Light At Any Price
LIGHT AT ANY PRICE
ROUNDUP
IF LIGHTNESS MAKES RIGHTness, CarboTech's latest efforts are as correct as they come. The Austrian composites
specialist is offering a carbon-fiber frame for Ducati 916s that, at 15 pounds, is 11 pounds lighter than the stock chromoly trellis unit it replaces, yet is stiffer longitudinally and torsionally. The price you pay for this stronger, lighter, stiffer wunder-frame is... well, the price you pay: a wallet-sapping $17,000.
Pop for the full kit, which includes c-f subframe, air tunnels, airbox and fuel tank, and you’ll need to bring a grand total of $21,000.
CarboTech Composites GmBH got into the carbonfiber business in the late 1980s, manufacturing specialty parts for aircraft; its first carbon motorcycle parts were race pieces for Ducati 851s. Today, the company creates numerous carbon goodies for latemodel sportbikes, specializ ing in Ducatis, and its extensive catalog (most of the contents significantly less expensive than the frame) is now available in the U.S. through Max Moto (510/ 595-8017).
These are not cosmetic-composite affectations, insists Knut Wagner, CarboTech’s U.S, rep. Wagner defines the ultralight, ultra-strong structural pieces as “functional carbon.” The frame, which required more than 2000 design hours, is composed of a Nomex honeycomb, uses the latest kevlar/carbon weaves and UV-resistant resins, and takes 150 hours to construct. “This can not be made on an assembly line,” Wagner explains, shedding some light on the piece’s cardiac-arresting price tag.
A carbon-kitted 916 in street trim (shown below) tips the scales at just 360 pounds; a full-on race version is a feathery 300 pounds. CarboTech is also teaming with Dymag, maker of carbon-fiber wheels
(see New Ideas, April), in developing a carbon-fiber swingarm for the 916. This anorexic Dymag/CarboTech Duck will give weight-obsessed, platinum-carded techies even less mass to drool over.
-Paul Seredynski
