2000s Motorcycles Archives - CARS // MOTORBIKES

Cagiva V-Raptor

The V-Raptor was a benchmark bike for Cagiva. It is fair to say that the Cagiva name does not have quite the same cachet as, say, Ducati or MV Agusta. But – back in the day – Cagiva owned both. And, add Aermacchi Harley-Davidson to the list, too. Indeed, it was in the latter’s old factory – in Varese, Italy – that Cagiva’s wheels were set in motion. Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni were its founding fathers. The V-Raptor, then, signalled a return to form for the firm.

The V-Raptor was designed by Miguel Galluzzi. Previously, he had penned the Ducati Monster. A 996cc V-twin engine was ‘borrowed’ from Suzuki’s TL1000S. It was duly dropped into Galluzzi’s creation. The result was a good-looking bike – with a top speed of 150mph. Especially striking, from a styling perspective, was the bike’s raptor-like fairing. Galluzzi could not have bettered its resemblance to a bird of prey’s beak!

Relatively small manufacturer that it was, Cagiva made a big impact on Nineties bike racing. Certainly, it was far from afraid to square up to Japan’s ‘big four’ teams. In ’92 and ’93, Cagiva were winning blue-riband races. American rider John Kocinski, for example, won his home GP on a Cagiva. At one point – in ’94 – the team led the World Championship standings. Mighty impressive, given the opposition. Sadly, the same year saw them retire from racing. Financial gremlins lobbed an impeccably clean spanner in the works. In road-going form, though, Cagiva motorcycles continued to impress. The V-Raptor, in particular, was given a rapturous thumbs-up by bikers worldwide!

KTM Adventure 990

The KTM Adventure 990 was made in Austria. Produced between 2006-13, it was designed to be dual-purpose. The Adventure was equally at home both on and off road. At least, that is what the marketing men said! Its engine – the LC8 liquid-cooled 4-stroke 75° V-twin – was tailor-made for rough terrain. Power output was 105bhp. Capacity was 999cc – to be precise. With a dry weight of 461lb, the Adventure maxed out at 123mph – on flat tarmac!

R & D for the Adventure was the Paris-Dakar Rally. Lessons learned from that hotbed of competition trickled down to the roadster. Probably not too much pre-release testing was needed after that! The Adventure’s long-travel suspension came courtesy of Dutch masters WP. The flexible tubular steel frame was almost identical to that on the 950 desert racer. So, indeed, were many other parts. Fabrizio Meoni sat tall in the saddle. He won two of the three Paris-Dakars preceding the Adventure’s release. Not a bad sales pitch!

Styling-wise, the Adventure was supermodel svelte. But, a model that packed a punch! At 6,750 rpm, no less than 100 N-m of torque was on tap. And – thanks to its chromium-molybdenum trellis frame – the Adventure rolled with the punches, too. Anything that less than snooker-table smooth green lanes could throw at it, anyway! As far as all-round capabilities go, then, the KTM Adventure 990 was about as kitted-out as a motorbike gets!

Harley-Davidson V-Rod

By Harley-Davidson standards, the V-Rod verged on the radical. It was clearly a cruiser – in true Milwaukee style. But, it was a different kind of cruiser to what Harley fans were used to. The V-Rod VRSC – V-Twin Racing Street Custom – had superbike-like performance. Top speed was 135mph. Handling-wise, things were just as impressive. In a straight line, the V-Rod was ultra-precise. That was only to be expected – given its long wheelbase. The front forks were raked out to 38°, after all. But, whereas in the past, cornering would then have been compromised, the V-rod’s cutting edge engineering saw it sail through twists and turns. And that with a dry weight of 594lb.

Visually, the V-Rod was striking, to say the least. A full-on silver machine, Harley did not stint on aluminium. This was no iron horse. Rather, the V-Rod was an object-lesson in à la mode metalwork. Solid disc wheels set off intricate frame tubes. An elegantly-shaped tank morphed into a slanted headlamp. The clean lines of the pipes blended in perfectly. The 1130cc V-twin engine was a design delight in itself.

The 115bhp motor had its roots in Harley’s VR1000 race bike. Porsche Engineering assisted in its development. For marketing purposes, Harley declared this Evolution engine a Revolution, no less! It boasted twin overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. Water-cooled – and with a 60° V – it took Harley performance to a whole new level. The venerable old pushrod motor was history. Hog riders could not believe their luck. They had long been on motorcycles that ruled the roost, looks-wise. Well, in their opinion, at any rate. Now – with the advent of the V-Rod – they were competing on the technical front, too. Talk about having your bike and eating it!