Europe Gets Naked!

EUROPE GETS NAKED!

ROUNDUP

ALL NUDE! ALL THE TIME! That is the theme for September’s Munich Show, where Aprilia, MV Agusta and Yamaha, among others, will unveil all-new entries in the blossoming naked-bike category.

MV’s brawny Brutale is based on the sexy F4 Strada sportbike tested elsewhere in this issue. Looks-wise, a tiny carbon-fiber nose cone will replace the F4’s sculpted fairing, and a revised 4-into-2 exhaust system will supplant the original’s underseat organ-pipe affair. The combination tubular-steel/cast-aluminum frame and intricate single-sided swingarm remain intact. Ditto the fuel-injected, 16-valve, dohc inline-Four, save for a longer stroke that boosts displacement to 900cc. Talk about midrange!

Based on the RSV Mille’s 60degree V-Twin, Aprilia’s latest

head-turner is a direct response to Cagiva’s Suzuki TL1000-engined Raptor series, not to mention Ducati’s popular M900 S. Upright seating will complement elegant SL-type styling (and power output), with chrometrimmed gauges and yet another variation on the twin-spar aluminum-frame concept. Think Italian Speed Triple.

Yamaha, too, will enter the naked-bike wars. Codenamed S1 and envisioned as a year-2001 version of the mid-Eighties Fazer, the YZF-R1-engined machine is far racier than Honda’s Euro-only X-l 1,

Kawasaki’s Ten Best-winning ZRX1100 (rumored to have ZX12R power in 2001) and Suzuki’s re-styled Bandit 1200S.

Britain’s Motor Cycle News claims that the budget-priced YZF spin-off will retain the

Rl’s aggressive headlight treatment and evocative shape. Expect, however, a more conventional riding position and an unbraced swingarm. A fourcylinder shaft-drive sport-tourer, not unlike the much-missed early-Nineties FJ1200 ABS, is also in the works.

See you in Munich!

Matthew Miles