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
b o x , with an electric thum b-shift er av ail able as an option (st andar d on the enduro version) . Onl y in Italy.. .. 8. T h ree of the four Japanese ma nu fac t urers eac h concentrate d on a c o u p l e o f si gnifican t new m ode ls , while the fo urth - Ka wasaki - frankly d isappointed , w ith t he n ew ZX - 7R known to be under de vel opment no showing , and th e o nly novelties a pair of retro -styled ro ad st er s, th e ZR -7S and ZRX1200R (also ava ilab le in'S' guise w ith sw o op ier , m ore mod ern sty li ng incorpo ra ting a han dlebar fa ir ing) , the la tter a bored -out version of th e good -s ell in g ZRX I 100 with m ore t o rq ue and a little more po we r from t he heav il y revised engine. Suz u k i m o r e than mad e up for th is , with the debut of th e GSX-R600, t he fi rst fuel-inj ected J apanese fou rcylinder 600cc Sup er sp ort , and its cubed-up big siste r, the GSX -Rl000 (alread y covered in these paqes .) Hon da held off d isplay ing the new 1800 Go ld Wing and VTXI800 cruiser until the middle of the sho w week , so as to gi ve their American launc h at German im po rter J oe Seifert's retention of the rig hts to th e Norton name in Contin ental Europe , p lus his agre ement wi th BMW for the su pp ly of the G erm an firm's Rota x -built si n g le cylinder F650 engi nes, wh ich are pre cis ely the kind of Y2K moto r N orton m ight be buildin g th em selves with the Manx nam e on th e ro cker cov ers, had t hey survi ved inta ct. Seifert's la test take on a BMW-p ow ered No rt on sin g le was launched at Int ermot on th e CCM stand - perh ap s as a prologue to a j oint v e n tu re b etw een th e tw o , wh ich wou ld see the B ritis h tr ailbi k e spec ia li st tak e o ver m anufacture of a ran ge of No rton singles. The sh arp l o oking C ombat , with n ew e d ge st yling by J ohn Keogh , is the upma rk et ver sio n of th e pre v ious Int ern a t lonal , st ill w ith th e same T igcraft designed ch ass is and BMW eng in e. Its disp lay at Int erm ot ma y presag e a genu in e N orton co meback . Th e br o th ers ' l a t e st pr odu ct is a 5 12cc soh c single with c ylinde r head c arved fro m solid billet and an inte g ra l cy linder and cran k cas e d esign , fo r added st rength while still addi ng i n l i g h t ne ss - dry wei gh t i s 2 55 pounds wi th necessary stree t eq uip m ent; 23 7 i n MX rac e gu i se . Th e result is th e Ferrari of off- road m ot or cycles , available in MX, end uro and stree t - le g a l su p er mo t ard v ersi on s , eac h eq ui p pe d with WP su sp en sio n and eithe r a fou r or six -speed ge ar- 1. Of course, if Norton were It ali an, it wo ul d already b e up in p ro duction with an own-built engi ne - just as the quartet of Latin manufa ctu rers o n disp lay at Muni ch , each with their own liquid -coo led fo ur -valve designs. Apart fr om Villa , whose p rotot ype 600cc dohc eng ine derived from th eir early - ' 8 0 s 500 c c speed w ay des ign has yet to reach a chassis , these were a ll o n display powe ri ng var io us e nd uro and supermotard streetro d m odels, tho ug h the lat est creation of th e pro lifi c Vert em at i broth ers o u tsh in ed th eir T M and VOR ri val s, th e l atter o f whom in any case use th e Vertem at i s' ol de r desi g n of m oto r. cue I e n e _ S • OCTOBER 1 8 , 2000 19