Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128232
Neil Hodgson's World Superb ike Championship-winning Fila Oucati 999 F03 lAbove ) Addition a l g ussetin g to s t i ffen-u p the 999's "street-first" c hassis is evident in this p hoto. Rear sh o c k is an Ohlins unit. IA b ove rig ht) The Tennignon i e xh a ust be llow s p l e nty w hen the 999 is at full song. Its note has been d e sc rib e d as being a b it more m etallic t han t he 998. (Right) Heart of the beast: The 999's motor is, of course, the l at e st rendition of the T e stas tretta and features an u ltrash o rt stroke that capitalizes on revs without sacrificing bottom-end torque. wh ee l fl appin g b y st a ndi ng o n th e footrests and pushin g your ch in over the steering head without also easing off th e throttle and losin g m omentum - and a stro nger, fitter man than m e called Neil Hodgson co nfi rms this to be th e c ase. So, the trick is to stop that happening in th e fi rst place , and that means us ing the fo otrests and handl eb ars to forc e yourself forward on th e seat agai n und er acceleratio n, th en graduall y slide ba ck agai n under the sc ree n down a longer str ai ght as speeds m ount , for m ax imum strea ml i n i ng, wh i l e taking c a r e n o t t o unweight th e fr ont end unduly as yo u do so, or e l se y ou 'll g et t he f ro nt wh eel flapping and w ill ha ve to back off the gas to recover. Phew ! Reckon I was p e rsp iring more fr om m en t al stimu lu s th an physical effo rt in th ose oven -lik e temperatur es, aft er my 20 laps sitting the term ex am for Du cati Level I at the Univers it y of Misano... T an k slapping down th e st raights has another do wnsid e , bey ond th e obvious one th at yo u can' t go as fast as you wan t and risk getting flun g off if y ou don 't back o ff the throttl e t o rec ov er. After six o r seven laps of my firs t sessio n, before I learned how to th e tir e. Just another thing to conte nd with! " Forget ab out adjustab le stee r ing geometry and adjustable susp en si on - thi s motorc y c l e requ ire s a n adj usta ble rider! If this all sounds like a pretty nega tiv e tak e o n t he motorcycl e th at is domina ti ng th e 2003 World Su perbike Champion ship , d on't ta ke it as suc h - it's just that it requires a high er level of rider expertise to get the m ost out of th e bike than from its less pe r- 46 e S EPTEMBER 1 7 , 2003ยท c U c ' co unter th e in stability at birth , I had th e feeling th e fr ont tire had gon e off - it f elt sq ui rmy and g rea sy in th e ce nte r o f th e tread w hen I came t o brake hard at the end of th e ba ck straig ht. Sid e grip fortunately seemed okay - but still, somethi ng felt w rong . " Yes, Neil had th e sam e th ing hap p en at M onz a , " s aid Du c at i t e a m m anag er D a v ide T ard oz z i w hen I sto p pe d t o t ell h im a bo ut it. " Yo u thi nk th e tire's gon e off , bu t in realit y it' s the instab ility down th e st raig ht wh ich has o ve rhe ate d th e cente r o f nevvs forming , less capabl e, less pow erfu l pr ede c ess ors , and as spee ds a n d pow e r o u t p u t s mount i r re si sti b ly, that 's o nly to be expected . However, given that the 999 was after all dev elo pe d fi rstly as a str eetbike ai m ed at resolving th e co m pro m ises of its 916 to -998 prede ce sso rs in eve ry day road u se , I c a n' t h e lp w ond er ing i f th e overa ll package isn 't m aybe less th an ideal fo r slick-sho d Superbike racing , incl uding th e current position o f the sw in garm piv ot as we ll as th e shape o f th e f uel tank d et erm ining th e rid er' s pos it ion , n either of wh ich of co ur se t he t eam c a n adjust und er Superbik e ru les with out 150-off rehom o l o g ati on . Remember F ogg y's first titl e o n th e new 9 16 c ame on ly aft er it s wayward ha nd li ng was r e so l v ed m ids easo n wi t h c h a s s is m odific ati ons , so as I say , gi ve Neil and Rub en c red i t f o r what they ' ve ac hi eve d this sea son abo ard su ch a d emanding , but eff ec tive ly not y et fully dev eloped , all -n ew motorcycle. The key factor in all owin g the m to do t his has been t ha t wonde r f u l engine, easily the m ain event in rid i ng t hi s soon-to -be-a -cha m pio n Ducati Superb ik e. This is the lat est deve lo p m ent of the ultrashort -stroke 104 x 58 .8mm Testastretta desmo Vtw i n m ot o r, w h i ch p o w er ed Tro y Ba yliss t o run ner -up slot in the title serie s in 2002, th en fitted in the o ld sty le 998R ch a s si s - but Ducat i 's o ngo ing R&D has deli vered an even more i m p re s si v e pack age, whose appetite for revs with out sac rificing any of the des mo V-t win 's legendary torq ue , but ind eed aug me nti ng it, is li t erall y awe-i ns p iring . How Ducati 's in geni ous R& D team has managed t o get th o se so up -plate -siz ed pi st on s revving safely t o t he soft -action 13 ,700 rpm revlimiter as a matter of course is already pretty praiseworthy (Lav illa 's 73-bore four -cyl inder Suzu ki runs j ust 300 rpm higher, by com - , parison ) - but to do so in an eng ine tha t pulls m eaningfully fr om as low as 4000 rpm and has a co m p lete ly linear and ex treme ly deceptive bu ild of power over wha t is al most a 10 ,0 00 rpm powe rba nd is literally astound in g. Yet th at ' s wha t t he 99 9 F0 3 w ill d o, as d emon s tr at ed o nce I co nv ince d myself it was better t o use a gear higher almost every where than I'd bee n foolin g m yself into th inking was necessary. That meant, un t il I sta rte d push ing t he 16 .5 - inc h f ront ti re hard er in t he ri gh t turn across fr om th e pi ts t ha t th e engine wou ld run that low in seco nd gea r ye t still drive sort of okay down the next sho rt straig h t. Whil e prob abl y th e only pla c es in a rac e you ' d ever run th e eng ine that low wou ld be at the stupid c hi c a nes at Silver st on e and Monza , the fa ct that it took that treatment in its stride was already impressi ve. But dial up at least six grand on th e d ig i tal ta ch o - wh o se larg e " gear selected" disp la y is really helpful to remind you which ra tio yo u ' re in o n a bike which seems happy to run with anyth ing you throw at i t -a n d y o u' r e rewarded with ser ious drive out of the turn that will rem ind yo u to pull the Ducati upright if you want to avoid sp inning the back wh eel. Yet the way th e power builds so quickly but pre d ictably , accompanied by the flat y et distinctive b l ast from the und erseat ex h a u st' s sing l e sil en c er that con trasts with the more mellow bo o m from the old 998's twin Term ig no nis, is the F03 's pr incipal asset. In spit e of th e im p ressive power -to -weight ratio of 189 bhp at 12, 50 0 rpm d elivered b y a bike scal ing right o n th e 360 pound twi n- cy li nder weight limit, the Ducati h a s s uc h a s m o o t h a n d torquey power delivery th at yo u get a shock w hen you gl an c e at th e tacho and find you're al re ad y revv ing to 11 ,000 rpm - ther e's no real sense I