- 51 minutes ago
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Ducati dropped a carbon-fiber bomb in the form of the 2027 Superleggera Centenario, the most exotic V-4 superbike from Borgo Panigale ever. Perhaps even more far out than the Ducati Desmosedici RR just because there were no "rule" limitations for the new Superleggera. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer dig into all the details of this beautiful and exotic limited-production Ducati, all the way down to the ceramic brakes and the special oil that helps the bike produce a claimed 248 hp. Thank you for watching!
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Ducati dropped a carbon-fiber bomb in the form of the 2027 Superleggera Centenario, the most exotic V-4 superbike from Borgo Panigale ever. Perhaps even more far out than the Ducati Desmosedici RR just because there were no "rule" limitations for the new Superleggera. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer dig into all the details of this beautiful and exotic limited-production Ducati, all the way down to the ceramic brakes and the special oil that helps the bike produce a claimed 248 hp. Thank you for watching!
Find us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/cw/CycleWorldPodcast
Become a Channel Partner: https://octanemedia.co/home/become-an-advertiser/
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6CLI74xvMBFLDOC1tQaCOQ
Read more from Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/
Buy Cycle World Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cycleworld
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00Hey, welcome back to the Cycle World Podcast. I'm Mark Hoyer, Editor-in-Chief. I'm with Kevin Cameron, our technical
00:00:04editor.
00:00:05We have a special edition today. We're just going to drop this on a Monday because Ducati's revealed the 2027
00:00:13Ducati Superleggera V4 Centenario 100th anniversary.
00:00:20Kind of an unlimited, ultra-exotic superbike. Like, who else is living in this space in motorcycling?
00:00:27I guess maybe Harley did with the 110-inch bagger, you know, with the bagger race bike parts on it,
00:00:36but it's not quite as a step this far, I guess.
00:00:41We have a carbon fiber fork from Olin's, lightened suspension from Olin's, both ends.
00:00:47I think the fork is something on the order of 34% lighter than your conventional, you know, aluminum upper.
00:00:56Those metal tubes are such a bludgeoning. Imagine that in a bar fight.
00:01:03Yes, indeed. You know, it's, well, when you pick up carbon fiber bodywork, it feels like a potato chip.
00:01:09It's remarkable how much lighter it is than fiberglass.
00:01:12Yes. The engine is 225 horse and street trim, and then when you put the fancy Akramovich pipe on, which
00:01:21is absolutely sneaky and beautiful.
00:01:24It is so snaky.
00:01:26Yeah, and you get a map.
00:01:28Right, you get the map with it.
00:01:30You know, the abbreviated under-engine exhaust is replaced by serpents going out the rear.
00:01:36It's just titanium serpents. It's gorgeous.
00:01:39The map comes with that, and then Ducati wants you to run the racing super special oil, and that gets
00:01:44you to 247, 250.
00:01:46Three and a half horsepower from the oil, and the oil is not 98 cents a quart.
00:01:55What is?
00:01:56Water?
00:01:57What is 98 cents a quart?
00:01:59Water with flavor in it.
00:02:01I suppose so.
00:02:02So it's a beautiful, exotic thing, 500 units for the world.
00:02:08We don't know the price yet.
00:02:10It's a 27.
00:02:10I think we're going to live on hype for a while and just enjoy the technicality of it, and then
00:02:17those who can afford it probably aren't thinking that much about the price anyway.
00:02:25What struck you, Kevin, about this kind of when you first looked at it?
00:02:30Well, for years, of course, we've all seen the reveal of new models quoting that the water pump is two
00:02:43ounces lighter and what have you.
00:02:45Long list of this.
00:02:47And so light weighting, as the car people call it, is a constant pastime in the motorcycle business.
00:02:54But I think Ducati have taken it to a new low, at least numerically, because I remember being at the
00:03:08intro of the V4, and they had one on the stand, and the material with it said 142 pounds with
00:03:20the intake system.
00:03:23Now, this engine is supposed to be, what, seven pounds lighter.
00:03:29So to get seven pounds off of something as tightly calculated to purpose as a high-performance engine means that
00:03:40a lot of parts are going to have to be rethought, going to have to say,
00:03:45well, you know, we have this new process that we're putting in for production that can do this more complicated
00:03:55heat treat on castings.
00:03:58So maybe we could go back through, do the dynamic FEA, and see where we could save a bit everywhere.
00:04:09And steel, it sort of hurts to have to use steel in a world in which steel has given way
00:04:19to titanium and titanium to carbon fiber.
00:04:24But, so far, no gearbox shafts made out of CFRP.
00:04:30So what they have to do then is go through and do the things that are done in racing departments,
00:04:39and that is to just turn the shift drum into filigree.
00:04:44So that the metal that's there conducts the stress of pushing the shift fork, click, click, click, to the rolling
00:04:54element bearings on either end of the shift drum.
00:04:56No more plane bearing shift drums these days.
00:05:01Through a minimum of metal.
00:05:03For example, the crankshaft.
00:05:06Ducati crankshafts are not, you wouldn't want to drop it on your foot, but it wouldn't permanently cripple you.
00:05:14The thing is light.
00:05:17And you pick one up and compare it with having done curls with a Triumph Trident crankshaft.
00:05:27No, it's a thing of beauty.
00:05:28I mean, it's just reduced to a little blade, tiny pork chop blades, and very much just here's the main,
00:05:36or here's the rod, and then thin little blades and little candy bars.
00:05:42Straight to the main shafts, yes.
00:05:43Yeah.
00:05:43And they have, instead of steel counterweights shaped, you know, the pork chop look, I wish I had some now.
00:05:56What they've done is to put enough steel there to position and keep in place tungsten slugs at a maximum
00:06:08radius so that they get the eye, the moment of inertia that the crankshaft needs, at the minimum investment of
00:06:17weight.
00:06:18So, in that respect, it reminded me of Iramadri's long six-cylinder 250 crank, and the so-called cheeks or
00:06:32webs or flywheels were reduced to narrow candy bars.
00:06:36Two tungsten slugs at one end, a crank pin or a hole for one at the other end.
00:06:42Now, of course, this...
00:06:43Yeah, go ahead.
00:06:45Well, I want you to dive into the idea of lightening the crank so much and then concentrating the weight,
00:06:55talking about the way that the inertia works rather than just the mass of the crank statically.
00:07:00Sure.
00:07:01Yes.
00:07:01Well, when you measure the eye, the moment of inertia around its axis of a crankshaft, it is a kind
00:07:14of summing of each element of mass times its distance from center.
00:07:24So, ideally, the counterweights would be this thin layer of tungsten, which is much denser than steel, with just enough
00:07:37steel there to keep the tungsten from flying through the crank case.
