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/128324
\ worked as they sho uld in theory, the bike would be a missile, but the rain-hit tests have destroyed the opportunity for nearly 50 hours of tes ting. It is obvious that the current setup simp ly isn't working exce pt in the wet. The o ne shining light is the speed Troy Bayliss showed in the rain at Je rez. If the bike worked under those condi tions , then something was happ en ing in the wet that so lved some of the problems . It's fairly obvious that the main th ing missing in the wet is grip . The ride r simply cannot put the power down, so the chass is is not subject ed to th e same stresses, w hich brings us back to the w heel-spinning 2003 bike. Anybody who saw the single highspeed lap that Loris Capiro ssi put together at the Catalunya test at the start of the season saw a bike with an amazing level of grip. That grip is potentially very fast indeed - if the same grip can be prod uced in such a way as to let the rider fee l co mfortab le. The problem is that the two Ducatis now have so much grip, they are tying the chassis, o r at least parts of it, into knots. So what is Ducati do ing to sort out the prob lem? Claudio Domenicali is quite op en in adm itt ing that the y have problems. "We have many parts to test to try and reso lve these issues," he said. "We have a significant program for testing. We have Desmosed ici). He equally re fused to e laborate on the "new thro ttle." It may be ny by wire or it could be some halfway system . Ducati's first line of attack is moving the weight distribution forward again, and on the first morning at Jerez, both riders turned up with longer swingarms on one of each of t heir bikes. As long as everyth ing else remains uncha nged , the effect of a longer swingarm is to increase th e wheelbase - and to move the center o f the bike 's weight forward to undo some of the effect of the rearward we ight shift . It is ext remely difficult to change just on e thing on a bike , how ever. A longe r swingarm means more leve rage on the suspe nsion, so th at would also have to be changed to suit. And the problems don't stop the re. T he amount you can lengt he n the sw ingarm by is governed by the re ar cha in, and you don 't want to change th e sprockets unless you have to because that changes both the gearing and the wheelbase. Both riders used both of the ir setups, but by the end of practice Bayliss' bike looked ISmm longe r than Capiross i's. Th er e doesn't see m to have been much of an improve ment, how eve r, and a longer swingarm can't be the long-te rm so lution. On e can expec t a new chassis as th e final solution , but the swin garm ex pe rimen t should pro vide mo re info rmation on the right way forward . with the problems caused by the new grip levels. Ducati's initial development for th is year had a new carbon-fiber outer tube 42mm Oh lins fork . These were intended to improve the aerodynamics and retain the stiffness of last year's mass ive SOmm units . At Jerez, the carbon fork appear ed on the front of Neil Hodgson's and Ruben Xaus' bikes, but the works bikes went back to 42mm aluminum -tube Ohlins very similar to those used on the very first version of the Desmosedici. The old fork would be heavier than the ones that came off, thereby moving mo re weight forward. Testing in Spain saw th e team con cen trat ing on putting the weight of the rider in different places. Most of Monday, May 3, was spent with 20mm of padd ing all around the rear of the fuel ta nk to force the rider to sit slightly fart her back in co rne rs. It may seem a small difference, but you have to remember that Ducati tran sformed the street handling of its 999 streetbike by moving the ride r a similar distance forward . Hopefully for Ducati, new parts like a selection of swingarms and chassis with different nexibilities will be ready for Le Mans. Or at least shortly thereafter. Ducati is staying close-lipped on what it wants to do in the test program, but its big problem is going to be finding the time to test properly - in the dry. But if it can keep its ne w power and make it usable, and keep the new grip but get its chassis balance back , it will have a re al missile on its hands. Livio Suppo , Ducati team manager, summed up the situation the best: "I have a 19-month-old child, and she can get aro und re ally well on all fours, but ifshe is eve r going to run , she is going to have to learn to wa lk - and that may mean she will fall over a few times first." eN Testing inSpain also saw a new engine configuration from Suzuki MotoGP. On the afternoon of Monday, May 3, a very DucatisoundingV-four rolled down Pit Lanewith K enny Roberts Jr. on board. Overnight one of his bikes had been fitted with a new engineand exhaust system that had just been air freighted from japan. The deliv was so rushed that one side ery of the new fou r-into -two exhaust system appeared to be a completed megaphone, and the second was a simplepiece of pipe. Suzuki uses a 6S-degree Veeengineconfiguration and has previouslyused a 180-degree crank, giving a very "bigbang" styleof engine. The 360degree crank heard at Jerez smoothes the timing of the power pulses in a similar way to the Ducati. The team has promised something special for the Catalunya round, so we may hear more of thisvery nice noise there. Both Roberts and john Hopkinstried the bike, and whilewe couldn't get any quotes, the team appeared very happy. Later, the bike was stripped, and it appeared the originalengineand exhaustsystem were refitted. The engine was onlyin the bike for a few hours and was the only major thingSuzuk tried. The team packed up i halfway through the afternoon. New exhaust systems were tested on both the Suzuki (above) and the Praton (below) during testing in Spain. AND TEAM ROBERTS MAKES TWO A different-soundingengine came from Proton as well- a new five-into-five megaphone exhaust gave away a different firing order motor. Sounding much smoother, the engine was mo re like a V·six with a cytinder missing two days he re [in Je re z] afte r the race and afte r that anothe r tw o days after Le Mans. By Barce lona we hope to have an engine w ith a new firing order available. We are also wor king on a throttle syste m with so me differenc es to wha t we have now." Dom en icali wouldn't tell us how diffe re nt the new engine w ill be, or w hat the ne w firing o rde r is (Duca ti had "twin pu lse " w he n it started wit h the Bayliss' speed in the we t, though, puts a different slant on it - a longer swingarm re duces the weight on the rea r w hee l, and with less we ight holding it o n the gro und, the rear tire should spin earl ier, redu cing the strain and twist that co mes fro m the grip. It may be that the easy short-term so lution is to destroy rear grip, but the rea l speed for the futu re is going to be achieved by learn ing to live than the gruffbark that we have been used to. Sources close to the team said the engine was an experiment that did not require a different crank. We must assume that differently phased cam timingand ignition have allowed them to try a smoother power output version of its motor. Duringthe race at jerez, Roberts noted that the team's bikes were still having trouble getting into the corners qutckly with the back end sliding because of engine back pressure, especially in the wet . This new variant is designed to ease that problem and be smoother. Both Nobuatsu Aoki and Kurtis Roberts tried the bike, and both seemed pleased. Team owner Kenny Roberts was present for the test. "It shows us the direction to go in," he said. "We are very pleased with the day's progress ." www.cyclenEWS.com CYCLE NEWS . NlAY 19,2004 39