Ducati To Unveil All-New Superbike

DUCATI TO UNVEIL ALL-NEW SUPERBIKE

ALL THE ACTIVITY IN Ducati’s development department for the past few years will bear fruit at this year’s IFMA Motorcycle Show in Cologne, Germany, when the company shows not one, but four new motorcycles.

At the top of the list will be the 916, a development of the 851 line. This will use a steel spaceframe and a single-sided aluminum swingarm, and will be powered by an all-new version of Ducati’s fuel-injected, eight-valve engine based on a bore and stroke of 94 x 66mm instead of the 92 x 64mm now employed by the 851. This change comes because the new dimensions offer what chief designer Massimo Bordi believes to be the ideal compromise between piston speed and engine torque.

Styling will be radically different from the rather bulbous look that now marks the 851 line. The 916 will be modeled after the sleek Cagiva Mito 125, which, in turn, was modeled after Cagiva’s GP bikes.

Ducati says its first run of 916s will be just 200 bikes-a sufficient quantity to homologate the bike for the 1993 Superbike season. What’s interesting is that the factory also intends to run the bike in the 1993 World Endurance Championship, which will be based on Superbike rules.

The most interesting new Ducati of all is a bike known around the factory as The Monster.

Look for this new design to replace the current 851 line only after it has been thoroughly tested and developed on the race circuit.

Sources at Ducati also tell us a revised version of the 907ie Paso will be shown at September’s IFMA show, as will the long-awaited 502 Supermono Single, which, like the 916, will be race-developed before street-going versions are released.

But what might be the most interesting new Ducati of all is a bike now known around the Ducati factory as II Monstro (The Monster), a machine unashamedly based on the Yamaha V-Max. This will be powered by the same two-valve engine that powers the 900SS, but in a revised form that favors even more lowand midrange torque. The point of this exercise is to field a sort of V-Twin musclebike with a Latin flair, a chunky-looking combination of boulevard cruiser and street-dragster.

Will wheelie bars be optional? And more to the point, will the factory actually call this bike The Monster? One hopes not.

Alan Cathcart