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/128615
Continuedfrom page 3 the years, and that's one of the thing s these up-and-coming riders wi ll reall y appreciate, as they get older. The people that are involved in the sport of dirt track rac ing are some of t he finest people you'll ever meet. • The H on da RC30 Owners Club of A m e ri ca is hosting a get together that will coincide with the World Superbike/ AMA National on July 8. The club is looking for the assistance of an organization that could offer space in which the club co uld display some motorcycles. For more information, call And rew Price at 3 10/675-9333. Beta USA is warning customers to be on the lookout for too-good-to-be-true deals on new or used Beta Hev 3s or Mini Trials motorcycles as they had several bikes lost or stolen during shipment to its dealers. For more information, call 802/ 425-2081. Former Daytona 200 winner and current 'TV analyst D ave Sadow sk i will hold a riding school at Road Atlanta before and • It's All About Italy Aprilia's acquisition of Moto Guzzi in a deal signed on April 14 not only ensures an ongoing future · and a Latin one, at that - for Italy's most historic extant motorcycle marque, it also brings to a conclusion one of the most drawn-out Dutch auctions in two-wheeled history - one in which the prize did not in fact end up going to the highest bidder. After Au stria 's KTM dropped out of negotiations to take over Moto Guzzi in December last year, th ere appears to have been a collective realization among Guzzi shareholders that it was crunch time for the company. With less than 2000 bikes registered in 1999 in th e Italian home market which has traditionally represented the bedrock of Guzzi sales • and half of those the venerable Nevada 750 cru iser, the cheapest model in the Guzzi li neup - the company was on the brink of collapse, kept alive in the short term on ly by an injection of capital from Guzz i shareholders , nominally headed since 1996 by the American Trident Rowan Group, which nevertheless retains close links with the de Tomaso family that purchased Moto Guzzi back in 1972. With time now tight before the impending full -blown cash flow crisis wh ich m ight have sunk the company was precipitated, its leading shareholders decided to auction Moto Guzzi amongst the four Italian two-wheeled manufacturers capable of resurrecting th e brand and m aking the wings of the eagle on the Guzzi tank badge flap that much harder. Bids were invited from Ducati - interested in expanding its sportbike product rang e into the cruiser and custom market. via a historic brand the value of whose inbuilt prestige its American management eagerly appreciated; Piaggio - recently itself the subject of a takeover by the same American and Anqlo'German financi al institutions fresh from turning Ducat! around, and looking for a lifestyle motorcycle range cornpatible with its scooter operations (remember it already has Gil era, for m ore spo rti ng models); Aprilia - newly con firmed as a seri ous motorcycle manufacturer afte r th e successful launch of its V-tw in four-stroke sportbike range , and eager to expand int o the cruiser/ cu stom m ark et via a historic brand whos e decade s of tra diti on would brin g reflected prestige to wh at is after all a relatively new kid on th e m otorcycle block ; an d Cagi va - no w trad in g under the MY Ag us ta nern e enjoying a fairytale product-led comeback after its fin ancial hardships of th e m id -90s, and eager to brok er th e dream marri age promised by a m erger of t he two most famo us names in Italian m otorcycling , as well as to expa nd into the custom mark et by do ing so. Negotiations wi th these four took p lace du ring th e fi rst three months of the year, with certain ke y members of Piaggio and Ducati m anagement careful to sit on the sidelines to > afte r the Big Kahuna National. Sadowski's schools will take place on Wednesday, May 3 1 and Monday , June 5. The cost is $ 175 to part icipate in the open track day and $350 to take the school. Students must bring their own motorcycles. The sessio n includes lunch and suspension setup of your moto rcycle . For more information, call 800/849-RACE. Mistaken identity dept: The Robert M off itt who wrote the lett er regarding Ben Bostrom in our Vo ices sect ion two wee ks ago is not Robert M. (Bob) avoid accusations of a conflict of interest - for Ducati is now a public com pany, remember, with its officers responsible to shareholders for safeguarding their interests. Its understood th at Piagg io, in fact, dropped out fairly early on, citing the need to focus on turning its own operation around before worrying about the arguably even bigger challenge of restru cturing Moto Guzzi. That left three, with MY Agusta next to go after Claudio Castiglioni declined to increase his bid , understood to have been $60 million - plus th e assumption of Mota Guzzis sub stantial accumulated debt, Th is left