Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

MOTOGP Ducat! Tech Upd ate ciency it enjoyed in the first half of 2003. There is also a new car bon-outer-uppertube 42mm fork with a similar stiffness to the massive 50mm fork used last year, helped by reducing drag . A new radiato r inlet and radiator exhaust duct were developed in the wind tunnel, and now the bike can stay cool. The same changes mean that the rider is also kept cooler and so the small "ride r-cooling" duets could be deleted. Ducat i has also changed the engine tune , and it is thought that it has extracted another 20 horsepower from the motor. This engine was fitted for the first time at the Catalunya test, along with the latest version of its four-into-two pipes, just two weeks before the sta rt of the season. Another 20 horsepower would make the throttle much more sensitive. It' s not the amount of power that matters here, it's the rate of change in power for each deg ree of throttle movement. Ducati has bee n rightfully proud of its ability to take a high-horsep ower e ngine and through testing make the bike deliver that power in a nice, useable way. But this increase seems to have given the riders more than the usual problems, and the lack of testing to date has prevented Ducati from civilizing the output. It would al r I n a a Ie STO RY AND PHOTOS BY ucat i burst onto th e MotoGP scene in 2003 when the Desmosedici got stra ig ht on to the front row, yet at Je re z just a year later t hey were languishing with qualifying positions of 15th and 17th. The reasons are many. And they are not those that are automatically obvious. Last year the race at Jerez was the third of the season and came after an intensive four -month de velopment process by both of the ride rs - a good long run-up to the season . Th is year, Jerez was the the seco nd race , and the riders had only four hours in the dry on the bikes, and that was at Welkom. The last two tests of the season were disastrously, for Ducati, rained out. The 2003 Desmosedici was a notice ably front-heavy machine; the rear wheel spun up too eas ily, and it was also felt that unde r braking the front end had a tendency to push. Aerodynamically, the bike lost D 38 N EIL SPALDING its initial edge after the midseaso n race at Bmo where massive 50mm forks and additional "ride r cooling" ducts were fitted . Despite these points, though , the chassis and the engine enjoyed a happy mar riage. The wheelspin appeared to let the chassis work, taking away the forces that cou ld have caused other problems. The easy decision for Ducati would have been to continue with its old motorcycle. But that bike was nearly as good as it was going to get , and it would have left the company with a bike capable of very good performances at about four circuits over the course of the season but with real problems at others. The decision was instead made to attempt to resolve the issues with the original des ign and create a bike that could be capable of winning on far more circuits and therefore ultimately the championsh ip. The new des ign was developed over the winter, using the same basic trellis chassis but using the room freed up by MAY 19, 2004 • C Y CLE NEWS the new four-into-two exhaust pipes to allow big changes to the weight distr ibution - the fuel tank area was redesigned w ith the fuel moved back and do wn under the ride r. The weight balance of the bike was therefore moved down and back. With more weight on the rear tire it is now gripp ing. Quite possibly, too much . The 2004 bike has different bodywork to try to get back the aerodynamic em- 40th Anniversary be easy to remove some of the extra power, but with that decision would probably go Ducati's best shot at having a powerful bike that can really attack the championship next year. So what we have is a completely new machine that uses only the basic chassis from the old bike. Everything that has been done is supposed to be an answer to a problem suffered last year. If they all

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