00:07:44And that's essentially what they've done here.
00:07:46They've said, how can we focus, concentrate this mass as far from the center as possible and take away the
00:07:55mass that has just been there to get from here, from the center line, out to where a big blob
00:08:03of steel is located?
00:08:05So, we're going to densify that steel into the tungsten slugs, and we're going to leave just enough steel to
00:08:13retain them at a maximum distance from center line.
00:08:17So, that if you were to hang the crankshaft from a steel wire and wind it up and let go
00:08:26of it, it would ponderously swing back and forth at the same rate as if you had the all-steel
00:08:39crankshaft with the same rotational inertia
00:08:52So, this is a way to achieve what a crankshaft must do, which is to carry the engine through compression
00:09:01during idle.
00:09:02If it's not big enough to do that, it's not a practical engine, is it?
00:09:07So, there has to be enough mass there to carry through compression when the engine is on idle or when
00:09:15the rider grabs a handful when the light is showing a, the green is fading and the pinkish tinge is
00:09:23showing around the edges.
00:09:24So, this is a way to attenuate the crankshaft to reduce the mass of the whole motorcycle, by the way,
00:09:36by taking away mass that was underutilized previously.
00:09:42What they're doing now is they have enough mass to hold those tungsten slugs out at a maximum radius where
00:09:49they will do the most good, provide the most flywheel effect without having masses of steel flowing all over the
00:09:57map to act as the counterweight themselves.
00:10:03Now, tungsten counterweights are not new.
00:10:10Cosworth, no, it wasn't Cosworth, it was Coventry Climax.
00:10:17In the very early days, they didn't want to enlarge their crankcase, but they needed more flywheel mass, so they
00:10:23used depleted uranium, which has a density of around 23, I think, whereas steel is 7.8.
00:10:35So, you can see how, if you're trying to put more flywheel effect into a crankcase of fixed size, that
00:10:45you would put tungsten out as far from the center line as you could, with enough steel to hold it
00:10:51there so that it doesn't patooey fly out.
00:10:53Well, sir, our mass expectations in daily life, Kevin, don't include depleted uranium, and they usually don't include carbon fiber
00:11:03bodywork or titanium expansion chambers.
00:11:05Things that were thrown at me across the shop at Yamaha way back in the day when they were building
00:11:12factory, these one-off supercross motocross bikes and a guy in the racing department throwing an expansion chamber, tossing it
00:11:21to me, like, think fast.
00:11:24And all I can think of is, ow, this is going to hurt because I'm a steel guy.
00:11:28And then here's this thing that seems impossibly light.
00:11:31Makes a soft landing in your hand.
00:11:33Just like the bodywork, the fairing on the bag of racing bikes.
00:11:36I had a similar experience at Daytona.
00:11:39He didn't throw it at me, but he said, how about this?
00:11:43He handed me a complete inline-four exhaust system muffler, header pipes, all that stuff.
00:11:51Seven pounds.
00:11:55And so many street bikes, the exhaust system weighs 40 pounds.
00:12:00It does, man.
00:12:02You want to know how to lose 33 pounds of ugly fat?
00:12:07Well, there's plenty of steel, and then they go and put these really high-dense materials, high-density materials, such
00:12:13as platinum, in the cats.
00:12:15So it's not light.
00:12:17Well, there's not much platinum there.
00:12:20It's highly effective, though.
00:12:25So this motorcycle has been gone over in great detail.
00:12:30And to lighten the engine by several pounds, from a weight that is already less than that of the TZ750
00:12:42two-strokes four-cylinder bikes that I used to mess with,
00:12:46their engines weighed 140 pounds.
00:12:50And they seemed pretty ponderous.
00:12:56But what's happening, of course, is that continuing analysis of how best to manage the stresses that the engine produces
00:13:09within itself using the smallest possible amount of metal has advanced and continues to advance.
00:13:15And the same in aviation, you're trying to work with the good old equation, F force equals mass times acceleration.
00:13:32So as the mass gets smaller, it divides in more, and A becomes larger to the point that you, oh,
00:13:52I feel a little woozy here, as your vehicle accelerates.
00:13:59So the motorcycle, the parts, the individual parts of the vehicle acquire a beauty that is given by nature and
00:14:09is uncovered by humanity, because essentially the parts are coming to resemble the stresses they have to carry.
00:14:20And the engine is just a lovely thing to look at.
00:14:23Well, that's just art in a nutshell, isn't it?
00:14:28That's great.
00:14:29Very nice.
00:14:30Yeah.
00:14:32The, you know, the usual things, the valves are the same size as before, 34 intakes, what is it, 27
00:14:38.5 exhaust?
00:14:39And I think the, a bunch of other things have, have been carried forward.
00:14:46So this leaves us with the question, so 225 horsepower, where is it coming from?
00:14:54We hope in the fullness of time that they will be more forthcoming about this.
00:14:59Are there longer cam timings?
00:15:01Hmm, maybe not, because how are you going to get that motorcycle past the gray men of Brussels, the European
00:15:09Commission?
00:15:10Because it has to meet all those standards to be a roadable motorcycle.
00:15:15So probably not.
00:15:16They haven't increased the overlap timing, which allows intake to just, oh, I'm going out here.
00:15:23Freedom, out the short-circuiting intake to exhaust.
00:15:31So, more compression?
00:15:33Hmm, faster combustion?
00:15:36Well, what they did say, the Desmond Sedici Stradale R1100 engine features hand-tuned Desmondrovic valve timing.
00:15:44So, what does that mean?
00:15:46I mean, is it just set?
00:15:48It means that they didn't line up the marks when they built the engine.
00:15:50That's what it means to me, anyway.
00:15:52Because usually, I had a cam grinder tell me that once.
00:15:57I'm telling him, I'm not getting the numbers that are on your cam ticket.
00:16:04And he said, just to line him up with the marks.
00:16:09Yeah, well, it's, yeah.
00:16:11Anytime I did that, I was sort of always, you know, I went through the process.
00:16:16I got my dial indicator and did the whole deal and rotated it to where you need to rotate it
00:16:20at whatever lift.
00:16:22And then you're supposed to get that measurement.
00:16:25Big degree wheel for that precise feeling.
00:16:27And that crank is supposed to be in the position.
00:16:30And then you're like, hmm, well, that's not quite there.
00:16:33And then you go to the exhaust.
00:16:34And it's like, well, that's not quite there either.
00:16:36And so, then you're left with the question of, well, why is this not right?
00:16:40But they kind of seem to ballpark it a lot, as you point out.
00:16:44Just put it on the marks, man.
00:16:46And, well, okay.
