- Joined
- Sep 29, 2013
- Messages
- 1,147
- Location
- Chicago, IL
Although I generally agree and concur with your "thoughts", here is what I think:
The headers are the pipes that come from the heads to the cans. Maybe that's American. I'll find out when I venture out there in EU in the future.
I don't care about the fasteners and the covers on the exhaust which can be SS, Carbon, etc. The meat and potatoes are the main pipes. Will I be happy if the flanges and the covers are not Ti? Maybe. Maybe not quite.
Most manufacturers compromise quality, reliability, and beauty relative to cost.
I succumb to this stereotype, that it is a good feeling knowing that you have control of a machine on the road that has the lightest, strongest, and one of the most technologically advanced parts in the market today.
Ducati Corse uses Ti and CF in WSBK and MotoGP, which exemplify the extreme of machine performance. They use them at the least for these reasons, and if they're good enough for that, the better they are for me.
A lot of manufacturers in this time use SS for headers. Making the top of the line R model with Ti is a great addition.
Yes, Ducati could use SS instead of Ti to save cost.
For a consumer as myself, what I get for my money is as important as engineering and technology. Why put ugly plastic when CF is better? Why put an exhaust that is less appealing visually and heavier? I refuse to believe the stock 2012-2014 cans were the best you could have done.
I believe some of us, at least myself, hope that value and business can go hand in hand where I should be able to get a high performance exhaust without getting (and paying for) a useless stocker. They "come with the bike" ya. But they cost something. A cost that I'd rather not pay for since I will never use them. It should not have taken 3 years to get decent rearsets. Seriously, slippery pegs and ugly one-piece pedals? My concerns is a very short list and it is on the Panigale, but hey while we're at it...
I love technology and art and for that I love Ducati. It is hard for me to swallow what you "ponder on" as the reasons behind using "less expensive" material has technological and engineering merits.
I respect you and every worker in the Ducati factories for what you do and your passion.
Ducati the artists and Ducati the business. How are both balanced?
The headers are the pipes that come from the heads to the cans. Maybe that's American. I'll find out when I venture out there in EU in the future.
I don't care about the fasteners and the covers on the exhaust which can be SS, Carbon, etc. The meat and potatoes are the main pipes. Will I be happy if the flanges and the covers are not Ti? Maybe. Maybe not quite.
Most manufacturers compromise quality, reliability, and beauty relative to cost.
I succumb to this stereotype, that it is a good feeling knowing that you have control of a machine on the road that has the lightest, strongest, and one of the most technologically advanced parts in the market today.
Ducati Corse uses Ti and CF in WSBK and MotoGP, which exemplify the extreme of machine performance. They use them at the least for these reasons, and if they're good enough for that, the better they are for me.
A lot of manufacturers in this time use SS for headers. Making the top of the line R model with Ti is a great addition.
Yes, Ducati could use SS instead of Ti to save cost.
For a consumer as myself, what I get for my money is as important as engineering and technology. Why put ugly plastic when CF is better? Why put an exhaust that is less appealing visually and heavier? I refuse to believe the stock 2012-2014 cans were the best you could have done.
I believe some of us, at least myself, hope that value and business can go hand in hand where I should be able to get a high performance exhaust without getting (and paying for) a useless stocker. They "come with the bike" ya. But they cost something. A cost that I'd rather not pay for since I will never use them. It should not have taken 3 years to get decent rearsets. Seriously, slippery pegs and ugly one-piece pedals? My concerns is a very short list and it is on the Panigale, but hey while we're at it...
I love technology and art and for that I love Ducati. It is hard for me to swallow what you "ponder on" as the reasons behind using "less expensive" material has technological and engineering merits.
I respect you and every worker in the Ducati factories for what you do and your passion.
Ducati the artists and Ducati the business. How are both balanced?
This is for the whiners, you know who you are:
Perhaps you think that the "headers" to which I have been referring compose a large part of the exhaust system.
Perhaps you think it would cause less confusion to call it a titanium/steel/carbon/aluminum/fiberglass system, or that any street-legal exhaust in the world is made 100% out of titanium.
Perhaps you think it's a good idea for a manufacturer to accept a solution that they know will compromise long-term reliability.
Perhaps you think that you are a good enough rider to feel a few grams of weight difference on a 205 hp motorcycle.
Perhaps you think that Ducati didn't have good reasons to use SS headers, or that it wouldn't have used titanium headers if they had been an acceptable solution.
Perhaps you think that there aren't enough appealing features and details on the bike, and that changing the header material is the missing key to increasing its desirability.
Perhaps you think that after giving the Panigale R a near-Superbike engine with titanium mufflers and exhaust tubes, race-focused geometry, and world-leading electronics, the engineers picked the few inches of tubing next to the heads as the ideal part to save costs on.
You'd be wrong.
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