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/146674
The heart of the Ducati, its 888cc V-twin powerpIant. The only changes for . '92 to the Ducati V-twin is a new exhaust camshaft design and a new clutch. BMW's new dohc 8-valve Boxer has already been spotted undergoing testing in oil/air-cooled form with fuel injection as standard, but a watercooled version is alleged to be under development for Superbike racing, according to rumors in Germany. If so, it'll have to lose 100cc as well the new bike due to debut at Cologne has an l100cc engine, but that's no big deal. The Bakker-designed alloy chassis has already been seen in German Bo'IT races, though, fitted with a pushrod motor, and sporting MotoddSaxon/Fior/Hossack-type parallelogram front suspension which will apparently be fitted as standard to all the Boxer range. Congrats, BeeEm. Alessandro de Tomaso is still muttering about forking up the cash for a water-cooled Moto Guzzi Superbike with chain final drive and lenthways V-twin engine, but though preliminary drawings have been made, the project isn't off the ground yet, unlike Gilera's own liquid-cooled 65 degree l000cc V-twin, now running on the testbed with chain drive to the four overhead camshafts rather than the original belts, fitted with fuel injection, four valves per cylinder and offset crankpins and an extractable gearbox: it may start life as a sports tourer at the end of next year in Milan, but the Superbike version is already under way and won't be far behind - the giant Piaggio group that owns Gilera places a lot of emphasis on achieving competition success with this bike. And finally, the British, of whom Triumph doesn't have a suitable bike - yet but Norton does, only till just recently they've lacked the money to produce a street version with which to homolgate it for Superbike racing: the water-cooled bi-rotor NRS588 rotary racer, accepted by the FIM as a 1000cc twin and certainly capable of running with the best of the current SBK crop, as the results of British Superbike races have shown. With new finances apparently now arranged after a complete company re-structuring, Norton boss David McDonald now says the street NRS588 will be launched this August, and he sees no problem in meeting the 200-bike minimum for Superbike racing. Current series sponsors Diesel Jeans is reportedly eager to continue their association with the championship next season after their three-year series contract expires at the end of '92 - but only by backing a marque which fits their image, which basically means Norton or Harley ... With such an apparently bright future and with stable organizational management - especially compared to the current GP scene - it's still worrying that World Superbike hasn't by the rules hasn't been used for almost a whole year), a half-size gearbox with the gears 6mm wide rather than 10mm as on a Corsa, hollow camshafts, smaller ankshaft flywheels, and so forth. All this explains why Ducati was so intent on maintaining their controversial 55 lb. weight advantage under Superbike rules: having gone to the considerable trouble and expense to develop all this tackle so as to take full benefit from their weight break, they didn't see why they should be penalized for being the only ones who opted to try the twin-cylinder route under the universally agreed rules. They still don't. However, there's no doubt that the result which has given everyone at Bologna most satisfaction both last complaint from all desmo V-twin riders to date, namely the awful chatter with the old design that made getting the bike off the line a case of snatch and grab. But essentially the works bikes are still '91 spec machines, while the new customer Corsas - of which 30 were built for the 1992 season, compared to 50 last season (an!) 30 in '89 - are essentially heavier versions of the '91 works bike, without the many costly steps required to build an 888cc V-twin Superbike that scales 2.2 lb. over the 308 lb. minimum weight limit for twin-cylinder Superbike bikes, as Polen's machine did at Albacete, with oil, water and one liter of fuel. By comparison, both Edwin Weibel's . Ducati Swiuerland Cosa, and Carl Fogarty's similar customer bike (the last one to be built, which he only got after someone else canceled their order) both scaled 343.2 lb. as delivered. That figure can be reduced to 323 lb. with magnesium cases/carbon components as Italian Gastone Grassetti did with his bike - but that still leaves another 15 lb. of trick stuff only the factory riders Qave access to - at substantial cost. Where's the difference then? Well, you won't get anyone inside the Ducati factory to talk about it, but a lot of the extra weight is saved in the engine itself, according to informed' sources. Ergal aircraft alloy rockers, lots of titanium and magnesium, a smaller, narrower crankpin that is still sturdy enough for 12,000 rpm and more with a 94mm piston (all factory Ducatis are running 888cc engines as they have for some time, whatever you may hear elsewhere: the 920cc 'jumbo' motor . with the stock 64mm stroke required season and this was Carl Fogarty's Donington victory on a bike that didn't just have no special factory parts in it, it used a bitza motor cobbled together by British Ducati guru Steve Wynne and Carl's mechanic Doug Holton (of Armstrong and Honda Britain GP fame). "Fogarty's win proved what I have been saying all along," underlined Dticati chief engineer Massimo Bordi, father of the all-conquering 'otto valvole'. "The Corsas we sell to our customers this year have almost exactly the same engine specification as our factory bikes. Someone who buys a bike from us can race with the same level of performance as the works machines - only the weight of the bike is different, and he can even get close to that if he has the budget to do so. And we are also proud of the level of reliability we have achieved this year: At Albacete, 18 Ducatis were presented for qualifying, II were ridden fast enough to make the grid, and eight finished, with one faller, one broken chain and one minor mechanical problem. Considering that once you pay your 30 million lire to buy this motorcycle, you then have a sufficient level of performance to win a World Championship Superbike GP, I think this is excellent value for money. Anyone using a Kawasaki or Honda or Yamaha must pay a lot more for this level of competitivity - ask Terry Rymer!" Ducati claims 135 bhp at 11,800 rpm at the rear wheel for the '92 works desmo 888, a small power increase over last season achieved mainly to the new exhaust cam which permits a safe 12,000 rpm, hnm larger 35mm inlet Ducati claims that the works 888 produces 135 horsepower at II,SOO rpm, a small power increase over last year, thanks mainly to the new exah~t cam which allows the bike to be safely revved to 12,000 rpm. made the expected impact it so evidently deserves - to the point that several teams are running short of money, putting the continued participation of several top riders in jeopardy: Terry Rymer has already had to bow out for financial reassons, and even race winners like Raymond Roche and Carl Fogarty are on the verge of pulling out as I write. This is a separate subject in its own right, but at a time when the technical evolution of the class has never been more promising, and all the world's major motorcycle manufacturers are intensifying their involvement in a race category which has a direct link to the customers in their dealers' showrooms, it seems ironic that, in spite of delivering nailbitingly close racing, the World Championship Superbike Series still hasn't cracked the real big time. A couple of major sponsors and household name riders would probably do the trick: will they appear too in '93? Ducati: Still on top Ducati gambled that no major changes would be· needed to their reigning World Champion works 888 for the 1992 season, and so far that confidence seems justified. The Italian marque sits on top of the series point standings after seven rounds, thanks to Doug Polen, and also occupies third (Raymond Roche), fourth (Giancarlo Falappa), seventh (Daniel Amatriain), and eighth (Stephane Mertens). The five full factory machines have a new exhaust camshaft design which Roche already raced with towards the end of last season, plus a new clutch in order to cure the single greatest 17