Cars & Bikes – 3 |

An attempt discriminates!

Back to the Italians and Aprilia had already shown off its V4 superbike at Cologne, so we were left with little to drool over other than a flat track style version of last year’s semi automatic Mana 850. The Mana X uses the same 830cc V-twin as the standard Mana, but instead of plain commuter styling the X is stripped back with only a moto cross seat and a front number board with two stacked projector headlights. The exhaust is moved underneath the engine to show off the chunky billet aluminum swingarm.
Bimota was flying its usual exclusivity flag with a carbon framed version of the DB7, the Oronero. The bike is based on the Bimota DB7 launched earlier this year, but is eight kilos lighter thanks to the front section of the swingarm and all of the body work being made from carbon fibre. The Bimota DB7 Oronero uses the same 1099cc V-twin engine sourced from Ducati’s 1098, but a freer flowing exhaust gives an extra 2PS taking power to a claimed 166PS. The bike will be available at the end of 2009 and cost a massive 39,960 euros.