Ducati 999
ITALY 2003
Ducati 999
Nove, Nove, Nove!
BRIAN CATTERSON
THIS WAS NEVER GOING TO BE AN EASY BIKE TO build. As the replacement for Massimo Tamburini's iconic masterpiece, the Ducati 916, the 999 was going to have to be radically different to evoke the same sort of response. The fact that the 916 and its successors, the 996 and 998, also worked, to the tune of six World Superbike Championships in the past eight years, only made the job that much more difficult.
Not only would the new bike have to be striking-looking, it would have to serve as a solid foundation for the next decade’s racing advances.
The job fell to Ducati Design Chief Pierre Terblanche, a native South African who for the past 14 years has worked as a motorcycle designer
in Italy-first with Tamburini at the Cagiva Research Center and, following Cagiva’s sale of Ducati to the Texas Pacific Group, at the Ducati factory in Bologna.
To be blunt, Terblanche’s track record to date has been checkered. In the “plus” column are the stunning Ducati Supermono and MH900c Mike Hailwood Evoluzione, plus the Cagiva Gran Canyon. In the “minus” column are the latest-generation Supersport and, as has been suggested lately on these pages, the Multistrada. As for the 999, the most common response to the photos we published last month in Roundup was, “Well, it's no 916...” Which is exactly the point. And that’s not a bad thing, as the world’s press discovered at the 999's lavish introduction this past July in Italy.
As I'd suspected, the new Ducati is much sexier “in the flesh.” And after being around it for a few days, it grew on me to the point that the previous-generation Superbike started to look a bit old-fashioned. The 999 is nothing if not modem, its multi-faceted flanks and aerodynamic “wings” conjuring up images of Formula One cars.
Before starting on the project, the Ducati design team identified the existing 998’s limitations. While the old bike was narrow and relatively aerodynamic, they thought it could be narrower and more aerodynamic yet. The stylish single-sided swingarm was fine for a streetbike, but was deemed too flexy for a 180horsepower racing Superbike. The desmodromic Testastretta engine (like the Desmocpiattro before it) was time-consuming-and thus expensi ve to work on. And last, but arguably not least, the racy riding position and racetrack-focused suspension made for an uncomfortable street ride, especially for taller riders.
As 6-foot, 3-inch Terblanche put it, “We wanted the 999 to be as good on the road as on the track.”
With the 998’s “problem areas” identified, the team got to work. While the six-speed 998cc dohe V-Twin remains internally unchanged, a new cast-aluminum coolant manifold on the left side replaces the two hoses that ran there previously. Above the engine is a new pressurized airbox, increased in size from 9 to 12.5 liters, which no longer uses the bottom of the fuel tank as its lid and houses the fuel-injection’s throttle bodies inside.
Real innovation took place in the electrics. The enginemanagement system now incorporates a pair of electronic control units, one in the multi-function instrument panel and the other packaged along with the battery and other ancillary components on the left side of the engine. The pair exchange information through a two-wire Controller Area Network (CAN) line, thus cutting down on the complexity of a traditional wiring harness.
Relocating the battery means the right side of the engine is now unencumbered, easing access to the cambelts and cylinder heads for servicing. Furthermore, the engine now can be removed from the frame without disturbing the airbox or radiator. Whispers of extended valve-adjustment intervals presently appear to be unfounded, though an improved surface treatment on the rocker arms may someday produce such a result.
While the steel-trellis frame is largely unchanged, it's now 20mm narrower between the rider’s knees. The double-sided swingarm, though, is all-new. Sand-cast in aluminum, it is said to be 8 percent stronger than the old single-sided job. It's 15mm longer, too, which increases high-speed stability, shifts more weight onto the front end for improved handling and minimizes weight transfer under hard acceleration and braking.
The axle bosses are now parallel to the ground, so that chain adjustments don’t affect ride height.
The rear subframe also is new, in order to accommodate the 15mm lower seat and massive single muffler that caps off the innovative exhaust system. In the past, both exhaust headers met underneath the engine, then ran inboard of the rider’s right boot heel up through the space ordinarily filled by a swingarm. (You may recall that when Ducati tested a Superbike with a double-sided swingarm a couple of years ago, it incorporated traditional dual mufflers outboard of the swingarm.)
Now, a clever asymmetrical system sees a 45mm-diameter header run straight out the back of the rear cylinder and curve up to the underseat muffler, where it enters and runs almost the full length inside. The header for the front cylinder, meanwhile, takes the traditional path, but grows in diameter from 45mm to 55 mm before ending where it enters the muffler. Dual catalytic converters, one where the lower header turns up behind the gearbox and the other inside the muffler, let the 999 pass tough Euro 2 emissions standards.
Measuring 10.3 liters compared to the 8.4 liters total of the dual mufflers it replaces, the new “monosilencer” fills the entire space under the seat cowl (or passenger pillion on the biposto version). Stainless, it’s packed with a high-tech steel wool called Powertex, lined with a ceramic coating called Inox and insulated from the rider/passenger by an aluminum heat shield. Unfortunately, for those who like to hear their engines, the 999 is woefully quiet. Mechanically, it sounds like a Ducati, but the exhaust note is decidedly Honda-like.
