Friday 9 November 2012

Friday bike

This week's chosen due to its unusual styling.
Gilera CX 125. 

Built from 1991 onwards, it looks like a fairly conventional sportsbike of the era. However, if you look at the other side:

 Yes, it's got single sided suspension, front and rear. Single sided rear was starting to become common, but at the front it was unique. Can't imagine it was done for technical reasons, probably solely for styling and to give the bike a 'unique selling point' as the marketing men like to say.

 The single 'leg' seems to be a alloy casting (possibly forged for strength), and here's an explanation of what all the bits are.

 Can't say that I really understand how it all works, but it looks good anyway, especially with those dished wheels.
The rest of the bike was a fairly conventional 125cc two stroke single with an electronic power valve. At that time, in a lot of European countries, 16 - 18 year olds were restricted to 125cc, but without any power restriction (UK was 12 bhp, later 15). So you can understand how attractive the 30 bhp Gilera was when compared to similar bikes from Aprilia, etc with 'conventional' front ends.
I don't think this was ever officially sold in the UK, although at least one made it here according to this article. How many were sold elsewhere I've no idea, but there are none currently for sale on Italian Ebay. This isn't really surprising as you don't expect a 30 bhp sportsbike bought by teenagers to have a very long life!
I found the dashboard from one on Italian Ebay - definitely 'of its time!'


1 comment:

  1. I'm wondering if it is like James Parker's RADD fork design with center hub steering? It kind of looks like it might be...maybe built under licence? Thirty HP is pretty healthy for a 125 street machine. The fairing is almost 'dust-bin' like. Interesting bike Norman.

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