00:16:49I once stood by while somebody built an Aprilia 250 in my shop.
00:16:53And he said, look at this.
00:16:55Come over here.
00:16:56He said, two pistons don't come to TDC at the same time.
00:17:01And now, Aprilia, I'm sure, knew that.
00:17:05And they also knew that if you were serious, you would arrange for them to hit TDC together.
00:17:11Well, that's the best crankshaft, people, is when you get your crank back and you can set your mic by
00:17:16the diameter of the journals, that they're all the same.
00:17:20And then if you measure stroke, that all the strokes are exactly the same.
00:17:24And when you get a proper crank person, that's what you get.
00:17:28Yep.
00:17:29So, that's probably the meaning as to the timing.
00:17:35The photograph that shows the combustion chamber does not show a machined shape.
00:17:42It shows a finely cast shape.
00:17:45And there are the valves.
00:17:47And just by looking at them, you can tell this is a water-cooled engine.
00:17:51Because with Ducati's, the last of Ducati's air-cooled brigade, the exhaust valves are as small as they can be
00:17:59and as far from each other as possible.
00:18:01So that it's possible to cool the metal between them.
00:18:05But when you have a water-cooled engine, no problem.
00:18:09Just run the water where the cooling is wanted.
00:18:14Well, this engine has a dry clutch.
00:18:19That means that it is not bathed in the oil, engine oil, that is shared with the gearbox.
00:18:26Most modern motorcycles are built this way.
00:18:31Two-stroke bikes of a previous era, the race bikes, you could put actual gear oil in there if the
00:18:39gears were a little weak.
00:18:43But here, you have to put engine oil to lubricate the gears.
00:18:48The clutch itself is outside of the primary cover.
00:18:55And Ducati have done a wonderful thing by putting neutral at the bottom with a lockout once you get moving.
00:19:05Which means it is not possible to accidentally stop in neutral when you were going for first.
00:19:12Or in first, going for second.
00:19:15Because it isn't there.
00:19:17You can't engage it because it isn't there.
00:19:20And we don't need the extra space.
00:19:22We don't need the travel.
00:19:24It's just another gear selection in exactly the same shift movement as the other gears.
00:19:30Yeah, the spacing of the little dents and the detent that holds it in the different ratios.
00:19:35Click, click, click.
00:19:37And then they told us, or then they teased a little by saying, and why do we have a dry
00:19:45clutch?
00:19:46Not only because it's very cool and it makes that inimitable jingling noise when you hold the clutch in.
00:19:54Oh, dry clutch.
00:19:57Like the old days when the superbike constructors were putting gear drives into their production engines.
00:20:04And you could hear it.
00:20:06Anyway, the reason for the dry clutch is that they have a Ducati Corsa.
00:20:14That's Ducati Racing, have a special high performance oil with friction modifiers, which could mean finely divided graphite, molybdenum disulfide,
00:20:30Teflon, various esters, which are surface active.
00:20:37With little molecules that stick onto things and are not easily dislodged, three and a half horsepower.
00:20:46Drain out your old oil, pour in the new, possibly more expensive oil, and enjoy three extra horsepower.
00:20:54And if your riding is such that you can tell the difference, then I want to see it.
00:21:02But then I ask myself, why are they doing this?
00:21:05Well, one reason could be that the 500 lucky people who will probably all will or the thing will be
00:21:13sold out in 20 minutes on the Internet and the prices will be high.
00:21:19This money will go a long way to tooling some of this advanced methodology for addition to other products in
00:21:31the future line.
00:21:33It's been a Ducati, you know, it's been their tradition to bring out the next engine, you know, whatever the
00:21:41next engine is going to be.
00:21:42It's always like the last most exotic version of the previous version.
00:21:47Yes.
00:21:47And then the new era begins.
00:21:49And so we get a whiff of it.
00:21:50999-R is a great example.
00:21:53That's the Turblanche bodywork, but it has the next engine in it, the great next engine.
00:22:01And, well, you could buy one of those for relatively little money and you're getting quite a motorcycle.
00:22:08It may not visually speak to you in the way that others did before or after, but you're getting a
00:22:14high quality product there, folks.
00:22:16And so this is a situation where we feel like Ducati is launching its next year and its next engine
00:22:22with this stuff.
00:22:25If you look at one of the side views in the excellent photographs, you will see the engine sump is
00:22:32what I call a dagger sump.
00:22:33It's like a blade that goes down to the lowest part, the lowest point that can be tolerated.
00:22:42And it's not going to hit the ground because what they want is to surround the oil pump pickup with
00:22:52oil,
00:22:52even when the motorcycle is on its back tire and the rider is doing crowd interface socializing.
00:23:04Well, any high G, I mean, hard braking, anything, you don't want to, you know, when you have these long
00:23:08automotive oil pans, they, a lot of times.
00:23:11Oh, it just sloshes away.
00:23:12Well, they put one-way flappers in them.
00:23:14In addition to having like boxed oil pickups, you know, where they make it harder for it to slosh,
00:23:20they'll actually make trap doors that only work when it, say when it,
00:23:24they work in the direction for hard braking and hard acceleration to keep the oil around the pickup.
00:23:29So that's what we're seeing here in that stab that goes down.
00:23:33Briefly, I would like, yeah, I would like to go back to the dry clutch.
00:23:39I was recently looking at the Bagger World Cup bikes at Circuit of the Americas during the preseason tests.
00:23:46And those bikes have STM dry clutches on the outside of a very finely machined, very tightly packed primary cover.
00:23:57So they've been trying to make the Harley-Davidson Bagger race engine more and more narrow.
00:24:02The exhaust pipe is this beautiful titanium thing with castings, titanium castings for the collector,
00:24:08so they can make a very precise, thin shape to tuck it in so tight.
00:24:14And they're going for 60 degrees on baggers, and part of that is tightening up the primary.
00:24:20Now, the hottest part of that engine, the Harley engine, aside from, say, the piston crown,
00:24:24the hottest part of the engine is the primary.
00:24:26You're churning oil with that big chain in this very tight package, and it made a lot of heat.
00:24:34And the oil changes with heat.
00:24:38When that stuff gets drained out, it's not honey-colored gorgeous.
00:24:42It's black and highly used.
00:24:44It's really living a life in probably something that's 300 degrees plus.
00:24:49They wanted to move the clutch out of that extremely hot, variable viscosity environment because the oil was changing.
00:24:57And they put a dry clutch on it, and it's out there to cool in the air, and it's away
00:25:02from that harsh environment.
00:25:03And that's what Ducati is doing here.
