1966 Gilera 98 Town and Country - 2-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article

Description

1966 Gilera 98 Town and Country - 2-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article
Original, vintage magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Except for a few minor flaws, the
Gilera 98cc Town and Country may
very well be one of the finest little trail
bikes ever to come our way. We did not
like the rigid footpegs, which led to getting
trapped a couple of times in narrow places.
The seat is too narrow, too hard and too
slippery. Handling in the rough could be
improved with 18-inch wheels. The 17-inch
wheels on our test bike were too easily
gathered up by ruts and hollows. We are
pleased to say these items will be corrected
on all Town and Country models to leave
the Gilera factory'from now on.
One problem thatWill not be quite so
easily solved (although we have been
assured it will be) is an extremely large
gap between third and fourth gears. This
happens rather frequently with Italian
motorcycles, where gas mileage is an im-
portant consideration. Faced with the con-
flicting demands of trail riding, where high
pulling-power, high-reduction ratio gearing
is needed, and highway cruising, where a
low “overdrive” gear ratio is required for
fuel economy, designers tend to take the
easy way out. They give the bike a low
(numerical) ratio in top gear, and then
provide an unusually high reduction in
1st, 2nd, and 3rd transmission ratios. It is
a solution of a sort, but not without its
drawbacks (or should that be “drawsback”).
In the case of the Gilera Town and Coun-
try, there has been too extreme an attempt
made to satisfy all conditions, with the re-
sult that the jump between 3rd and 4th
gears is inconve.nie.ntiy The bike
has to be pushed aho-.? io valve-float in
3rd before the rider dares to catch 4th —
and even then the revs drop to practically
nothing. In 4th, the bike is most reluctant
to pull past the torque peak unless aided
by a tail-wind or a down-hill run. This is
terrific for economy, but most Americans
would probably prefer something a bit less
extreme.
Where the little Gilera really shines is in
rough, almost impossible terrain. We
have said that the lower gears were nicely
spaced and these are the ones the rider
will be using most of the time. First gear
gives a very high reduction and that,
coupled with the rather good torque char-
acteristics, leaves few obstacles impos-
sible to overcome. We concluded that it
would make an almost ideal small displace-
ment trials machine, even for the exper-
ienced, old-time motorcyclist.
Steering and general handling are excel-
lent. The little engine is very smooth at all
engine speeds, with an instantaneous, pre-
dictable throttle response; all the things
needed for a trials winner.
We feel obliged to mention in praise
the clutch and brake levers. Cycle World
has almost continuously criticized the typ-
ical terrible straight Italian levers, and
obviously Gilera is trying to please Amer-
icans. They have fitted solid aluminum,
ball end levers with which even we can-
not find fault. The handlebars are a com-
promise: wide enough for good low speed
control, while being narrow enough to
enable getting through dense brush with
the least effort. Bar height was comfortable
for all our staffers.
The Town and Country has one of the
lowest seats of any machine we have
tested, 28.5 inches from ground to seat-top,
making it ideal for the small of stature.
Wives, particularly those with short legs,
will be delighted by the lack of effort
needed to ride this machine. You may have
noticed all of the things we have said
indicate a motorcycle well suited to the
novice rider as well as an old master.
Very Italian in appearance, the Town
and Country is finished in deep Italian
racing red and black. Highly polished
castings house the in-unit construction en-
gine and gearbox internals. A simple flat
combustion chamber has parallel overhead
valves within a rocker chamber that is part
of the cylinder head casting. A vertically
finned rockerbox cover matches the head
finning, so clean as to give the engine an
almost two-stroke appearance. The pushrod
tunnel is cast into the heavily-finned cylin-
der to further enhance engine tidiness. Wet
sump lubrication feeds the crankpin and
rocker assemblies, the oil being carried in a
finned chamber in the bottom of the
crankcase, where it is picked up through
a removable filter by the feed pump. A
multi-plate wet clutch is exposed to result-
ing engine oil mist on its way back to the
crankcase.
To say the Gilera Town and Country
has an efficient means of silencing would
be an understatement. The high level, out-
of-the-way exhaust pipe terminates at a
muffler that does a superb job of quieting,
something which will please the neighbors
as well as non-motorcycling trail users.
The little machine is no ball of fire, but
then it was not meant to be a racer, only
an extremely pleasant, truly Town and
Country motorcycle. To this end Gilera
has been very successful.
12118-6603-08