Gilera Saturno 500
ジレラ サトゥルノ
Gilera Saturno Bialbero
“…….. The Saturno’s prototype was then flown to Japan and displayed by the Itoh organization at the ‘Mega-Show’ which began in Tokyo on 20 December. The Nuovo (New) Saturno project was very much the work of the two men, Gilera engineer Sandro Colombo and the Japanese technician, N Hagiwara. The general idea was to recreate the Saturno concept, but in a modern guise.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Using the 492cc Dakota engine, the Ital-Japanese pairing created a compact Café racer (it was also built with the smaller engine). Weighing in at 2961b (135kg) the Nuovo Saturno employed a one-off trellis steel-tube frame and an alloy swinging
arm with eccentric adjustment for the final drive chain. No expense had been spared in selecting the best quality components; the footrests, rear brake and gear change levers were all in aluminium, as., was the kick-starter.
The 300mm floating brake disc at the front was operated by a four-pot Brembo ‘Gold-line’ caliper, with a 240mm disc and dual piston caliper at the rear, while the Marvic cast alloy wheels each had three hollow spokes. Both wheels were 17in diameter with 110/70 front and 140/70 rear tyres of VR rating.
The 40mm front forks had 120mm of travel and were of conventional design. The rear end was taken care of by a single shock with 130mm travel. The shock was of the racing type with multi-adjustment. Other details of the machine included a half-fairing, clip-on handlebars, indicators, twin mirrors (fairing mounted), Japanese-
style bar-end weights, a single seat and racing-style tank, a plastic chainguard and a rear hugger mudguard in the same material. The exhaust system, finished overall in black, was a siamezed exhaust pipe exiting into a ,-single silencer. This was mounted just below the line of the seat base on the offside of the machine. In typical Café-racer fashion there were the bare minimum of fitments to the bike, typified by no centre stand, simply a side (jiffy) one. The finish of the whole machine was in Italian racing red.
As the engine literally hung in the frame it was readily accessible, unlike the majority of modern sports bikes with their total enclosure.
FOR GENERAL SALE
Although everyone believed that the Saturno was a Japan-only bike, this proved to be wrong and by the end of 1988 it went on general sale.
Named for the original, very successful and even more beautiful 500cc single-cylinder Gilera Saturno of the 1940s, the Bialbero was commissioned for sale by the Japanese trading company, C. Itoh. It was released for sale in Japan and EuropeThe Bialbero was newly designed from the ground up to be a stylish racer and has an array of choice parts. The steel trellis frame looks very cool, as does the sculpted tank. It’s got Brembo Goldlines up front, Grimeca in the back, an aluminum swing arm and rearsets, Marzochhi shocks and of course the three-spoked hollow red alloy Mavics. The DOHC 491cc liquid-cooled 4-valve single is good for a claimed 45 hp, pushing the 300 pound bike to a top speed of 110…….”".
My Gilera Saturno Bialbero in a link to you tube:
Enjoy!
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