Single-Minded

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Single-minded

David Edwards

WHO WAS IT THAT SAID REVOLUTIONS start with but a single bullet? Well, how about one that began with a cannon shot across the bows of two-wheeled conventionality? That’s just how the Singles Revolution in the U.S. got started.

“Huh? Time out and back up,” you say. “A Singles Revolution?”

Correct-o-rama. There it was on the cover of your favorite motorcycle magazine in September of 1993. . Ducati's 550cc Supermono, waspwaisted study in scarlet, magnesium and carbon-fiber, a 277-pound laydown Single as trick as a NASA space shot and, at $30,000 per copy, only slightly less expensive. It came loaded to the gunnels with techno-wizardry: liquid-cooling, fuel injection, belt-driven double-overhead cams, four valves, desmo actuation and a clever dummy connecting-rod setup that killed vibration, even at the 1 1,000rpm speeds the motor was capable of.

Pumping 61.4 horsepower through its rear Dunlop racing slick, the onelunger Duck willingly lapped Willow Springs Raceway 4 seconds under the Singles class record, Road Test Editor Don Canet at the helm.

“Look for the bike to usher in a new series of Ducati Singles ranging from sportbikes to standards,” we enthused.

Okay, so the Team CW crystal ball has proven a little murky on this last point. Blame it on cash-flow problems back in Italy, blame it on an overwhelming worldwide clamor for 916s, blame it on an antiquated production line in Bologna (now solved), but street Supermonos have yet to materialize.

Still, the evidence of a second coming of Singles is all around us. In Europe and Japan, Sound of Singles roadracing abounds, with bulging grids, beautiful noises, and bikes brimming with innovation and character. Rumor has it that the FIM, governing body of GP racing, is considering a Singles World Championship for 1996. Over here, SoS (as well as Battle of the Twins) has been relegated to a support class at AHRMA vintage events, but enthusiasm runs at redline. At Daytona this year, 50 Thumpers from all over the world showed up. Our very own European Editor, Alan Cathcart, took second in the premier F-l class aboard his personal Ducati Supermono, just pipped on the last lap by a very healthy 661cc Rotax-powered one-off from Germany.

Turns out that Rotax is a very important player in all this Singles-revival stuff. The Austrian engineering’ firm has strong ties to Italy's Aprilia, which, in turn, is working with Germany’s BMW. The end result of this cross-pollenation being the F650 Funduro—assembled by Aprilia, powered by a four-valve, liquid-cooled Rotax, badged as a BMW.

It’s also a runaway success story. In 1994, fully 25 percent of all BMWs sold were F650s. In Germany, the rally-styled bike was back-ordered for months; many of the deposits being put down by young, first-time motorcycle buyers, the kind of people the industry is having an increasingly difficult time attracting. Look for the F650 Beemer to make a stateside appearance in 1996, to be joined soon after by a more street-oriented version, and maybe even a sportbike.

The latter will have to go some to top Bimota’s new Supermono, also BM W/Rotax-powercd (sec “Sport Single,” CW, June). Sexy and sweet-handling, this marks the Italian specialty builder’s first single-cylinder design, first collaboration with BMW’ and first real attempt at semi-affordability. When it lands on U.S. soil sometime in '96, expect a sub-$ 12,000 price tag, cheap by Bimota standards.

Badge-engineering is also being played with Yamaha’s 660cc Single, a thoroughly modern motor (liquid-cooling, electric start, five valves, counterbalancer) that Yamaha has stuck in a mildly successful street-biased dualpurpose model and seemingly forgotten about. The Europeans have been quick to take up the slack. Belgarda, Yamaha’s Italian importer, apparently weary of waiting for the parent company to make a move, commissioned a for-real dual-purpose bike based on the 660. Off-Road Editor Jimmy Lewis rode the finished product and says it's at least a decade ahead of the D-P bikes Yamaha sells in the U.S. And we recently reported that Belgarda has a swoopy SZR660 sport Single in prototype testing—a very tidy-looking piece it is, too.

While America may never see any Belgarda Singles, Yamaha's 660 motor is already on sale here, tucked between the frame rails of MZ's Skorpion. This is another syndicatecycle-Japanese engine, British design work, German assembly—that works far better than it has a right to, as you can read in this issue. How ironic is it that an almost-defunct bike-maker from the shambles of East Germany takes a Yamaha engine and comes up with a more interesting use for it than the factory can?

Also tested in this issue is the K I M Duke, which may pack more fun between two wheels than any bike anywhere. Sort of an asphalt-MXer, the Duke could just be the blueprint for a whole new kind of less-intimidating streetbike, one that happily gives up 120-mph-plus hijinks for the joys of light weight, crisp turn-in and meaty, torque-rich drives off corners. Cagiva/Ducati has a similar model on the drawing boards and the latest issue of Germany’s Motorrad Reisen & Sport carries an illustration of a 650 Suzuki done in the same motif. The Duke and its like are simple, elemental machines, but definitely not retro, definitely not something a long-time gearhead would have to make excuses for.

This is important, because if Singles are to be reborn in a big way in America, they will have to appeal to experienced riders-the technology needed to bring street Thumpers into the 1990s rules out their use as beginner bikes.

Here’s hoping that happens. Nothing worse than having a revolution without participants. Eä