Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Oucati ST3 By sing les into the Alfa Romeo of tw o wh eels and Eu rope's le adin g spo rtb i k e m a n u f a c t u r e r. In i ts f i nal 1000DS t win - s par k ev ol u ti o n launc hed ex ac tly one yea r ago , th e desmodu e m o t o r t oda y powers t he h ott e st - sellin g Ducat i m od e l e ve r made - the c urrent Multistrada - as w ell a s t h e ultim ate ex p re ssi o n o f bo th the Sup ersports cafe rac er line, wh ic h began 3 0 y ears ag o wi th t he 750 Sport, and th e tw o-valve Monster rang e, who se c om m erci al succ ess ha s und erwritt en D u c a t i ' s ra cing activities for th e past decade. It's still a key ingredient in Ducati's DNA. But perhaps not for much longer , thanks to the debut on t h e Du c at i stand at this year's Milan show of th e six-val ve ST3 sports tou rer. Designed to offer m ore p erformance t han th e current desmo due ST2 bu t at lower co st than t h e d esm o q u a tt r o ST4 (both of wh ich it now rep la ces), th e ST 3 leaves only the 99 6cc power-up Sup erb ik e-with- Iuggage ST 4S along sid e it in th e Ita l ian m arq ue ' s s po rt s t ou ring A L A N C A T HCA RT P HOT O S BY K EL E DGE f only becau se there have been so few throughout the years , it' s a matter of some sign ifican ce when Ducati i nt ro d uce s a n ew en g in e d e sign ev en if for the pa st three d ec ades (except for the Supermono road rac ing sing le, wh ich was never sold with lights and a li c en se pla t e) th is has always meant ye t another variant of th e 90-degre e V-twin desmo format, including powerplants lik e the watercoo led desmoquattro eight-valve cre ated in 1986 or i t s Testastretta replacement in 2000. But i t 's even more significant in th e case of th e introduction of what is effectively the successor to the very fi rst desmo V-twin eng in e design dating back to 197 1 - the air -cooled sin g l e - cam t w o - v a l v es- pe r -cyli n de r desm odue created by the compan y 's legend ary prog ett ist a Fabio T aglioni. Later up dated as the Pant ah in 19 77 , with belt -driven ca m drive to replace the origina l bevel-g ear layout, thi s wa s th e motor that pow ered Ducati's transform ation fro m a const ruct or of qu irk y but effecti ve sma ll- c ap acit y I 12 NOVEMB ER 5 , 2003 ' c ue • e n 0 vv s li neup. For the ST3 is powered by an all -new si ngle-cam desmotre V-tw in engi ne d es ign wi t h wate r- coo l ed heads and cylinders, developed from th e I.Mech .E design th esis p roj ect of Du cati chief engineer Gianluigi Men goli's son Dieg o. Th e engi ne features a three-va lve (tw o 34 mm inlet s plus o ne 40mm ex ha ust) cyl inder hea d design with du al ign ition . This ret ains the same 94 x 71.5mm/992cc dimen sio ns, bottom-end design and belt -dri ven SOHC format as th e air / oil -cooled desmodue 1000DS, but in add ition to water-cooling it now also features th e same 40-degree in cluded valve angle as Ducat i 's eight -valve Sup erb ik e engine designs. Ma se rat i cars as we ll as Hond a motorc ycles have featured three valves pe r cy linder in the recent pa st , so D uc at i' s in good c om p any w ith t hi s unusual ap proach , wh ich offe rs enhanc ed performance b u t at the sam e m an u fa c turi ng a n d m a int e n an ce cost s, co m pared to the t w o va lve desmodue. It's t h erefo re not o n ly a bridg e betw een the tw o ex ist ing famili es o f engi nes i n th e D u c a t i li ne u p but arg u ably ma y indee d be the best o f bo th worlds - on paper at le ast. For th is twi n - pl ug six-valve design p ro duces a claim ed 102 ho rse po wer at 8750 rpm and 9.5 kg m of torq ue more than th e 84 hp /9 .0 kg m of th e 10 00 DS des modue m ot or , argua bly equal on ba lance t o th e 1 12 hp /9.3 kg m of th e S4 Monster desmoquattro, and not so fa r a w ay fr o m th e 11 7 hp /lO .O kg m fig ures of i t s ST4S sport- touring sist er. Addition ally, the d esmotre is not on ly more powerfu l and more torquey, it also wei ghs 3.3 pounds l e s s th an th e d esmodue engi ne. Desp ite the new powerplant, the desmodue will continue in production in the 1OOODS Monster/Multistrada / SS b ut must i ne v i t ab l y be rep l aced soon e r o r l a t e r b y the desmotre on thes e models, too, lea ving only th e trio of new cl assic sportb ik es, which Du ca ti will unv eil at th is month ' s Toky o Sho w , and poss ibly the Monster range as the likely home for th e air -c oo led desmodue motor in the longer term. A longside th e introdu cti o n of the ST3 as the first in a n ew fam i ly of engin es, Ducati h a s als o ta k en th e o pp ortu n it y t o make over its sports to uring model range co m pletely , with

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