Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

brake s li ke m ad . would n't say it' s annoyin g, but it is definitely a un ique feeling . Every so often, when you crack off the throttle to grab the next gear, the eng ine loses so many revs that it 's impossible to execute a clean shift. Bu t it's a minor anno yan ce that one learns t o dea l with ... On the highway , the Brutal e co uld be any mode rn J apan es e motorcycle, whi ch is a c o m p liment. The bike too ls along with out a worry in the world. The fuel- inje,ction map ping from the Weber Marelli system seems excellent, especially on ce I 'wa s able to discern between the light flywheel's effect and t h e FI's mapp ing. Not o nly was th e fuel inje ction always wh en yo u get there , but how you got there , right? The motor itself is unique in a co uple of ways . First off is the Bruta le 's ultrashort stroke, which at 43 .8 mm is considerably shorter than the Suzuki GSX-R750 's (the la st of the Japanese 750cc fou r-c ylinder sportbikes). The other un ique feature is the motor 's co ns idera bly diffe rent th an th e F4 's orga n pi p e s. T he t win s lash-cut silencers still m a k e wonderful music, but the note is surpris ing ly different. Although the Brutale's wh eelbase is long er than it s cl ose brother the F4, at 55.65 inches , it ' s still sh ort er than almost all of the oth er nak ed bike s o n t h e m ark et , in clud ing the tiny SV650. An other key t o th e bik e's h an dling chara cteristi c is th e way e ve rything is packag ed so densely near th e bik e 's core. I mean, just lo ok at the bike from the side and you can clearly see whe re the mass is . Tamburini d id a n excell ent job of putting all of the Br utale's we ight as close to the roll axis as possible , and it' s apparent in th e hand ling. Th e bik e isn 't exa ctly the latest, greatest rad ial mount un its , which ar e a ll the rage in 2003 , but th e six-pot Nissin calipers a nd 3 10 m m rotors are nothing short of excellent. One th ing I hated on the la st F4 I rode was that t he front brake's mastercylinder ratio wasn't matched properly: The le ver would pull all the way to t h e bar before a ny lever p re s s u re would occur, regardless of the lever's span adjustment. Apparently th is ha s been rectified on the Brutale, because I no longer needed to worry about the brakes at all. The styling of the Bruta le is bea utiful. I o nly wish there were a couple more a ng le s from whi ch you cou ld ' re ally take it all in . The rea r threequarter view is as sexy as they come , but if you view the bike head on, you wou ld probably never even t a k e a second g la n ce at it. Maybe t hat' s a g o od thing . After a ll , there are so many c o o l detail s to look at on the .. r. ,""'-' . . The 7 5 0 c c inline f our-cylinder motor f e at u res radial-va lve heads f or b etter combust ion efficiency. The d as h is a p iece o f art in itself, and act ual ly p rovides a f air amount of w ind protection. Top-of-the -Iin e Ni ssin s ix-p ist on c alipers g et things stop p e d in a hurry. cl ean and smooth around town , bu t th e sam e can b e s a id o f it in th e canyons above Malibu. r The bike has e xcellent midrang e power delivery for a 750cc inline fou r. Okay , so it still lags behind the GSXR750 - but it does pump out invigo rati ng power all the way u p to its 13, 100 -rpm re v -lim it e r. The Brutale fee ls quicker than an F4 around town, which is su rely d ue to the 14 pounds the F4 g ives away to the Bruta le, and the fact tha t the m o to r is tu ned for more access ible torque . What t h e Bru tale los es in pure performa nce , it . defiantly m a ke s up fo r in its aural symphony of m oving parts . It' s not radial -valve heads, wh ich allow a ll four of the valves in e a c h cy linder to enter the c o m bu s t io n c h a m be rs on completely different planes th an o ne another (se e diagram ). This technolog y was bo rrowed from a Formula One design study by Pie ro Ferrari (s o n of Enzo) and he lps to im p ro ve cylinder filling and com bustion efficiency . The engine 's internals a re trick as well, including forged -a luminum Malhe pistons and a cy lind er block by t he same m a ke r. Oil jets coo l the undersides of the pistons, while a large radia tor and oil cooler keep the motor's liquids cool. Th e e xh aust note on the Brutale is - Brutale 5 F4 $13,995 WHEELBASE 749.4cc RAKE/TRAIL Liquid-cooled, SEAT HEIGHT in-line four-cylinder FRONT TIRE 73.8 x 43.8mm REAR TIRE BORE xSTROKE 12.0:1 COMPRESSION RATIO FRONT·WHEEL TRAVEL W eber/M orelli CARBURETION fuel injection REAR-WHEEL TRAVEL E lectronic FRONT BRAKE IGNITION Six-speed REAR BRAKE TRANSMISSION E lectric FINAL DRIVE STARTING SYSTEM 4.99 gal. CLAIMED DRY WEIGHT FUEL CAPACITY UST PRICE DISPLACEMENT ENGINE TYPE 55.65 in. N/A 31.7 in. 120/65-17 190/50-17 4.65 in. 4.72 in. Dual disc Disc C hain 407.9Ibs. a lightw eight, but you wou ld be hard pre ssed to guess tha t it actually weighs over 400 pounds. The Bruta le's 50mm upside- down Marzoc chi fork s work well , despite feeling a touch on the soft side, p lenty of additional pre load not withstand ing. As for the rear end, the s ing le prog ress ive S a chs shock m a te d to t he alum inum single -sided sw inga rm felt excellent in a ll types of riding , with good ra tes and p len ty of damp ing. The Bruta le 's brakes may not be The rear w heel i s p ure eye candy , while the twin s lash-cu t s ilencers provide the sou ndtrac k for motorcycling nirvana. Brutale that you could ea s ily spend h our s just s t a ri n g a t it : Th e s wing a rm, th e rea r wheel , the dash, th e headlight - th ey're all wo rth a lit tle eye time . So, is having a S14 ,0 0 0 naked motorcycle worth the price of a dmission? In the case of the Brutale , the buy er is g etting a lo t mo re t h a n a stripped -down sportbike with budget suspension and a detuned motor. You get top-shelf components, excellent per formance, priceless styling , and exclusivity. Sounds well worth it to me. CN

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