00:25:05In addition to what Kevin said about friction modifiers, you put a synthetic, a full synthetic,
00:25:10in something like your, here's my real-world example, 72 Yamaha XS650, the clutch will magically start slipping.
00:25:21There was nothing wrong with the clutch.
00:25:23If you drain that oil out and you put some dyno oil back in, clutch is fine.
00:25:27So there's a lot at play here.
00:25:30But dry clutch, I mean, isn't that just the historical signature for performance?
00:25:36We're special.
00:25:37That's right, because dry clutch was essential when push starting was the way FIM road races began.
00:25:45Or at the Isle of Man, when they pushed off one at a time down Bray Hill.
00:25:50These not very large men getting, psyching themselves up to push that 500cc piston through compression at least once.
00:26:02Bang, I'm going.
00:26:04And they ride off with both legs on one side, slipping the clutch like crazy.
00:26:09It was quite dramatic in its old-time manner.
00:26:14I think it's a detail lost on people who haven't tried to manually start a one- or two-cylinder
00:26:22engine,
00:26:23you know, with the force of your body or the force of your inertia.
00:26:30You only have one chance on a single for the revolution.
00:26:34That's it.
00:26:35There's one chamber.
00:26:36I watched a man hand-crank start an inline eight-cylinder, a Buick eight short track car.
00:26:45An older guy, as he would be.
00:26:48I guess this is not eight-cylinder short track cars, straight eight-cylinder short track cars are not the sport
00:26:56of the young too much.
00:26:58It doesn't resonate with us, right?
00:27:01But, you know, I was impressed.
00:27:03But it was like a seven-to-one motor, and it had eight cylinders.
00:27:06And he was hand-cranking it, you know, from the front of the engine.
00:27:10And I said that to him.
00:27:11I said, that's pretty good, but you got eight chances.
00:27:13And he just laughed because he knew it was true.
00:27:15He's got eight chances for the mixture to be just so, just like air, you know, the big radials.
00:27:21A lot of times they start on a few cylinders just enough to start kicking it and kick, kick, kick.
00:27:27And the engine crank's going, and it says, all right, next cylinder, add yourself in.
00:27:31And then finally, it coughs, coughs, and it smooths out.
00:27:36Anyway.
00:27:37And it blows away all the smoke.
00:27:38It blows away the smoke, yeah.
00:27:40Yeah.
00:27:41Well, back to the crankshaft for a moment.
00:27:44You will notice that the V4 crankshafts, the two crank pins of a V4 are normally set at either 180
00:27:53or 360.
00:27:54But these are pulled apart by, the last I knew it was 70 degrees.
00:27:59And that's part of the Big Bang traction-enhancing equivalent of the Big Bang two-strokes of the early 1990s.
00:28:13Yeah, so grouping the firing orders closer together to give drivetrain tire some time to relax and reform the tire
00:28:21to the tarmac.
00:28:21Now, here's another thing that struck me about the engine, and that is, with the crankshaftest light, when the not
00:28:32inconsiderable cylinders fire, the crankshaft accelerates.
00:28:36That is, the firing of all that mixture has put energy into the crankshaft, so it accelerates.
00:28:44And then, as the firing pressure dies away and the exhaust valves begin to open, that disappears and the crankshaft
00:28:53slows down.
00:28:57Now, I'm really impressed if all they have to do to make the valves follow the profiles with Desmo, that
00:29:06they can make the crankshaft as light as they want.
00:29:08And it never, the valve system does, just says, sir, yes, sir.
00:29:15Because there are plenty of cases in which people have lightened crankshafts in valve spring motors and lost top end.
00:29:25Because crankshaft speed variation is transmitted to the camshafts.
00:29:30And if the camshafts' speed is varying like this, what if a valve is opening just as this is peaking?
00:29:40Patui!
00:29:41Valve float.
00:29:42But the only thing holding the valve is the spring, and in the Desmo, the closing ramp is keeping it
00:29:49from being thrown to the piston.
00:29:50That is Ducati's valve spring.
00:29:54The closing lever, which is L-shaped.
00:29:56But they are beautiful parts.
00:29:58They aren't just, they don't look like a child made them out of modeling clay like the early ones.
00:30:03These have definite shape intended for purpose.
00:30:09Very nice.
00:30:11Lovely stuff.
00:30:13Then you look at the frame, and the frame is carbon fiber, but it is clearly unrelated to the 2009
00:30:24rigid pyramid that was built for Casey Stoner to cope with.
00:30:32The rigid bike was prone to being horizontal.
00:30:40It was prone to having no front end feel and to unpredictable loss of the front end.
00:30:50Because with no flexibility whatever in the chassis when the motorcycle is at lean angle, it's difficult for the tires
00:31:00to stay in contact after being launched upward by a bump.
00:31:07Because the whole motorcycle is launched upward, not just parts between the tire and the engine.
00:31:15And so this chassis is a beautiful thing.
00:31:20In one picture, you can see that there's a strut or a pair of struts that reach out to the
00:31:26front to grasp the upper steering head bearing.
00:31:35That area around the steering head is prime real estate because they're trying to get the intake airflow to come
00:31:42through there, trying to get it slowed down into the air box because that's not a gas tank up there.
00:31:52That's an intake air box.
00:31:55They talked about the double-sided carbon fiber swing arm being 21% lighter than an aluminum equivalent.
00:32:08This part is made on a mandrel that is destroyed in the process of manufacture.
00:32:21It is as though they used a very hard wax made into the shape of the space they want inside
00:32:28the swing arm.
00:32:29And then they applied the resin and carbon fiber and their wrappings and all being stuck into the autoclave eventually
00:32:42to make sure that the inside is as free of flaws
00:32:49and does not have pieces that are delammed and hanging out in space, this consumable mandrel is a wonderful thing.
00:33:00And it's very much like a version of lost wax casting.
00:33:06So now they've made this carbon fiber part.
00:33:13It's black.
00:33:14You can't see into it.
00:33:16How do you know if it's good?
00:33:17Or is it riddled with porosity from gas released by the curing process?
00:33:26Are there D-LAMs where parts were almost held together strongly enough by the bagging process, but they created a
00:33:39void?
00:33:41Well, these methods are just frantic.
00:33:45In one method, they heat the surface with infrared lights, and then they switch them off and quickly do a
00:33:55temperature scan of all the surfaces.
00:33:56And if the heat conductivity of one area is less than that of the others, its temperature won't fall as
00:34:06rapidly because there's no place for the heat to go inward.
00:34:10So, and then a phased array acoustic system.
00:34:15Now, a phased array radar has ranks and rows of radar emitters that are controlled in such a way that
00:34:28they can produce and instantly steer a tightly focused beam with the electronics that are controlling all of this in
00:34:37two dimensions.
