How To Cook Through Traffic
HOW TO COOK THROUGH TRAFFIC
ALL IT TAKES IS A LIGHTBURNER
LOOKING FOR PROOF THAT IT’s difficult to overestimate the enthusiasm in Italy for sexy, exotic motorcycles that run like rifle shots? Look no farther than the Yamaha TDR Lightburner.
The Lightburner is the result of a ménage á trois between Yamaha, Italian Yamaha importer Belgarda and Motori Minarelli. The TDR line resulted after Belgarda, always eager to satiate the demand in Italy for small-bore sizzlers, arranged for the licensed manufacture of Yamaha’s 50cc and 125cc Singles by Minarelli. Belgarda bought the resulting engines and installed them in chassis built on its own assembly line. The Lightburner, complete with Supermotard styling, is the most recently evolved form of the TDR species.
With its 54.5-inch wheelbase, 31.8-inch seat height, wide handlebar and street tires, this little zapper is a long way from being the normal sportbike. Yet for all its elemental personality, the Lightburner comes with electric-start, cast wheels, a 12.6-inch front-brake rotor gripped by a four-piston caliper, and 100/80-17 front and 130/70-17 rear radial tires.
The engine is pure Yamatech, and in its current mild state of tune, fed by a 28mm Dell’Orto carb, it is good for 25 or so horsepower, with very good power delivery. A closeratio six-speed gearbox transfers power to the rear wheel so that you can keep the engine on the boil, which is to say, turning at more than 4500 rpm. Top speed is a healthy 84 mph, a figure at which the bike’s speedo arrives very quickly.
If that eager little engine hauls the bike around with more elan than expected, a very competent chassis, with quick, neutral steering, plenty of suspension travel and wide, grippy tires, does the rest. The result, even though this bike’s lineage may be a little odd, amounts to big-time fun. But that name. Lightburner?
You’ve got to understand how it works in Italy. Here, the name of the game, at least for city traffic, is this: Burn away from stoplights at fullthrottle, zap through traffic, brake late, flick hard into comers, reaccelerate to the next stoplight, screech to a stop, then burn away again. See? Lightburner.
Bruno de Prato
