Morbidelli's 24-Carat Motorcycle
MORBIDELLI'S 24-CARAT MOTORCYCLE
ROUNDUP
GIANCARLO MORBIDELLI’S primary business involves production of automated woodworking equipment, so it comes as no surprise that he chose the Milan Woodworking Show to debut the Morbidelli 850 V8.
Throughout the late 1960s and into the 1980s Morbidelli, now 60, fielded a series of 125cc and 250cc roadracers that brought him four world championships and a number of national titles. Now Morbidelli, absent for a while to take care of business, is back with a spectacular streetbike that unfortunately won’t be sold in the U.S.
Its styling, by Pininfarina, is very distinctive, and its engine, a tiny, fuel-injected dohc 90-degree V-Eight, is exposed for all the world to see.
Use of the V-Eight form was a key element in the bike’s design, for two reasons. First was inspiration provided by the legendary Moto Guzzi V-Eight of the 1955, ’56 and ’57 500 GP racing seasons. Second was a desire to build a machine that is, as Morbidelli’s press materials puts it, “detached from the stereotypes belonging to the Japanese production....”
The result is an 847cc power unit that is used as a stressed member and limited, through its Weber-Marelli CPU, to 100 horsepower at 11,000 rpm. Morbidelli says he’ll tailor the bike’s power and torque curves-52 foot-pounds at 7500 rpm is said to be on tap-to each 850 rider through use of individually programmed EPROM chips. The 100-horsepower limit will be inviolable because, Morbidelli says, he has no intention of “mixing with the contemporary hypersuperbike circus.”
The 32-valve engine, which exhales through a pair of threeway catalytic converters built into its 8-into-1 exhaust system, feeds its power to a fivespeed transmission via a twinplate dry clutch. Power gets to the 160/60-18 rear tire via a drive shaft running through the single-sided swingarm.
Top speed is expected to be about 150 miles per hour.
Morbidelli’s chassis is based around a chrome-moly spaceframe and uses a fully adjustable single shock at the rear and a 43mm fork, which works on steering geometry of 27 degrees of rake and 3.8 inches of trail. Brakes are by Brembo-12.6 inch rotors up front and an 11.2-inch rotor at the rear. Wheelbase is 58.7 inches, and claimed dry weight is 441 pounds.
Perhaps more interesting than all this, however, is the Morbidelli service scheme. Once production commences at Morbidelli’s Pesaro, Italy, plant-scheduled for 1995-each bike will be delivered in a special crate. When it’s time for service, a call to Morbidelli brings out the motorcycle movers, who ship the bike, inside its crate, at no cost, back to the factory for the work it needs.
Jon F. Thompson