00:34:40And with this, they can make a map of the inside of the part, and then finally, CAT scan.
00:34:52So, these parts, I remember Cook Nelson telling me, Ducati have a machine that makes their connecting rods and the
00:35:01machine takes half an hour to make one rod.
00:35:05And I thought, won't sell many of those, but of course, Nelson and Schilling so skillfully promoted the motorcycle they
00:35:16were building that Ducati, no doubt, benefited considerably from this.
00:35:24But in order to understand the value of carbon fiber parts, you have to make some, you have to track
00:35:34test them, and in order to do your due diligence for the rider, you have to inspect them before you.
00:35:41So, this is cool stuff.
00:35:43Well, there's, yeah, you were talking about, you know, radar and all this, and we got to make sure it's
00:35:49free of flaws.
00:35:50I recalled a person I knew who was beginning to braise bicycle frame tubes together as a thing he wanted
00:36:00to do.
00:36:01And he was doing this, and he had these beautiful little casting lugs that you see on bicycles, you know,
00:36:07chromoly stuff, steel.
00:36:09And he would sweat those things together, and they were sacrificial.
00:36:15He would cut them in half, and he would, you know, rate his temperature and keep a track on that.
00:36:20And that's how he taught himself, was sacrificing the parts over and over again so that he didn't have to
00:36:25cut it apart to know it was good.
00:36:27Oh, yeah.
00:36:28Yeah.
00:36:29Sure.
00:36:31So, the frame on this motorcycle is, first of all, four legs, like an animal, standing on the engine.
00:36:41And on these legs, it is presumably able to move from side to side, but not to twist and not
00:36:48to bend.
00:36:51And then there is the seat frame, and there are all kinds of other little carbon fiber pieces that are
00:36:58attached.
00:36:59Now, I don't know how they attach them.
00:37:03I know what John Britton did.
00:37:05He made aluminum spools, and he wrapped the carbon fiber around the spools and ran it off in the directions
00:37:14to carry the stress wherever it was going.
00:37:16And then he wetted that stuff out and sheathed it all in and then cured it in the equivalent of
00:37:28an autoclave.
00:37:32So, I'm going to have to inform myself more about how concentrated loads, how do you attach the landing gear
00:37:41to a carbon fiber aircraft fuselage?
00:37:46Do you drill holes in the plastic and try to thread them?
00:37:51I don't think so.
00:37:52I don't think so.
00:37:54Early carbon…
00:37:56You have to plan how that stress is going to flow to the landing gear.
00:38:03Yeah.
00:38:03Trek Bicycles made a mountain bike in the late 90s called the Y-Bike, and it was Y-shaped.
00:38:11So, the seat tube was not a tube.
00:38:13It was a Y.
00:38:14Like, if you stood the frame up like this, the seat's here, the steering head's up here, and then your
00:38:19bottom bracket business is down here.
00:38:21They call it the Y-Bike because if you held it this way, it looked like a Y.
00:38:24Yeah.
00:38:25Y-Bike.
00:38:25And the first ones they made, the shock lug, was bonded, externally bonded to this part of the Y.
00:38:33That was the upper lug for the rear shock.
00:38:36Library paste.
00:38:37And let me tell you, it failed, and it failed a lot, and it failed on my bike.
00:38:43I got a warranty frame out of that, and the next version that they gave to me as a warranty,
00:38:48that upper shock lug was incorporated into a stump that stuck out a plug, and it was metallic, and it
00:38:56penetrated, and it was built into the frame.
00:38:58It had mechanical connection, not just chemical bonding connection.
00:39:03It was definitely the next step, so landing gear.
00:39:08It is landing gear, Kevin.
00:39:09It is landing gear on a mountain bike.
00:39:11Yeah, for sure it is, yeah.
00:39:13I always, when I see large aircraft, of course, I always mentally count the main wheels and multiply by 50
00:39:21,000 to get some idea of this machine's takeoff weight, because that's what those tires are made to bear.
00:39:28That's just a glimpse into Kevin Cameron's daily life, folks.
00:39:36Well, yes, I think about that considerable thump when a big airplane, 7777, they make the runway at the touchdown
00:39:50area at least three feet deep, and it's concrete, and it's full of re-rod.
00:39:54And it's designed to take the thump, and why, my goodness, re-rod and concrete, it's a composite, isn't it?
00:40:05It is.
00:40:05Just like CFRP.
00:40:08So, the lovely swing arm, Mark talked about the suspension.
00:40:15Now, the brake calipers, they're rather coy about just how it works, but they have, Brembo, have come up with
00:40:28a way to completely release the pads from the disc surface when you're done braking.
00:40:37And they did it as follows.
00:40:39There's a spring that holds the pads toward the rear on a very slight slope, and as you apply the
00:40:50brakes and the pads touch, they go click forward slightly up that slope.
00:40:57And you do your braking, and when you release the brake, the springs pull the pads back down the slope
00:41:05slightly.
00:41:08That part of the slope moves away from the disc surface, so the pads are positively retracted.
00:41:16And you're talking about the, you're talking about that oblique angle where the pads, so the pads usually slot into
00:41:23the calipers and are held on either end to carry the load when the brakes are applied.
00:41:27And so that.
00:41:28Yeah, the end of the backing plate has to button.
00:41:31End of the backing.
00:41:31Yeah, and so the backing, so we're talking oblique this way to put the pad into the disc.
00:41:39They're giving a slight servo effect, a power boosting effect.
00:41:43Now, to me, this is a level of precision that must have been infuriatingly difficult to achieve because what you're
00:41:53looking at in the old way of getting just enough retraction, you were relying on the rubber seal.
00:42:02And the way that would work is that you would pull the brake, and the piston would slide in the
00:42:07seal, and then pressure would rise, and it would grip the piston, and then you would brake.
00:42:13And then when you released, the seal was deforming and allowing the piston to go do its braking thing, and
00:42:20it's waiting, it's under tension.
00:42:21And when you release the pressure, it pulled the pad back a little bit.
00:42:26Until it's worn enough for the piston to advance a slight amount again.
00:42:31And that's why there can be variations in lever height as this process takes place.
00:42:37Now, Kevin got a Brembo guy in trouble one time because they had a delightful dinner conversation, and Kevin asked
00:42:45him the question about, well, isn't this where all the real action is, is in the rubber seal doing this
00:42:51stuff?
00:42:51And he's like, oh, someone I could talk to, and he gave you lots of stuff that was superb.
00:42:57And, you know, he was fine, but these are the truths that we're searching for.
00:43:02So we're going to, we have the opportunity to talk to a Brembo person, and we're going to take advantage
00:43:09of that, Kevin.
