Back in the shop

craig bush said:

Any year, or are they all as good as each other? I’m considering r1 vs rsv4.

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In the UK, MY2018 for the R1 introduced a lot of improvements in the electronics with new or better slide control etc. Then there was a face-lift and engine mods for Euro regs (not sure if 4 or 5) in 2021 I believe.

I had an RSV4 Factory for 6 years and it was great. It was a 2012. Felt a little heavy vs an R1 that I tried back to back on a track session. The later RSV4 bikes obviously became more powerful and with better electronics. Those that were ridden hard needed top end work (valve checks and often new valves) pretty frequently.

2015 R1 silver engine - do snap cranks occasionally.
2018 R1 black engine, +12bhp, still have crank issue.
2020 R1 improvements to oil journals, more reliable.

I love my V4, probably going to get another one soon. But, if I hadn't gone down this route, would've gone 2020 R1.

I wouldn't go for a V4R again, the 2022 base V4 is a much better bike, and running costs....
V4R, 6k mile running costs: £12k
V4 base, 6k running costs: £4k
(If you follow the Ducati race service schedule)

Had a 18 R1M, didn't like it for some reason. Felt heavy and wide compared to V4. Stock brakes suck big time,

She looks mean this way, still have to put the rear subframe setup on.

That front view of those silly wings make the bike look ridiculous and toy like. I'm sure they are functional to some extent but damn Ducati...wtf?

I know your bike is geared more towards track now n less road but the wings n the mirrors n everything up front just look too damn busy

double0 said:

That front view of those silly wings make the bike look ridiculous and toy like. I'm sure they are functional to some extent but damn Ducati...wtf?

I know your bike is geared more towards track now n less road but the wings n the mirrors n everything up front just look too damn busy

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Agreed - the SL wings don’t look good.

IIRC, the SL wings were from the last year before they were heavily regulated in MotoGP. Kind of the best design for aero they could come up with.

I do like the looks of that seat. I wish I could get a smaller/shorter tail butt stop section to get even more room to move backwards.

Man I’m kinda into the wings, if for no other reason than I like the form of function.

Those wings are probably the most aerodynamically advanced wings in the world available for a motorcycle, and they are both affective and useful….they didn’t get banned for no reason ;-)

My bike gets a little light in the front end on long aggressive high speed accelerations. The Pierobon swingarm was added to help reduce front end lift mechanically, meaning without cutting power, and the wings are for the same thing.

I changed the angle of attack of the bottom wings, made them a bit more aggressive after closely analyzing pictures of what Ducati had on the race bikes and in the wind tunnel tests versus what’s on the production bikes.



I think on the production bikes they lowered the angle of attack for less downforce, and less wind resistance, probably to pad the top speed numbers and/or to improve fuel economy.

Mine has the more aggressive angle, you can see where the rear tip of the wing ends on the louvers on mine and the track/wind tunnel testing bikes versus production one.



Took it out for a couple of high speed pulls and they work…front end feels more planted, will know better next time I’m at Autoclub Speedway though, they have a 150-160 mph straight that you brake into a 100 mph kink followed by a full throttle sweeper to a hard braking zone that should make good use of those wings.

bp_SFV4 said:

IIRC, the SL wings were from the last year before they were heavily regulated in MotoGP. Kind of the best design for aero they could come up with.

I do like the looks of that seat. I wish I could get a smaller/shorter tail butt stop section to get even more room to move backwards.

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Man you can have the seat if you want, very good on the street, okay on the track. Only used it half a track day, would like to see it go to someone who’ll use it lol.

The custom cut RaceSeats should be here in a week.

I thought that was your custom seat. I have one on order, and specified with higher with flatter sides. I didn't get the tank bump built into the seat since I have a SBK style tank cover on the way.

bp_SFV4 said:

I thought that was your custom seat. I have one on order, and specified with higher with flatter sides. I didn't get the tank bump built into the seat since I have a SBK style tank cover on the way.

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No I had bought this seat from SBU to try, liked it a lot on the street in my initial expression of it, but at the track I liked the SBK style tank extension better.

That tank extension is at the painters getting painted though, the Superleggera red on the rest of the fairings is a brighter than the Ducati red the bike was. So I’m using this one until my main tank extender and new seat are here.

double0 said:

That front view of those silly wings make the bike look ridiculous and toy like. I'm sure they are functional to some extent but damn Ducati...wtf?

I know your bike is geared more towards track now n less road but the wings n the mirrors n everything up front just look too damn busy

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I’m cool with the wings but those Rizoma mirrors have to go, they looked okay when the smaller wings painted body color were on there, but too much and out of place now.

The wings though, the other teams basically voted them off the island because Ducati was too far ahead of everyone else in their development. Before they were banned Ducati had different variants for different tracks much like F1 cars vary the downforce to the track. This is the maximum downforce version.

All the wings on current MotoGP bikes are rule compromises and less affective.

Also apparently rear swingarm aero may be coming.

I hate the aero focus in MotoGP.

craig bush said:

I hate the aero focus in MotoGP.

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Shelby had a cool quote: “There’s never too much power, just not enough traction.”

Aero makes more traction.

Some of those MotoGP bikes are pushing toward 280 horsepower, as power increases you have to find ways to keep it on the ground that don’t rob the power you added, and options are limited on bikes so they kinda have no choice if they want to go faster.

I was just at Ducati Corse and all the new 23 engines were on the dynos - its more then that. They obviously were not showing me the #s but the base figure they told me was more then that...

Steven31371 said:

Shelby had a cool quote: “There’s never too much power, just not enough traction.”

Aero makes more traction.

Some of those MotoGP bikes are pushing toward 280 horsepower, as power increases you have to find ways to keep it on the ground that don’t rob the power you added, and options are limited on bikes so they kinda have no choice if they want to go faster.

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I understand the reason. I just don’t like it.

This:



Over this:

Probably one of the few times I’d disagree w Craig. I look at the current MotoGP and see all the innovation and engineering. Everything that’s there is there to solve a problem and make the bike faster. With how the lap times keep dropping its easy to see they are accomplishing their goal.

Hahaha I agree with @bp_SFV4 and @craig bush. MotoGP is all about innovation and prototypes. Some folks say that modern MotoGP bikes are more similar to jet aircrafts than motorcycles. For at least these reasons, I like aerodynamics.

With that being said, wings and the new aerodynamic fairings are hideous. I know that’s a subjective opinion but I think it’s a pretty popular one. Some are reporting that the new aerodynamic packages impact the races too. These folks claim that the aerodynamic packages make it harder to pass. As someone who loves watching races with a lot of passes, I hope this claim is false.

Maybe the aerodynamic issue is totally unrelated, but I’ve found myself more interested in WSBK and MotoAmerica than ever before. MotoGP is still my favorite, but the other race series have been phenomenal. Tons of passes and tons of drama.

I stand with Giacomo:

The problem is that we are reaching the end of human ability to handle the G's How many have surgery for arm pump these days?
We are that point of diminishing returns where no matter how much HP you can generate without electronics, aero and tracks you really cant go much faster.