Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I~;;;a Gilera 500cc Quattro Cilindri compared to the 14,000-plus rpm levels considered commonplace for a 500 four a decade later. This means the kind of power you get from the Gilera is very usable: it'll pull off the line from low down without too much slipping of the clutch, but you do have to work the left lever to coax it through the flats pot (aka "megaphonitis," in period parlance) at around 5000 revs. But once this clears at 6,200 rpm, you have a very clean, linear spread of power with fitted with steel liners. The long, finned sump is cast integrally in magnesium with the lower crankcase half of the horizontally-split engine another benchmark feature - which also incorporates the gearbox casing, accessible via an inspection cover on the right, while the upper crankcase half is in aluminum. Various-size carburetors were fitted to the one-piece cylinder head, depending on track conditions, but 28mm Dell'Ortos are fitted at present, in two banks with a single "matchbox" remote float chamber between each pair. good throttle response and, seemingly, a pretty flat torque curve. It's not surprising, then, that for many years Gilera won world titles with only a four-speed gearbox, though by 1957 and the Bob Mac era they employed a five-speeder. "My" bike was the one Minter rode in the '66 Senior TT, when he ITALIAN POWER The Gilera fires up effortlessly in a couple of steps - four-cylinder riders surely had a big advantage over the ~anx Norton single-cylinder brigade in the dead-engine push starts of the Classic GP era - as a prelude to the Sound of Music, motorcycle style. You're aware of the Gilera's exhaust note the whole time you're riding it, not because it's so loud, but because it's so musical, and insistent, just rumbling constantly away like rolling thunder behind you through those four glorious open megas. This could only be an Italian bike from the land of Verdi and Puccini. It's got a deep, mellifluous, basso profunda exhaust note, compared to an MV or Benelli crashed on a damp patch and broke a wrist, putting a downbeat end to Gilera's glorious GP career, and for that race it employed the experimental seven-speed gearbox still fitted, which was supposed to usher in a new era of engine development, with more radical cam timing and a narrower power band. But by then the Gilera design was coming up to 20 a maximum racing rev limit of 10,400 rpm (9500 revs for my test), the Gilera feels much less highly-strung than its later four-cylinder counterparts - and I have been fortunate enough to ride Honda, MV and Benelli fours, as well. Frankly, the Gilera is almost vintage in its feel: the revs take time to build as you twist the wrist, rather than each blip of the throttle sending the rev-counter needle off the dial like on a Benelli or MV. On the track, this translates to a solid, durable, unbreakable feel to the engine - as well as a surprising amount of torque, and engine braking, for a four: it feels like a Manx Norton to sit on, like a four-cylinder Manx if you can imagine such a thing, to ride. A three-hour TT race at ton-up race speeds? No problem! That's the message the Gilera gives you when you're riding it. This paradox puzzled me at first, because I'd expected much more "nervous" engine characteristics - but then I realized how come: at 52 JC 58.58mm, the' Gilera's long-stroke engine dimensions are much more redolent of the vintage era than the later, heavily over-square fours to which it gave birth. An engine designed in the days when it was worrying to have piston speeds much higher than half what is considered normal today, inevitably has a more leisurely feel to it. This also accounts for the rather low rev limit for a multi, MARCH 1, 2000' cue I form. RIOINGTHEG That's not to say it's not a thrill to come tearing down the Monza back straight towards the Parabolica, and have to change down three gears before peeling off into one. of the more testing corners on any GP circuit. Not only out of respect for the bike's age, but also because of the nature of the engine, I did so with a decent interval between each downward shift, rather than zipping down all three in swift succession as you might on a modern Superb ike - and as I'm sure Bob Mcintyre, reportedly not the most considerate of riders for the machinery he rode, might have done. Though Derek Minter had warned me the Gilera likes to understeer under power on the exit here, I can't truthfully say that I noticed, probably Legend tenor pitch, or a Honda's soprano shriek. And the engine note conveys the nature of the motorcycle, for with 34 years of age, and Honda's RC181 and MV's triple had turned the page on longstroke GP