DUCATI LEAD DEVELOPMENT RIDER ALESSANDRO VALIA
P78
Interview
of the bike, of the components,
but also, we make a high-speed
test from an aerodynamic point of
view and comfort for the rider.
Then inside this ring there's a
track that is similar to Mugello.
It's seven kilometers long (4.3
miles). And the other facilities,
like a road for suspension testing.
They have a noise test track and
also off-road test track.
We can start the develop-
ment of the bike there and then
we move to other tracks, for
example, supersport bikes for
the Panigale V2, V4 and also the
normal road because I have to
check the behavior of the bike
also on normal roads. This is very
important. Then we have also
another kind of test that is the
reliability tester that we start in
Nardo, where we ride for 1000 ki-
lometers, both on the ring where
we go full throttle in sixth gear
and then on the track. We make
half week on the track and half
week in the ring in order to have
a faster reliability. Then we check
it again on the last long riding
that depends on the project, but
we go from 50,000 kilometers to
100,000 kilometers, in the case
of the Multistrada, for example.
When you say you do
100,000 kilometers, are you
talking about it being on a
dyno or a normal road?
No, on a normal road.
That's a lot of seat time.
Yes, we ride day and night. Not
all the night, but we ride most of
the day and part of when it's
dark also.
When you talk about the
Multistrada then, how does
your development mind then
change from a sport bike to
something that is designed to
be an all-roads bike?
For sure the approach is differ-
ent because the core business of
the superbike must be faster on
track, and it allows different riders
who have different riding skills
to reach their maximum perfor-
mance. The performance is the
core of the supersport bike.
When we speak about the Multi-
strada we change our focus to be
Alessandro
clinched the 2018
Chinese Superbike
Championship using
a largely stock
Panigale V4 S.