00:43:10We're going to ask about these calipers because they, the idea that a spring is retracting the pad.
00:43:15Sideways.
00:43:16Sideways, that where the, the pad, the backing plate is interfacing with the caliper has a, an angle to it
00:43:24to coordinate all of that, to make all of that exceptional and beautiful and perfectly repeatable.
00:43:31I got to give him huge credit because just getting regular brakes to work on your pickup truck can be,
00:43:36can be a pain in the ass sometimes.
00:43:38Take enough one, yes.
00:43:39Well, these are the, these are the calipers that they're running on the bagger race bikes, like the Harleys and
00:43:44stuff.
00:43:45Yeah.
00:43:45And, um, they clean them all the time.
00:43:49They've got a quick disconnect and they've cleaned the pistons.
00:43:52That was another thing actually talking about the pistons.
00:43:55The ends of the pistons that are contacting the backing plate are radially drilled.
00:44:01Sure.
00:44:02To let, to, to keep heat transfer lower from going into the fluid.
00:44:07Yep.
00:44:07Don't want that.
00:44:08How many extra machining steps is that, right?
00:44:12Or the, or, oh, these calipers are machined from billet.
00:44:15The machine that does that is exquisite because the caliper is a bridge.
00:44:20This isn't bolted together.
00:44:21You don't get caliper halves where you can just go take your hand drill and put in, you know, piston,
00:44:26piston bores.
00:44:28It's, it's like this.
00:44:30It's, it's just a little you and they have a machine that goes in and goes and machines it and
00:44:35pulls itself out.
00:44:36It's just, uh, and when this was told to the Japanese, they said, of course, this is not possible.
00:44:43And of course, then they had to show them how they were, how they were doing it.
00:44:48And, uh, such a step forward.
00:44:53The calipers that, uh, TZ 750 came with were cast iron and they weighed four pounds a piece.
00:45:03The calipers that are on MotoGP bikes weigh under 450 grams, I think, under a pound, under a pound.
00:45:13Good stuff.
00:45:15I think, you know, it's a moment to, to say, when we look at all of the photographs of this
00:45:20motorcycle and the components,
00:45:23you look at the carbon fork upper and you look at the frame, uh, you look at the crankshaft.
00:45:32When you look at the crankshaft, the sheen of the material speaks to its content.
00:45:38It's just wonderful.
00:45:40Just the way that the carbon fiber is when you look at the fibers and you know that those fibers
00:45:46were laid with intent to take precisely the load in the directions they need to take the load.
00:45:54And to have give where they need to have give.
00:45:58And that someone has thought, thought about this and you, it's all there on the surface.
00:46:02It's all there on the surface.
00:46:03The fork lower, the machine, the machined fork lower is just exquisite where it carries the caliper.
00:46:10And that's what the fork to.
00:46:11And of course, what's happening is that the effort on the part of the two calipers to follow the disc
00:46:18as braking goes on is transmitted to the rest of the motorcycle by that thread.
00:46:24At the bottom of each fork tube.
00:46:25And that will lift the back of the motorcycle off the ground.
00:46:29And how far that is from the triple clamp, the amount of leverage.
00:46:33Yes, it's quite a lever there.
00:46:34That lever from where it's taking the force at the brake input up to the triple clamp is just fantastically
00:46:41long.
00:46:41And that's where your carbon upper comes into play because it's 30% lighter, but stiff as hell.
00:46:47So this was one of the most persuasive arguments in favor of alternative front ends and alternative front suspensions was,
00:46:56why should we send the force up to the steering head and then back down into the rest of the
00:47:03chassis?
00:47:03Why not have a swing arm pointing forward with a pivot inside the wheel hub so that the line of
00:47:13transmission of force was direct?
00:47:17But it didn't work as well as the best telescopic forks, and it still doesn't.
00:47:26And Honda put several years into trying to make it work in the 1980s.
00:47:33And every year, the bike was sort of, oh, you know, fifth, fourth.
00:47:41So it was promising.
00:47:44But when the rider gave direction for what he wanted changed for next year, it was always back towards the
00:47:55qualities of a telescopic.
00:47:57And the purists were just tearing their hair out because they wanted this revolution.
00:48:03They dreamed it.
00:48:04They'd made prototypes.
00:48:07And here we are with telescopics.
00:48:09They still work better.
00:48:12Yeah, the advantages didn't outweigh what you were losing.
00:48:17I got a photo.
00:48:19I got a couple of photos this morning from somebody at COTA for the MotoGP this weekend.
00:48:27And they show a rack of fuel tanks.
00:48:30And there are little squashy ones.
00:48:33There's hardly anything to them.
00:48:35They're for qualifying.
00:48:37Quality tanks.
00:48:38And then there are the big lumps of fuel that have a beak that goes up where the filler cap
00:48:47is in the airbox in the normal place.
00:48:54So that if the rider tucks in, it's here somewhere in the middle of your chest.
00:49:00So, and they're all beautiful looking aluminum weldments.
00:49:05Just lovely.
00:49:07A little detail on, oh, sorry.
00:49:10Yep, go ahead.
00:49:11No, a little detail on the brake calipers and fork lowers.
00:49:15The ones on the baggers have these beautiful little tongues sticking out that guide the axle in the right direction
00:49:23to their place in the place where the axle goes through the fork lower.
00:49:29And as a home mechanic and not as an ongoing race mechanic tuner type person, I don't get to see
00:49:36this very often, but they were changing front wheels on the baggers.
00:49:39And those calipers have these beautiful black plastic pad spreaders that are put in from the top side.
00:49:46And so when you roll that wheel in, it's, it's caught, it's captured at the axle and it's guided to
00:49:52its place where the axle goes through.
00:49:54The discs go slicing in.
00:49:56And the discs go into the calipers and knock out those spreaders.
00:50:00Yes.
00:50:01So you just, without much trouble at all, you just roll that aluminum marcasini wheel in with its iron superbike
00:50:07discs and it knocks out those things.
00:50:10And then you slide and the axle just goes.
00:50:12There's no big rubber mallet.
00:50:15Dead blow.
00:50:17People trying to pound an axle through.
00:50:19It's, it's all beautiful fit and well thought out.
00:50:22It was wonderful to watch.
00:50:23Legacy of the AK-47.
00:50:25Yeah.
00:50:29Because.
00:50:30I'm sure that was, that's on the, I'm sure that's on the Olin's development department wall, AK-47, you know,
00:50:38gold tint.
00:50:39Uh, Momola showed me, uh, a, a, uh, an RG 500 factory transmission, uh, at Daytona one year, maybe it
00:50:49was 80.