Ducati and Aprilia , each very eager for different reason s to cli nch a deal · and its understood from impeccable sou rces that it was in fact Ducati which offered the highest p ric e for Mota Guzzi - Ut.135 billion (£45 millionll$67.5 m illion ), no t including the debt. Aprilias top bid was in fact just Ut. 130 million • but with the crucial bonus that, being a private com pany, Aprili a boss lvano Seggio was able to sign a deal on the spot, with th e support of the banks which have been eager to len d him money again after Aprilia repa id the $ 100 million lin e of credit four years early which had been needed t o fuel the m id -9 0s expansion of its scooter m arket . Being a public com pany. Du ceti couldn't m ove so fa st, because certa in of th e coven ants surrounding their operating bank loans didn 't perm it the di rectors to use that money to fund further acqui sitions, and they bad to gain shareholder approval before raising any more cash for this specific purpose. With Guzzis owners desperate to sign a deal before the compa ny went belly -up and they lo st everything, time told agains t Duca ti , and even th ou gh they were prepared to ou tbid Aprilia , they ended up losing out. So - DO desmodue Guzzi California, th en ... Th is still left th e qu estion of Guzzis outstanding debt to be dealt with , but with th e canny Ivano Beggio well aware of the strength of h is po sition, its apparent he drove a hard bargain. Aprilia 's purcha se price for Mota Guzzi is publicly stated to have been Ut.132 b ill ion in cluding the assumption of debt · m eaning Guzzi sh areholde rs appear to have subsidized the Aprilia buyout by around Lit. 38 billion (about $J9 million) out of th eir own pockets . Tough - but they had little choice, ha ving back ed themselves int o a comer through a near-fat al combinati on of lack of investme nt, lousy m anagement, and an anti qu ated produ ct lineup . Some will say they were lu ck y to come out of it with a sing le lir a - but the bonus sid e is th at one of the most hi storic and illustrious names in th e world of m ot orcycl ing has bee n ac quired by a y oung, vibrant and d y n amic com p any which , apart fr om being Italia n , also unde rst ands the needs of the cust om er, and isn' t afraid to innovate. An exciting new chapt er looks set to dawn for fan s of th e Guzzi brand - even if in order to gain ap proval of th e uni ons fo r his takeover, Begg io had t o agree to m aintain Moto Guzzi p roduction at Ma ndella, at least for the for eseeab le future. Expect a new ran g e o f heavily revised transverse Y-t w in Guzzi models with serious A prilia inp ut to debut at the 200 I Milan Show. a cast yo ur vote, log an to http://www.cyclen ews .com. [ cycleneWS.CDm reader pDII q ue s t l o n Df the week ational Motocross Series' icky Carmichael win? E. II c • e n e _ s Moffit who has spent the last 25 years w ith Kawa saki M ot ors Co rp ., U .S .A. Moffit is the vice president of motorcycle marketing and product management for Kawasaki in Irvine, Califom ia. The sta rs were out in Las Vegas last week. Not Elvis, not Wayne Newton - but Kev in S c h wan tz and F redd ie Spencer. The two former World Champi on s cou ld be fo und doing hot lap s around Las Vegas Motor Speedway during an open track day at the facility . Spencer and Spencer School instr uctor Jeff Haney were riding the school's Hondas while Schwantz cut laps on his brandnew Suzuki GSX-R750. Moto ' Guzzi has announced that it has appo inted three Cana dian dea lers in Br it ish Co lumbia, Albe rta and Ont ario. The dealership s are as fo llows: Valley Yamaha (Chilliwack , British Colum bia), Blackfoot Motorsports (Calgary, Alberta) and Barvarian Motorsports (Woodbridge, Ontario). Team Texas has announced it s ent ry for the Mot ocross des Nations team for the upcoming Vintage Iron World Championships at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California. The team will consis t o f Kent Howerton an d Rick Humphreys on 1974 Mag Huskys and Steve Wise on a 1973 Honda CRZ250. The Mike Healey Team won the Glen Helen/Chapa rral Charity Golf Toumament on Wednesday, May 10, but the real winner was the Loma linda University Medical Center in San Bernardino, Califomia. Some $30 ,000 was raised in the celebrity golf tournament, won by Mike Healey, Pat Healey, George Healey, M ike Tripes and Jerry Pontius wit h a score of 55. The event drew 180 golfers and 36 golf cart drivers. If you'r e a dual sport enthusiast looking for something to do this Father's Day, consider the Bass Lake 250 , presented by Califomia Trail Rides and Wilson 's Motorcycles. Billed as • two days of fantast ic riding in the Sierra National Forest, ' the ride takes place on singletrack trails and je ep roads j us t so uth of Yosemite National Park, on June 17 and 18. For more information, call 714/ 992929 1. By the way, this may be the last edition of the ride , if the Clinton/G ore eN • roadless" initiative goes through.