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/128635
lntzerrnot: 2000: Part; /I whose Hans Muth was responsible fo r the legendary Suzuki Katana almost 2 0 years ago , the Beast weighs a skim py 145 kg .. which with an engine producin g ar ou nd 100 bhp in fini shed guise, would d eli ver im p ressiv e pe r formance - except that the bike had never ru n before the show o pe n ed , and probab ly wo uldn 't b e much fun to ride if it did . Tha t 's because the 60 -deg ree Fol an motor h as no ba l ance sha ft , and in the form it was fitted to var ious prototype road racers or the abortive Highland enduro from its native Sweden , produced pretty intensive v ib ration . With the engine bo lt ed directly to the Beast's m inima list u p per chassi s - there is no low er sec tion - it wo ul d almost ce rtainly shake itse lf apa rt in no tim e at all , wh ich doesn 't de tract fro m the Paioli -su spend ed showbike's in credib l y narrow b u il d and light we ight. But, it i s only a showb ike , though Sach s R& D chi ef Helmut Hahn was vis ibly surpris ed b y th e ecs tatic rece pt ion earned by the Beast, and was already dreaming out loud of a production vers ion powered by Suzuki 's TLlOOO motor. Maybe they cou ld u se the ones that M ond ia l won 't be needing .... 4. 5. A very different k ind of Teutonic motorcycle was o n display at the neighboring Munch sta nd , whe re the l ate st v ersion of the m arq ue was on d i sp la y. W ith well -regarded products w hos e en gines w er e derived from automob il es, Mu nch obta ined a c ult follow ing in the 1960s an d ' 7 0 s. Th e new ver sio n arrived at In t ermot f resh fro m its success in p a ssi n g t he strict German fe deral hom o log at io n tests , and so is now f u ll y street-legal anywhe re i n E urope , at least . T h e Mammut 2000 u ses a four -cylinder dohc engine derived from the Opel Astra car, but General Motors certainl y never intend ed that the ir European runabout mod el sho uld atta in a top speed of m ore t h an 17 0 mph, nor de li v er 260 b hp at 5650 rp m i n Motro nic fuel- inj ec t ed fo rm . Weighi n g 780 p ou nd s dr y , the Pi r e ll i Co rsa-shod Mammut is the product of a collaboration between com pany fo under Fr iedl Mun c h and busi ne ssm an T ho m a s Petsch , and w ill be bu il t , say s Pet sc h , in a strictly li mited ru n of 250 examples , each c o sti n g Euro 86 ,0 0 0 (a bo ut $77 , 0 0 0) . A to t al of 68 of t hese w ere alread y un d er de posi t by th e o pe ni ng da y of In term o t , showi ng th at even t h ou gh form er German C ha nce llo r Helm ut K o hl to day stands in di sg ra c e after hi s ill eg al mon e y -laund er in g ac t i v i ties we re ex p os ed, th ere are st ill d o zen s of p eopl e p rep ar ed t o pa y top d oll ar for a m oto rcycle bu ilt in h is ph ys i ca l li ke ness, beer-bell y and all . As different from the Munch - and from Herr Kohl - in terms of ph ysical structure as it's possi ble to be , was the Sachs Beast , an ultra-min imalist 1000cc V-twin project bike powered 18 O CTO BER 1 8. 2 0 0 0 ' cue by the lightweight Folan 60 -degree Vtwin engin e fro m Sweden which at one stage was set to power the KTM I e newvs LC8, till the Austrian firm decided to do the job p roperly themselves : use of the Folan in the Beast marks a breakaway fro m Sachs' policy to date of employing Suzuki engines in their bikes - the Free wind sing le in the 650 Roadster street single , the Marauder VZ800 V -twin in their B ig Roadster just entering production. The work of Germany 's Ta r ge t D e s i g n stu d io , &. Almost Ger m an in more ways th an on e - is Britain's historic Norton m arque, no w struggling to survive in the wak e of the farcica l A I Melling/V8 Nemesis 1500cc roadburner debacle. The o ne constant in the trou ble d B rit ish m arq ue' s roller-coaste r ride over th e pa st dec,ade has been former