00:50:50And it was so loose.
00:50:53The gears were sort of clattering on the, on the shafts because they had made this wonderful, precise gearbox and
00:51:02it had been their worst problem.
00:51:03Um, in the first two years, um, racing that bike and, uh, they fixed it.
00:51:11Um, we humans have a problem though.
00:51:16A, a person of authority says, let it be made this way.
00:51:21And it doesn't work.
00:51:23Are we going to tell that person it didn't work?
00:51:27Your idea didn't work.
00:51:29Or are we going to kind of just go about our business?
00:51:36Because in engineering, social problems are the worst.
00:51:43I've heard that.
00:51:44Yeah.
00:51:45Well, I repeat myself often because I have a limited repertoire.
00:51:53I worry about it.
00:51:54I like it.
00:51:55Um, yeah.
00:51:56So there's 500 superleggera V4 Centenario bikes in the special red color.
00:52:01And then there are 100 tricolore bikes.
00:52:06So you might have a chance at 600, uh, the tricolore.
00:52:10Sorry if I butchered that folks, but, uh, further mark this historic milestone.
00:52:16So that's pretty, uh,
00:52:18what do you think we're going to see on this?
00:52:20I mean, they're usually six digits.
00:52:25Yeah.
00:52:26Six figures.
00:52:29Well, this is the thing.
00:52:30Um, you have to be able to, to tap this market.
00:52:35Because if you base your sales on the power of the U.S.
00:52:44middle class and its mass market, which at one time was the most powerful force on earth,
00:52:51uh, you could be walking on shifting sands.
00:52:58So the people who have, like, uh, Moe's Allison said in the song, but nowadays, the old man got all
00:53:11the money.
00:53:12And so if they can sell 500 of these things to be stored away in, uh, temperature and humidity controlled
00:53:23rooms,
00:53:24all the better for the rest of us, because it keeps Ducati healthy.
00:53:30And that's what we want.
00:53:32I asked Claudio, uh, Domenicali, uh, once, why are you introducing this V4 at a time when sales of big
00:53:44sport bikes are not doing so well?
00:53:48And he said, because our clientele expect us to lead.
00:53:55And that's why I have to advise those people who are disappointed that this bike does not have a single
00:54:02sided swing arm.
00:54:03Would you, I must ask them, would you prefer Ducati to lead motorcycle design or to celebrate history?
00:54:17Well, mad respect all along, you know, they were a singles company in the sixties and they could clearly see
00:54:24what the future was looking like.
00:54:26And they made a V twin and it became their signature.
00:54:29And we, we, we loved our V twin Ducatis all the way through our belt tribes and 851s and 900
00:54:36SS engines.
00:54:39V twins made, made sense, did the job, but they got to the point where they took the V twin
00:54:45to its, uh, natural limit, perhaps bores of 116 millimeters.
00:54:52Yeah.
00:54:52Something like bigger, bigger than a, uh, 454 Chevy.
00:54:58That's a big piston.
00:55:00And when they were looking at the next evolution and wanting to compete in MotoGP, twin wasn't a rational choice.
00:55:08So we got V fours out of it and look at us now.
00:55:11And it's, that's, what's cool about it is they have, they are, they are entrenched in traditions.
00:55:16They still make twins.
00:55:18They still make Desmo twins.
00:55:20They're doing rational things with spring heads and you know, you're getting spring head V twins.
00:55:24Now monsters with spring head V twins and spring head V fours and the adventure bikes and, and all of
00:55:30that.
00:55:31But here we are at the, at the outer limit building a bike.
00:55:35I don't think anyone else is trying to build or could build in a way.
00:55:39And I just, I look at the development team on something like this.
00:55:44And I say to myself, if you're an engineer and you love motorcycles, is there any better thing to be
00:55:51locked in a room to say like, have at it.
00:55:55Whatever.
00:55:56It costs more.
00:55:57Fine.
00:55:58Carbon, carbon four cuppers call and see, let's make this happen.
00:56:02First street bike.
00:56:03Just going down that and building that.
00:56:05And it's gotta be, I mean, it has to be frantic and you have to have, oh, the massive pressure
00:56:11of building something.
00:56:12That's truly amazing.
00:56:14It has to function, right?
00:56:16This is as much as we know that getting on this and riding this to its limit is for a
00:56:22very chosen few of physical and mental capability.
00:56:27Nonetheless.
00:56:30There it is.
00:56:31I mean, I don't know.
00:56:32To be able to be, to be on that team.
00:56:34And the great men of Brussels have approved it.
00:56:36Yeah.
00:56:37Well, let's talk, we talked so much about the caliper.
00:56:40How about those discs?
00:56:42Sure.
00:56:43Carbon ceramic.
00:56:45Years ago, Irv Kanemoto said, I went down the wheel rack and they brought all these wheels beginning of some
00:56:53season or other.
00:56:54And he said, there's all the carbon discs.
00:56:57But he said, there's other discs that they look like stone.
00:57:01And I think that's what, that's what this is.
00:57:05It's a ceramic such as silicon carbide that is strengthened internally by carbon fibers.
00:57:20And wonderful stuff because I picked up the front wheel.
00:57:28My son bought a CB900F and he was doing things to it.
00:57:35He sort of lost interest after a while, but what a heavy front wheel.
00:57:41Great big thing, great big stone, just massive discs.
00:57:47All the parts were, and of course, the first thing they did in 1980, when they decided to go super
00:57:53bike racing with that as the basis,
00:57:57they put on 16-inch Morris mags because they didn't want the rider having to put both hands on one
00:58:06handlebar to yank the thing to go around the corner with that tremendous mill wheel on the front.
00:58:15And these new discs are presumably highly durable.
00:58:21For example, there's not a lot of things that are harder than silicon carbide.
00:58:28And they are lightweight.
00:58:33The wheels are lightweight.
00:58:35One of my favorite items to jump to the other end of the motorcycle.
00:58:40You ever take the spring off of a single rear suspension unit?
00:58:44That thing is heavy.
00:58:46It's very heavy.
00:58:49And it's offensively heavy.
00:58:51How can this awful thing be on this otherwise filigreed and attenuated motor vehicle?
00:58:59Well, Ducati got a spring designer to go after this problem.
00:59:07Can't we do better than this?
00:59:11Yes, we certainly can.
00:59:12But it calls for specific materials, specific heat treat.
00:59:16Essentially, what they're doing is they're working less metal harder.
00:59:2327% less metal.
00:59:26Fewer turns.
00:59:27Smaller wire.
00:59:29And the maximum stress in that wire is a larger fraction of its yield point than in previous sort of
00:59:39pedestrian springs.