engine designs. Although changing gear at least twice as often as you really need to is no hardship, thanks to the smooth, silky gear-change, the Gilera really doesn't need the extra ratios in its present e [n his IT years, many of the fans regarded Bob Mcintyre as the greatest, the underdog battling against superior odds. B.ut in retro· spect, Mac finished only seven times in 18 Isle of man IT starts. He rode hard and often the machinery was not up to the speed the Flyin' Scot could achieve. When not obligated by his Honda contract, Bob continued to delight the fans by racing Joe Potts' Nortons at British national short-circuit races. The saddest day for British road-race fans came on August 15, 1962. The race was a National meet at Oulton Park - a circuit where Bob had been victorious many times in his career. Early that day, he won the 250cc class, but later, after the weather had taken a change for the worse, he pushed off for the 500cc race (British races started with a dead engine and a push start). Riding an experimental five-speed Norton in lashing rain, Mcintyre started at the back of the pack, cut through the field and was chalJenging for the lead against Derek Minter when he crashed. Nine days later, 33year-old Robert McGregor Mcintyre succumbed to his injuries, and a glorious chapter in British racing came to an abrupt end. Bob Mac, as he was affectionately known. was the greatest rider never to have won a World Championship, but he left a wealth of memories and achievements. He was well respected by his competitors and loved by the fans. Mac was one of the most gifted riders of his day, but always seemed happier riding the private Nortons and AJSs tuned by felJow Glaswegian Joe Potts than he did when riding the more sophisticated Italian and Japanese multi-cylinder machines. Mac came the closest to winning a World Championship with Gilera in 1957 - when he was second in both the 350 and 500cc classes - and with Honda in 1962 - when he got second in the 250cc class. In 1957 he crashed at the Dutch IT and was out for several weeks. Though he only needed to win at Monza, Italy, in front of Gilera's home crowd, to win the 500cc Championship, he was unhealthy and could not ride. From my own personal experience and observations, Bob Mcintyre was an unmercifUlly'competitive yet sensible rider, rarely willing to take unnecessary risks, and he never rode faster than was necessary to win - except of course in the 1957 Isle of Man IT, when he gieefulJy demolished his competitors. I met Bob Mac twice, once in 1961 when I got chance to take some photos of him in the paddock at MalJory Park, and once more the next year when I first raced my Ariel Arrow 250cc machine at MalJory. My tatty van was parked a short distance from Mcintyre's new Ford Thames van. I think it must have been easy for him to sense my inexperience, and he came over to talk and offer a lot of advice, even checking tire pressures for me. In this last meeting, not long before his untimely death, I came to apprecIate Mcintyre's unassuming nature, and why he was so truly popular among every· one whose lives he touched. Books and photos on Mcintyre can bg, had from Amulree Publications on the IsLe Of Man. Reach them at http://manxshop.com/amu{ree/weLcome. hlml n e vv s because I was squaring the apex off more than he. But thanks to the compact wheelbase, the Gilera feels relatively nimble in slower turns like the trio of Monza chicanes, though the payoff comes in a straight line, and especially over bumps. There's provision for a steering damper, but none was fitted to the bare brackets: I remember on a TT Sound Story record hearing Gilera rider John Hartle agonizing about whether to fit one for the 1963 TT. Personally, I can't see how he'd have had any choice, because if I hit a ripple or bump on Monza's relatively smooth surface when cranked over under power, the front wheel would start to shimmy and set the bars waving about in my hands, setting up an initially terrifying weave. This may have looked exciting to those watching in the pits, but strangely enough, after the initial shock, it didn't seem to get out of hand. But perhaps one improvement might have been to mount the front 3.00 x 19 Dunlop triangular - a type of tire specifically developed by Dunlop for and by Bob Mac - on a wider rim than the skinny WM 1 it was fitted to for my test: the Gilera steered well into the chicanes, without knife-edg- By PETER STARR Great enough to be respected by the greatest: Mike Hallwood (left) eventually broke the hour record set by Bob Mcintyre (right), but he called Mac's ride the most magnificent. This photo is autographed by both riders.

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