That impression extends to other facets of the 999, as well. Such as the rational riding position, which benefits not just from Honda-like ergonomics, but from newfound adjustability as well. Things like the more rounded fuel tank edge that moves you 10mm closer to the handlebars and the 35 mm longer seat allow for greater freedom of movement, and make it easier to tuck in behind the windscreen. The ergos are further enhanced (on the monoposto version only) by the adjustable seat/tank unit, with three sets of mounting holes at 10mm intervals allowing up to 20mm of fore/aft movement. The footpegs are adjustable as well, with two mounting holes for the top screw and five for the bottom adding up to about an inch of up/down and fore/aft movement. The rear brake pedal has an adjustable toe piece, and the brake and clutch levers are adjustable, too. Speaking of which, the low-profile brake and clutch reservoirs are mounted radially, which together with the vertically stacked instruments allow a greater range of steering swing, easing low-speed maneuverability.
Much of the 999 design project (don’t dare call it a “styling exercise” with Terblanche around!) was aimed at eliminating unnecessary parts, and a quick walk around the bike reveals some of those changes. For example, the steering damper is now held by a screw through its body instead of a separate clamp, and an offset hole in the damper end means one mounting point can now be used no matter which of the two positions the adjustable headstock is set in. Other examples:
Ignition coils are now incorporated into the sparkplug caps; the cooling fans bolt directly to the double-core radiator without brackets; and the right-side inner fairing panel, intake duct and coolant reservoir are molded as a single plastic piece, as are the chain guard/chain slider atop the swingarm. Each of these changes is accompanied by a corresponding reduction in mounting hardware.
In all, the 999 utilizes 230 fewer parts than the 998, a 30 percent reduction. Even so, claimed dry weight is 438 pounds, on par with the old bike. “V-Twins will always be heavy because of their massive crankshaft, engine cases and mufflers,” explains Terblanche. Ironically, with all the talk about the 999 being a better streetbike, Ducati only let us ride it on the racetrack. Twice, actually, because in addition to the official press introduction at the Autódromo Misano, Cycle World was invited to join Germany’s Motorrad and Italy’s Motociclismo magazines for a pre-intro riding session at the Vairano test track owned by Italy’s Quattroruote (“Four Wheel”) magazine. Funny, our friends upstairs at Road & Track don’t have their own test track...
Within a few turns, I was struck by how easy it is to ride the 999 quickly. Though there weren’t any 998s on which to make direct back-to-back comparisons, the new bike’s riding position feels more natural than I remember the old bike’s being. It’s thinner between your thighs, there’s less weight on your wrists, it’s easier to move around on and the lower center of gravity makes it easier to flick from side to side.
The next thing I noticed were the brakes. Unlike on some past Ducatis, front lever pull isn’t the least bit mushy. To the contrary, the Brembo four-pad calipers are extremely powerful, a bit grabby even as they chomp down on the widespread, 4.5mm-thick, 320mm discs. The two-piston rear brake, now positioned above the swingarm and grasping a larger-diameter 240mm rotor, is powerful yet predictable. And due to the lower seating position and longer wheelbase, stability under braking is superb.
As for the 999’s 124-horsepower engine, it seems to hit harder in the midrange than the 998’s, thanks to the freer-flowing intake and exhaust. Unfortunately, in spite of two shift lights that illuminate at 200 and 100 rpm before redline, it’s all too easy to get into the rev-limiter, which abruptly cuts the fuel supply to each cylinder by 50 percent, dramatically slowing forward movement. It really ought to be more progressive.
The 999’s strong acceleration, combined with the Showa shock’s soft standard settings, no doubt contributed to the bike’s tendency to squat under hard acceleration. I dialed in one turn of spring preload (two turns made it too “sproingy”) and added some compression damping, and this helped quite a bit. But as the sun rose higher in the sky and the temperature increased (to a sweltering 97 degrees at Vairano), the stock Michelin Pilot Sport Cup radiais got greasy and started to slide unpredictably. Race tires would have addressed this issue, but Ducati was insistent that we test the 999 in stock trim. Oh well...
With two testers sharing each bike, there wasn’t enough time to run the gamut of chassis adjustments, but I did play around with the adjustable seat/tank, and it turned out to have more of an effect on handling than on comfort. At 6-foot-1,1 was plenty comfortable even with the saddle in the forward position, and actually felt a little far away from the handlebars with it in the rear. But what I really noticed was the change in weight distribution, the forward position making the bike steer quicker but spin the rear tire more easily, and the rearward position giving it slower steering but better rear-end traction. The difference amounts to much more than a mere 20mm would suggest.
Whether the 999 is quicker around the racetrack than the 998 is currently uncertain. A few testers were adamant that they could go faster on the old bike, citing its stiffer, slightly less “vague” suspension. But that’s probably just a matter of finding the right chassis setup, a task for which the 999 is well suited, and arguably without peers.
What is certain is that the 999 handles extremely well. At Vairano, I touched my elbow down on the curb for the first time ever (followed a few laps later, sorry to say, by the rest of my body...). And it’s fast: At Misano, the digital speedometer routinely indicated close to 250 kph (155 mph) on the long backstraight-in fifth gear. At which speed I must say things were relatively calm behind the fairing.
As final evidence of the 999’s racetrack prowess, I offer the following: Reigning World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss took the new Ducati for a spin at Misano, and with nothing more than race-compound tires, clocked a best lap in the 1:43 range, barely a second off a hot 600cc Supersport time. That may not sound that impressive, but if you’ve ever seen how hard those World Supersport guys ride-or if, like me, you were on-track when Bayliss came past-you know that’s smokin’! Yeah, Troy’s on the company payroll and all, but when I overheard him telling Ducati PR gal Myrianne Gaeta that the 999 is “definitely an improvement” over the 998, his enthusiasm seemed genuine.
I know mine is.
