| It's only Clint that mentioned it here, but I would love to see Ducati making a smaller lighter bike along the lines of the proposed Aprilia 450 twin, and I said it before in the thread about the 'prilia, that they already have the answer.
The Supermono.
Just think...a single barrel, head and injector set up from a testastretta bolted on to lighter, redesigned crankcases and you could end up with a 375cc machine with about 55Bhp or a 500cc machine with about 70Bhp, depending on whether you based it on 749 or 999 bits (and taking a crude approximation on power by halving the power output of a good 749s or 999s).
The NCR 100-One used an aircooled 1000DS engine tuned up to about 100Bhp and Titanium everything to get the weight down to 100Kg. In road going form the weight of that thing would probably go up to around 130Kg. By losing the weight of half the engine, and using 250 sized frame dimensions a Ducati 500cc single could surely get down to around 130-140Kg without needing titanium trickery?
Having all that space left by losing a barrel would mean you could get a decent sized airbox in without problems, and moving the barrel to a more traditional angle somewhere between the horizontal and vertical barrels would mean that you could move the engine forward without front wheel clearance problems and get a relatively long swingarm into a short wheelbase bike, with lighter weight as well the handling would be potentially fabulous.
What a bike! Might not be the ultimate trackday tool for fast circuits but it would be a giant killer on tighter circuits and on real roads.
If you could then make the styling drop dead gorgeous like the Supermono...and then ther is something so evocative about a 500cc single...BSA goldstars...jumpers for goalposts...
I would be first in the queue  |