk. in this case) were machined from a single billet. with no means of remov ing Toh ru Ukawa was spec tating at the Tokyo M ot or Show and confirmed low, Te rbla nc he k ept th e number of the caliper from the fork . Akebono claimed an incr ease In rigidity and a Kanazawa' s earlier statement regarding his 2004 M otoG P status : ' I basiun ique pa rts to a minimum. reduction in w eight through elimination of parts . cally have one-year co ntrac ts . M y co ntrac t is wi th HRC . The team is " T h e chas sis is i d en t i c a l on all BRIEFLy•••• N cue I e n e vv S • NOVEMBER 12, 2003 23

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