Roundup

ROUNDUP

Two-wheeled power to the people

TAKE A LOOK AT EASTERN EUROPE and what you’ll see will depend at least partly upon your vantage point.

If you’re a politician, you’ll see people anxious for stability, consumer goods and reasonably priced food items.

If you’re a motorcycle manufacturer, you’ll see millions of potential customers with just one thing between them and the personal mobility that is one of democracy’s handmaidens.

That one thing is a shortage of motor vehicles that are easy to buy and inexpensive to operate.

A number of companies are attempting to cash in on this craving for mobility. Honda, for instance, has established an Eastern European Sales Division to study the market there, and BMW sold about 400 bikes in Eastern Europe last year, mostly to government agencies. But other firms are homing in on Eastern Europe’s difficult but untapped markets. Perhaps the best known of them is Italian motorcycle monolith Cagiva, which late last year concluded a deal with Czechoslovakian manufacturer CZ to purchase 32 percent of the company for $1.3 million and to produce a line of new machines, the first of which will be called the Cagiva-CZ.

This will be a hybrid consisting of a Cagiva Blues-a small-displacement cruiser-style streetbike sold in Europe-and a 175cc CZ four-stroke Single. The aim of the project is to produce a machine that can be sold for less than the price of the all-Italian machines now being shipped to Czechoslovakia by Cagiva, though no price has been mentioned. What has been mentioned, however, are plans for additional joint ventures between the two firms. The first of those could be a 345-pound, 400cc sportbike that will also be exported to the U.S., where it is projected to sell for about $3200. Early reports indicate the bike should be here by August to be sold as a 1993 model. The company also plans to import 125cc and 200cc entry-level standards.

Penta, a little-known Czechoslovakian manufacturer, also plans to export to the U.S. market its new line of dual-purpose, MX and enduro bikes priced from about $2500.

Jawa, meanwhile, has been busy with its own plans. The company has produced a 286-pound prototype sportbike it calls the Athena, with which it hopes to prove that a twostroke engine-in this case, a 246cc Single-can be light, powerful, and cleaner than a comparably sized fourstroke. The company’s engineers plan to accomplish this environmental good citizenship by using a servomotor-controlled exhaust valve in conjunction with electronic enginemanagement systems, a catalytic converter and, perhaps most importantly, a gas-to-oil premix ratio of 100:1.

Production of this machine, unfortunately, is not yet assured. Jawa spokesmen say production plans will not be finalized until the company analyzes not only customer interest, but its own financial ability to produce the Athena.

These bikes surely will be the tip of the motorcycling iceberg as the people of Eastern Europe begin equipping themselves with the mobility they’ll need to be competitive in the new world that now faces them.

Pavel Husák

Indians by Cagiva?

SURROUNDED BY A SWIRL OF secrecy, Philip S. Zanghi, the man behind the revitalized Indian Motocycle Company, admits to being a promoter, but he vehemently denies that he is a fraud.

“I’ve never lied to anyone about this company. We’re going to get this thing done,” said Zanghi.

Yet there remains considerable doubt about his promise to once again produce American-made Indian motorcycles, out of production since 1953. Economic-development officials in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, where Zanghi plans to build the bikes, have publicly expressed doubts about his business background and about his ability to finance Indian’s rebirth.

They are perplexed by Zanghi’s contention that he has launched his enterprise with a $500,000 loan from an unnamed California real-estate company-a firm he says also will help bankroll the new Indian production line at a plant in East Windsor, Connecticut. Development officials also have been openly concerned about the fact that while Zanghi says he has worked in hotels and casinos in Europe, he refuses to name them.

Those doubts matter little to Zanghi, who won full rights to the Indian trademark after a protracted court battle with former partner Carmen DeLeone.

In a surprise announcement, Zanghi said Indian has reached an agreement with Cagiva Italia SPA under which Cagiva will manufacture four new Indian models at the East Windsor site. These include the four-cylinder Four Ace, the Chief GBA (God Bless America), the Indian Prince sportbike and a military motorcycle.

Robert O’Neill, national sales and marketing manager of Cagiva North America, says the Italian company, “Has not even entertained an idea of entering into a commercial agreement with Mr. Zanghi to produce motorcycles under the Indian name.” But a source inside Cagiva Italia says that though nothing has been finalized, a discussion about Cagiva’s participation in Indian is indeed underway.

Zanghi said he expected his $4 million deal to buy the East Windsor facility to close by the end of February. He said the company will operate its licensing business, which oversees the use of the Indian logo on clothing and jewelry, from Springfield. He said that business earned the company $1.6 million in profits last year. Zanghi also has taken an option to purchase a five-story wing of the original Indian factory, where it will perform just enough final assembly on the East Windsor-built bikes to say that Springfield is their point of origin.

In spite of the possible tie-in with Cagiva, Zanghi said, “All the parts for the Indian Motocycle will be made in America. Indian is back, and I’m not going to cheapen its reputation by bringing in parts from overseas.”

Christopher Geehern

Christopher Geehern is assistant business editor of the Springfield Union-News.