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/850369
FEATURE DUCATI DOUBLE-DUCK P62 "The beauty of a project like this is that it begins with one idea: 'I wonder if I could make this work?' Well, two engines are better than one, right? Okay, so let's try to go 200 with no streamlining, and eight months later you're staring at the bike, and going 'oh, shit, now I have to ride this thing!' In fact, I wanted someone else to ride it so I could compare notes with another rider, but it was hard to find anyone that wanted to have a go at it! But I tell you, it feels magnificent. It's the closest you can come to feeling like Super- man!" The record-breaking double- Ducati's pair of identical liquid- cooled 999cc eight-valve Tes- tastretta desmo V-twin engines are unmodified just as they left the Bologna factory in the S4RS Monster street bikes shipped to the USA in 2007, and each uses an twin-megaphone exhaust system created by Mark. They're each fitted with a Power Com- mander, plus an auto-tune to help combat the problems of altitude, for at 4291 feet above sea level, Bonneville poses an extra challenge in countering the 13% loss in horsepower on a normal engine occasioned by the thinner air at this elevation. "The engines were dyno tuned at sea level with reflashed race computers, but are techni- cally bone stock," says Mark. "I didn't change the guts. They have 128 bhp each at 9500 rpm, so I think after considering a parasitic loss that comes with joining two engines together, I have to assume I was getting at least 220 bhp to the back wheel." Mark Bjorklund's new 2000 A-AG class AMA Land Speed Record for the flying mile with the Ducati Double-Duck stands at 203.741 mph, with a best one-way pass of 205.827 mph. To put this in perspec- tive, the current official FIM record for 2000cc four-cylinder Unstream- lined Normally Aspirated bikes is 209.598 mph set by Jamie Williams on his Suzuki Hayabusa in 2012, while the twin-cylinder FIM mark belongs to Johnny Cortopassi on a Harley-Davidson VRSCR V-Rod at 176.869 mph set in 2013. So if Mark Bjorklund had gone through the bureaucracy and expense of obtaining an FIM International license, he'd have demolished the previous Harley- Davidson World Record with his self-built Ducati special. "But I had one run of 210.5 mph on Thursday, the final day, after my record runs on the opening Sunday," says Bjorklund. "Unfortunately, I didn't qualify for the return run because I missed the traps and ran off course; I was flying kind of blind from my chinstrap being too loose so my helmet slid up, and I couldn't see where I was going for a few seconds! But I'm in the record books with that 203.741mph speed. Hallelujah!" Amen to that. CN Before the Double Duck, Bjorklund built what would become the world's fastest Ducati Monster.