Gilera’s V-twin prototype revealed

These are the first pictures of the V-twin prototype Gilera is building as a first step towards a new range of machines.

It hosts the first full-size engine the Italian firm, currently best known for its scooters, has built since the original factory closed nearly a decade ago..

Tucked away in the Cagiva Raptor-based trellis frame, it has been developed for Gilera by parent firm Piaggio. It will form the basis of an entire range of bikes over the next few years.

And the Raptor-derived chassis is more than just a convenient testbed – Piaggio already owns 20 per cent of Cagiva and is in the middle of talks to buy the whole firm. If it succeeds, it could use the tubular steel chassis as the basis for the first V-twin Gileras – hugely reducing development time and cost.

It’s a fuel- injected, sohc, 90° V-twin, with a capacity of 839cc and a design that’s heavily based on Piaggio’s 460cc single-cylinder X9 scooter motor. The new twin shares the X9’s cylinder head, mounted on a new, V-twin crankcase.

The engine might not be at the cutting-edge of superbike technology, but it promises to be ideal for a naked bike competing against the mega-successful Ducati Monster. It makes 80-90bhp. Future versions are expected to have a bigger bore – up from 88mm to 92mm – to give a capacity of 920cc and even more power.

And it’s just the first of several developments, which will eventually include a dohc 1000cc V-twin superbike engine.

That’s already being worked on, using this motor’s bottom end, but with twin-cam cylinder heads for more efficient gas flow and extra power.

There are also plans for 650cc and 750cc versions.

The twins will sit alongside the Suzuki-powered Gilera Supersport 600, which was launched at last autumn’s Milan Show and is due to go on sale later this year. The sohc 850 is expected to be officially unveiled at the Munich Show in September – with more models following each year.

We’ll be riding Gilera’s prototype V-twin in the next few weeks so we can give you our initial impressions of the new engine.