Bimota Yb5: Transforming the Fj1200

Bimota YB5: Transforming the FJ1200

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Hot on the heels of the aluminum-beamed YB4 prototype based on the Yamaha FZ750 engine, Bimota has launched yet another Yamaha-powered megabike. This time, Bimota has taken the FJ1200 engine and housed it in a more traditional chrome-moly tubular chassis. The YB5, as it is called, will replace the Suzuki GS1100-engined SB5. Rolling on 18-inch wheels shod with Michelin radiais, the YB5 is more stable and less high-strung in terms of handling than its 16-inchwheeled predecessors. Furthermore, Bimota claims, it doesn’t sit up under braking when turning as does the standard FJ 1200. Though Bimota's main emphasis continues to be on the good-selling Ducati-powered DB1, the company does have a small but steady demand (there will be only 100 YB5s produced) for the large-capacity roadburners with which they made their name. With a timed top speed of 160 mph, the YB5 should appeal to that market—especially to those who live near a German autobahn. Announced at the same time was the DB1S, a variation on the existing Ducati-powered Bimota. Destined for countries such as Japan and Spain which have lax or non-existent noise regulations (as well as the Italian home market), this version of Bimota's best-seller is fitted with FI race camshafts and a pair of specially-developed Conti exhausts which deliver a glorious exhaust note reminiscent of the legendary Ducati 750SS street racer.

Performance is improved, too: Instead of the muffled DB 1 's 63 rearwheel horsepower at 8700 rpm, the DB1S produces a claimed 72 horses at 9200 rpm. With the homologation of this tuning kit, which Bimota says will be passed on to customers at the company's net cost, the DB1S should be very competitive in the new Italian Battle of the Twins series (using only production streetbikes with unmodified engines) to be run this year.

Elf tastes success

For avant-garde GP chassis designers, 1986 was a breakthrough year. Not only did the small Fior team score leading finishes in the 500cc class, but its French compatriots from Elf oil finally tasted success for the first time since 1980.

The Elf team now uses British rider Ron Haslam as its main tester and race rider, and under his hand the Elf3 that debuted last April racked up a steady flow of world championship points, enough to finish ninth in the overall standings. That is the best-ever finish by a bike fitted with hub-center steering.

The current Elf3 uses a version of the MacPherson strut familiar to the car world. A single, vertical suspension unit that determines wheel location and steering geometry is connected to the front wheel by a single, horizontal swingarm. Overall, this is a simpler system than the previous Elf designs, which used twin parallel arms.

And speaking of the older designs, a 7-year-old Elf e, powered by an engine derived from a Honda CB900, recently was timed at over 193 mph to capture six world speed records at the Nardo test track in southern Italy.

One last bit of news from the Elf team. The next-generation machine will be powered by Honda’s NSR500 V-Four GP engine.

Honda continues to monitor the development of the Elf chassis, and it’s no secret that HRC is very interested in new front-end technology.

If all goes well, the new machine will debut at the Spanish GP in April.

The 24 hours of Vespa

Though sales of the little buzzbombs have reportedly plummeted in Italy during the past year, Vespa scooters are still a universal part of the streetscape in almost any European city south of the Alps. Forty years since the Piaggio company set to work on the first prototype, the Vespa still has literally millions of fans all over the world, several hundred of whom gathered in Barcelona, Spain, this summer for the Euro vespa '86 rally.

Apart from a custom show (top prize went to a 200cc model kitted out with a Rolls Royce grille but otherwise built to resemble Cleopatra’s barge), the main event of the week-long activities was a 24-hour endurance race open to scooters of all makes, held at the nearby Calafat circuit. Not surprisingly. Vespas dominated, with only four Lambrettas and a single Honda automatic among the 42 starters.

Spaniards Medina, Roda and Rojas won the event on their 200cc Vespa, covering a distance of 1196 miles in the 24 hours, with a heady average of over 50 mph, including stops, on the twisty, 1.5-mile track. The Honda was 7th, with the first Lambretta next up, but there’s no truth in the rumor that the AMA plans to run a scooter class in the 1987 U.S. Endurance series.

—Alan Cathart