Latest Meets Greatest
Latest Meets Greatest
R-One takes on V-Two
BRIAN CATTERSON
THERE'S MORE TO BUILDING A SUC cessful superbike than high horsepower and low weight. If that's all there was to it, we could simply examine two bikes' specifications sheets, calculate their power-to-weight ratios and determine
which was better. We wouldn't have to bother with such frivolities as racing series or magazine comparison tests. Doing so,however,I
woüild undermine the contrii~ütions of~ those machines whose performance somehow transcends their specs. Machines such as Ducati's 916 Superbike, which since its 1994 incep tion has established itself as the sporting yardstick. The Nine-One-Six's tractable eight-valve V-Twin engine and tele pathic handling, capped off by drop dead gorgeous styling, have made it one of the most desirable motorcycles of all time. Never mind its dated steel-trellis frame and comparatively poor power-toweight ratio; year after year, the desmo quattro has taken on all corners, winning every major comparison test and a raft of roadracing championships. There can be no more valid confirmation than that. Last year, Ducati faced its strongest challenge yet. Not on the racetrack, where Carl Fogarty managed to win yet another World Superbike crown for the Italian manufacturer, but on the sales floor, where Yamaha's stunning new YZF-R1 upset the status quo. With an actual dry weight of 419 pounds and an honest-to-God 129 rear-wheel horsepower, the 998cc inline-Four was universally proclaimed the new King of the Superbikes. So popular was the Ri with the buying public that Yamaha changed only the shift linkage (to allow racers to adopt a one-up/five-down race pattern) and graphics before rushing the `99 models into production.
Ducati 996 vse Yamaha YZF-R1
The boys in Bologna, on the other hand, have been relatively busy. As a result, Ducati is returning Yamaha's volley this year with the new 996, ostensibly a larger-displacement version of the time-honored 916. A 4mm increase in bore has taken cylinder dimensions to 98.0 x 66.0mm, same as Ducati's works Superbikes and, by no coincidence, Honda's and Suzuki's copycat V-Twins. Complementing the increased cc's are a slightly higher compression ratio (11.5:1, up from 11.1:1), a stronger crank, and a freer-flowing airbox, oval-section headers and mufflers. Furthermore, the 996 now boasts twin injectors, though these work in unison rather than sequentially as on the factory racebikes and the limited edition 996 SPS. The end result is an increase in output to 106 bhp, up significantly from the 100-104 that 916s tra ditionally have produced, but paling in comparison to the SPS's 118 bhp-to say nothing of the Ri.
DUCATI
996
$16,495
Which brings us to the questions at hand: Has the 996 been sufficiently improved to allow it to reclaim its crown from the Ri? Or can the Ri fend off the 996's assault? To find out, we headed to Willow Springs International Raceway, a wide-open expanse of desert asphalt that to the uninitiated appears to favor horsepower. But in spite of its 100-mph-plus average speed, the nine-turn, 2.5 mile road course actually prefers han dling, a fact proven a few years back when Rich Oliver set the lap record (since bro ken) on a Yamaha TZ250.
After spooning a set of racecompound Dunlop D207 GP radials onto the 996 and Ri, we strapped CW's Road Test Editor Don Canet to their saddles, lit the wicks, and sat back with stopwatch and notebook in hand to watch what transpired.
Yamaha YZF-R1
$10,199
Canet rode the Yamaha first, and found that it required very little set-up to go fast. Its potent engine held it in good stead in the fast parts of the track, while its powerful brakes and light, neutral steering kept it manageable in the turns. Hard braking from century-plus speeds made the fork bottom, but the supple suspension was not so soft as to allow excessive chassis pitch ing. Canet commented that he had the most difficulty in the Turn 7/8 transition (the fastest portion of the track), where it took a lot of mus cle to overcome the gyroscopic effect of the rapidly spinfling wheels.
Ultimately, the Ri was limited by its cornering clearance. Eyeballing its high, rearset footpegs and radically upswept exhaust, it's hard to believe the Ri can be made to drag anything in corners, but Canet managed to touch down the leading edge of the muffler canister on the right and the ignition cover on the left-the latter making for a spooky moment in off-camber Turn 5. Canet's best lap on the Ri was a 1:28.27.
The Ducati, by contrast, needed some work before it was ready to rumble. Unlike past 916s, which have handled well right out of the box, the 996 pushed the front end in corners and weaved unnervingly on the straights. Lowering the rear ride height 1 inch solved the former problem, while the lat ter dilemma eventually led us to remove the steering damper; the stock setup had so much damping that it inter fered with the front end's efforts to return to center.
Having cured the Ducati's handling woes, Canet reeled off an impressive string of laps that culminated in a best time of 1 :27.54-more than seven-tenths of a second quicker than the Yamaha's best.
The 996’s strong suit, as always, is its traction feedback. Its steel-trellis frame might seem primitive compared to the Yamaha’s high-tech, twin-spar aluminum job, but it offers the rider an unparalleled indication of what’s happening down where the rubber meets the road. Moreover, with its slim engine and fairing and high, underseat mufflers, cornering clearance is never a concern. You can ride the wheels off the Yamaha, but you can almost literally ride the Ducati off of its wheels!
While the Ducati mies the racetrack, however, it doesn’t fare as well in the real world. Its radical riding position and muffler-heated, racer-thin seat are a literal pain in the ass on the street. Its dry clutch-improved this year with a new actuator, basket, master cylinder and steel-braided line-still is rendered useless by hard dragstrip launches. And with a suggested retail price of $16,495 (compared to the Rl’s $10,199), combined with recommended valve-adjustment intervals of just 6000 miles (compared to the Rl’s 26,000 miles), the Ducati is expensive to purchase and maintain.
So...Ducati or Yamaha? For the vast majority of street riders, the R1 is the logical choice. It’s the better all-around performer, and a clear-cut winner in the value-for-money stakes. If, however, you don’t mind paying a premium to own the quickest thing around a racetrack, put your money on red and let the others be blue. O
