The Bologna, Italy International Motorcycle Show is scheduled for early next month, with several significant new model debuts possible.
As we reported earlier, Triumph is expected to debut a new Daytona 955, which should be approximately 25 pounds lighter and 15 horsepower more powerful. With radical (for Triumph) styling, the revised machine hopes to keep pace with the Japanese open class sport bikes.
Other bikes on the horizon, which may or may not debut at Bologna this year, include Honda’s CBR929RR-based naked bike, which will do battle with Yamaha’s FZ-1 (known as the Fazer 1000 in Europe). Styled with a bikini fairing, like Honda’s Hornet 600 in Europe, the new bike is expected to retain an aluminum, twin-beam frame.
We are still hearing that Kawasaki and Suzuki are working hard on their off-road four-stroke machines. Kawasaki is expected to debut an enduro/trail machine displacing approximately 400cc next Spring, as an early-release 2002 model. Suzuki, meanwhile, at about the same time, is expected to debut a full motocross version of its DRZ400 trail machine. Although Honda has been receiving lots of press regarding its motocross thumper, both of these machines may beat the Honda bike to market.
