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/146688
SHOW ~ hoses leading from the nose of the fairing, instead a large. scoop on the left of the headlamp leads air through the left frame member into a huge airhox, which in turns feeds a plenum chamber for the carbs. At high speeds, the system is claimed to pressurize the intake system. All other changes to the ZXR are minor, although the fairing has had a total redesign. The ZZ-Rs look very similar to last year's models; but just about everything outside the engines had changed. The aluminium frames are all new, the fairings look much sleeker, .and like on the ZXR there is a ram-air intake system. This time there are twin scoops in the chin of the fairing feeding big-bore tubes that pass through the frame rails and .then into a massive airbox. If the 1993 ZZ-Rs are as big an improvement on the road as they are on the eye, then Kawasaki may be able to look forward to the new year. If the improvements turn out to be in the main cosmetic, then Kawasaki dealers are in for an even harder time. There were just as few surprises on the Suzuki stand, but they had shown the water-cooled GSXRl 100W and the new 600 to the press before Cologne. The GSXRIIOO, as expected, is a bigger version of the water-cooled 750 that's been in the shops this year. It .' makes 150 bhp and features the first six-piston brake calipers fitted to a production motorcycle, and it'll need them. The RB600R is, like the GSXRs, water-cooled, but Suzuki says it is not based on any previous model. They claim 100 bhp from the motor, which is used as a stressed member of the frame, and the bike certainly looks sporty, but while Suzuki -gave out myriad detail pictures of the swoopy, slatted fairing, it was extremely difficult to obtain specific technical details, like how much the bike weighs. Cutting through the meaningless marketing speak in the brochure, I surmise that Suuzki is trying to make ~ Cologne 1992 Yes, the KTM LC600's front fork is upside-down. Former World Champion Heinz Kinigadner presided over KTM's display. Back in Europe, the ever-expanding Ducati/Cagiva/Husqvarna' empire had lhe most impressive stand in the show. The centerpiece was the Ducati Monstro, a bike to give V-Max owners inferiority complexes. The M900, to· give it ·its proper name, uses a 900SS mOlor in a new, muscle bike style. There is no fairing, just a totally exposed ladder frame (a new design, not a rehash of the 900SS's) to give a slightly lengthened wheelbase. The Showa hock is vertically mounted and looks to contribute to the slightly rai.sed seat height. In fact, although they've kept the same wheels, brakes and other running gear as used on the 9OOSS, the Monstro is bigger in all directions. Show opinion was that you'll have a hard time buying a normal 900SS next year because all the motors will be going into Monstros. Ducati management was constantly revising projected production numbers upwards during trade days! The rest of the Desmo range gets the massively significant updates of blackpainted oil coolers and new graphics: the eight-valvers sport 'Desmoquattro' decals, the two-valvers make do with 'Desmodue.' The stand was filled with 888s, Husky dirt bikes, Cagiva military motorcycles, and an air of confidence on the products. They also had what was, by common consent, the most beautiful motorcycle in the vast expanse of the Cologne Messe: the 549 Sound of Singles racer. This 549cc laiddown fuel-injected Desmo revs to a claimed 10,000 rpm, thanks to a rodand-lever balancing system. Add in Ohlins suspension front and rear, and beautiful; sculptured bodywork and you can understand why the 50 examples to be built are already believed to have received offers of marriage. Ducati motors were also much in evidence on the Bimota stand. The Tesi, first seen at the last Cologne Show in 1990, gets a new front shock and a revised fuel-injection system that now features an exhaust gas temperature sensor. There is also a limitededition Tesi to celebrate 20 years of Eimota motorcycles. Known as the Tesi ID ES, it has received a total (Left) Triumph has resurrected the Tiger name, this time it's powered by a three-cylinder engine. (Below) The limited-edition Bimota Tesi lD. restyling job and looks the absolute business. Only 50 will be made, starting mid-October. The DB2 was there too, making its first public appearance. This is the budget Bimota with the 900SS motor, the heir to the DBl, the bike that saved Bimota's commercial bacon in the mid-'80s. The surprise was that they echoed their engine supplier in offering a halffairing version as well as the fully faired style we'd seen before the show. Ducati did maintain some Italian tradition by being just a little late setting up their stand, but Laverda's allocated space remained empty for the duration. Another disappointment was the relatively low-key Kawasaki stand; no sign of the much rumored - and expected - new Supersports 600, and only mild revisions to the ZZRs and ZXR750 to boast about. There was, however, an interesting new dualpurpose 650, the KLX650 with 4jts enduro-ready relative the KLX650R. Both use the 100x83mm bore and stroke of the old KL650 motor, but with modified cam profiles and, in the case of the 'R' model, a very light Electrofusion aluminium cylinder as used in the two-stroke KX motocrossers to lose 13 pounds just from the engine room compared to the old KL. The dual-purpose KLX650 puts a bit of that back on with heavier flywheels and an electric start. The frame is the same on both bikes, again . sourced from the KX motocrossers, but the R gets an aluminium swingarm which uses the top, rear engine mount as its pivot. Both bikes have 43mm upside-down forks. . Back on the tarmac, Kawasaki has obviously 'spent a lot of time on the breathing arrangementwf the ZXR750 and the 600 and 1100 ZZ-Rs. The ZXR gets the ram-air system used on the Fl bikes (and desperately needed by the Superbike boys to help them keep up with the Ducatis). Gone are the hoover a 600cc in-line all-rounder, not-a Supersports race winner. Maybe the budget-priced GSX600 is not long for this world. Honda, as befits the world leader, put a brave face on things. One completely new model was shown, the CBIOOO, also known as the Big I. This, Honda are at pains to point out, is not a retro bike. They prefer to think of it as a modern bike that happens not to have a fairing on it. The gestation of the CBIOOO is interesting; it was a private, after-hours project of several Honda engineers who were trying to build the bike they wanted 37