SHOW Cologne 1992
horsepower. This is most definitely the
shape of things to come as statutory
100 bhp limits proliferate in Europe.
It also demonstrates the way in which
Yamaha managers are prepared to be
different, although the top industrial
designer (an Englishman) who did
much of the early styling work was
dismayed at the way Yamaha had
interpreted his ideas.
If the GTSIOOO is a leap in the dark,
Yamaha's other new offering is anything but. The YZF750R is an aWOl
for the masses, complete with EXUP,
upside-down fork, aluminium Deltabox frame and all the other Genesis
paraphernalia we've come to expect.
There is also an SP version for Superbike homologation with 39mm flatslide carbs, so maybe Fred Merkel will
stand a chance in the World Championship Superbike Series in '93. The
YZF (a designation it has taken from
the factory FI machines) has the
problem that it looks just like all the
five-valve 750cc Yamahas that have
gone before it and it doesn't have the
path-breaking technology of a Honda
RC30. However, the German-market
price of DM17,200 (22,200 for the SP)
The centerpiece of the Ducati display was the M900 Monstro, which our man
on the scene says is "a bike to give V-Max owners inferiority complexes."
European bikes steal show
By Julian Ryder
Photos by Kyoichi Nakamura
he Cologne Show may be the most
important European show on the
calendar, but 1992 was the first
year anyone could remember the
European factories dominating the
biannual exhibition in Germany so
completely. There were exciting new
models from Ducati and Triumph, a
new-generation Boxer motor from
BMW, Bimota showed the beautiful
DB2 to the public for the first time,
and KTM, with a range of roadoriented trail bikes, showed the over
250,000 attendees that they are back
from the dead.
The honorable Japanese exception
was Yamaha. Seen on these pages
before, the GTSIOOO ushers in the era
of the non-telescopic fork on a production motorcycle, and interestingly
it is on a catalytically cleaned sports
tourer voluntarily restricted to 100
T
(Above) The Ducati Desmoquattro
Supermono. (Left) The Triumph
Daytona - one reason the Triumph
display drew the most attention.
is an indication of how competitive the
YZF will be with the ZXR750 in the
European super-sports market. If those
prices really do bear some relation to
what it'll cost when it hits the market,
this is going to be a lot of motorcycle
for a relatively small amount of money.
(Left below) KTM will produce dual
sport versions of their 350, 400 and
550cc four-stroke enduro bikes.
(Below) Prototype V-twin KTM.