00:59:45Like something you might find on an old pickup truck.
00:59:49So, we're getting fewer windings, necessary windings per inch.
00:59:54You're reducing the amount of material that's required to make the spring.
00:59:57Mm-hmm.
00:59:58And working the spring material harder.
01:00:01Harder.
01:00:02And so, that's when you say, what is a high-performance spring?
01:00:05And if you look at the rear shocks on, I don't know, some Vintage Triumph or some old Harley or
01:00:11something, they're going to be really fat wire.
01:00:13And it's going to be tightly wound coils.
01:00:15A lot of coils.
01:00:17Because they can't, they just can't stretch as far before they just go, nope.
01:00:20And they give up.
01:00:22We broke one.
01:00:23Yeah, when you see that spring that has a few, a few windings, fewer windings, you know that.
01:00:29Like a valve spring.
01:00:30Yeah, exactly.
01:00:31Like a valve spring.
01:00:32That process has gone on for years with valve springs.
01:00:36They work the material harder.
01:00:38The last I heard, 140,000 PSI for the peak fiber stress.
01:00:44It's probably gone on beyond that since.
01:00:48But that's the principle.
01:00:50And also, this is not so important in a suspension spring, but in an engine, the less mass you have
01:00:59whanging back and forth, the less fatigue the spring sees because these reflected stress waves are not constantly ringing back
01:01:13and forth.
01:01:14The spring with fewer coils has a much higher frequency than previously.
01:01:23Anyway, lots of little points.
01:01:25Every part has a story.
01:01:27We're trying to bring you some of them.
01:01:33Yeah, the carbon fiber body work, one more detail, carbon fiber body work, again, very lightweight, but also incorporating the,
01:01:39oh, the ground effect, the corner side pods, they call them.
01:01:44So when you really deck that thing, they've got side pads and the fairing that are helping increase the downforce
01:01:49of the bike to increase the grip.
01:01:50But, again, an edge case scenario for the best, fastest riders.
01:01:55So keep working on it.
01:01:57Keep working on yourself.
01:01:58The bike's important.
01:01:58But the most important part is the rider, typically.
01:02:02No question.
01:02:03And after that, the tire.
01:02:06Yeah, and I will say that the most recent generation, a couple years old, we are finally seeing the airfoils
01:02:19at the front that aren't just decorative.
01:02:20They're working on these bikes, on Ducatis and BMWs in particular.
01:02:25They're doing the job.
01:02:27You're feeling that at high speed when before maybe you weren't.
01:02:32So it's wonderful to get that far that we have this stuff.
01:02:36It's not just, hey, it looks like MotoGP.
01:02:39It actually acts like MotoGP.
01:02:41The earliest just externally adjustable forks, you turn the clickers, they weren't connected to anything.
01:02:49They were just something to play with on certain bikes.
01:02:54Yeah, we joke about early adjustable rebound shocks on the sport bikes of, you know, 80s, 90s era.
01:03:03And it was a four-position rebound adjuster.
01:03:05And I'm not sure there was any difference between one and four.
01:03:10Yeah.
01:03:11But we've come a long way.
01:03:13This stuff is real.
01:03:14That's what's wonderful about it.
01:03:17Yes, it is.
01:03:19Because think about Alcock and Brown trying to fly across the Atlantic.
01:03:24And think about yourself bellying up to the counter and saying, any seats on 276?
01:03:32You know the product you're going to get.
01:03:34And it is an open cockpit.
01:03:35And it's likely to reach the destination.
01:03:41So this new motorcycle is a collection of works of art.
01:03:49And the reason that we gave at the start of this diatribe, there are two of us, is that the
01:03:58harder you work to make the shape of parts the same as that of the stresses that flow through them,
01:04:07the more they please us visually.
01:04:12I used to, when the new race bikes would come to Boston Cycles and pry the lid off the crate,
01:04:19push the sides down, I would take cylinders off and go home.
01:04:24And I would make a pot of coffee and walk up and down looking at the cylinders, looking at the
01:04:32porting.
01:04:32Because I wanted to load all that data so that I'd have something to think about.
01:04:40It was wonderful.
01:04:43It was a real treat.
01:04:45Yeah.
01:04:47Well, we can't wait to see and ride this thing somewhere.
01:04:52You get a lot of stuff with the bike.
01:04:56It goes down a list.
01:04:57Electronics package, 60 IMU, four-level quartering ABS.
01:05:01You could go through all of the—
01:05:04Oh, DVO.
01:05:05DVO.
01:05:06Electronic assistance, racing exhaust with software and dedicated calibration, dedicated lower fairing, open carbon fiber clutch cover, which you can't
01:05:15use on the street.
01:05:15They say alternator, cover protector, headlight, side stand, number plate holder, indicators removal kit, machined aluminum racing fuel cap.
01:05:23Don't use it on the street.
01:05:24Neoprene racing seat, dedicated wooden crate, dedicated paddock stands, mat, and motorcycle cover.
01:05:30I mean, you're getting the whole enchilada.
01:05:33I don't know.
01:05:34What is the Italian version of an enchilada?
01:05:36The whole lasagna.
01:05:38You get the whole lasagna with this thing.
01:05:40Anyway, that's the Ducati Superleggero Centenario.
01:05:43I think they're overlooking a possible sales—missing out a little bit, because it's clear from MotoGP that these motorcycles, like
01:05:55horses, are not comfortable on their own.
01:05:58They always go in pairs.
01:06:00Every rider has two bikes.
01:06:03Shouldn't the customer buy two so that they won't be sad and lonely?
01:06:10No.
01:06:13If I didn't mind what I wrote on the check, I would certainly have two.
01:06:20It's always good to have a spare if you're going out there and you're really going to do it.
01:06:26Well, thanks for listening, folks.
01:06:28I don't want them to be lonely.
01:06:29Yes, indeed.
01:06:29Thanks for listening.
01:06:31It's another Cycle World podcast in the books.
01:06:36It was fun to do.
01:06:37We love new products.
01:06:38We talk about plenty of stuff that starts in 1865 or 1900.
01:06:43Sorry, folks.
01:06:44We start at the molecular level.
01:06:45That's how it is.
01:06:46It's certainly part of our entertainment.
01:06:48We hope it sure is, too.
01:06:51But what a spectacular piece of engineering and, as Kevin pointed out, art.
01:06:57So thanks for listening, folks.
01:06:58Check us out on Patreon.
01:06:59There is everything there commercial-free for a low cost that comes direct to us rather than some of the
01:07:08large, unseen machines that host this podcast elsewhere.
01:07:12So thanks for being with us.
01:07:15We'll catch you next time.
01:07:16We'll catch you next time.
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