Fairing and finish

Wind-tunnel development has enabled excellent aerodynamic penetration, allowing the rider to take a perfect racing stance, effortlessly.  Great care has been taken in the design of the air supply ducts so to ensure efficient air-flow through radiator and oil coolers as well as provide ample air delivery to the airbox feeding the powerful Testastretta Evoluzione engine. The fairing belly-pan, tank lower side panels, seat assembly and front fender in carbon fibre are contributing factors to the overall performance of the machine.

In true ‘R’ style, the red bodywork sports white background number plates on the tail section and nose fairing. The front and rear Marchesini wheels are finished in ‘racing gold’, exactly the same as the F08 official factory race bikes and the fairing belly-pan, front fender and side panels are left in a contrasting natural carbon fibre finish. 

Finally, the small red, white and green tricolore graphic, neatly shaped between the twin headlamps in the nose fairing, proudly underlines the Italian design, style and precision race engineering of this motorcycle. 

Instrumentation

Desmosedici-style digital instrumentation is taken from Ducati’s MotoGP World Championship winning GP7 project. This pure racing, minimalist solution has no switches or buttons to compromise its clean lines. Instead, information additional to the default read-out is managed by handlebar-mounted switch gear, allowing the rider to scroll through and select from various menus. The default read-out presents rpm and speed, with the former displayed across the screen in a progressive bar graph. Optionally, the rpm and speed can be displayed in numeric values. The instrument display also doubles as a control panel for the activation of the data acquisition system as well as listing lap times recorded by using the high-beam flash button as a stopwatch. For the 1098 R, fitting of the race kit initiates dialogue between the race kit ECU and the display to activate the DTC (Ducati Traction Control).

Traction control

The DTC is the same system developed and used by Ducati Corse for their world championship winning MotoGP and World Superbike projects and offers a choice of eight profiles developed by professional racers. Each profile has been programmed with a wheel-spin tolerance matched to progressive riding levels of skill and confidence from one to eight. Underlining the fact that this is a professional system intended strictly for track use only by competent riders, profile eight has been developed by the official Ducati MotoGP test rider, Vittoriano Guareschi.

Choose the profile that best suits the track conditions and riding style and, upon activation, front and rear wheel sensors compare speed differential to sense when rear traction is being broken (wheel-spin). Using exactly the same software logic developed and used by Ducati Corse, instant electronic adjustment to the ignition advance or a pattern of ‘spark cuts’ initiates immediate control over power output so as to restore traction at the rear wheel before re-establishing normal power delivery. In this way, DTC provides an incredible advantage during mid-corner acceleration.

Once again Ducati raises the bar for the sport bike category by transferring its MotoGP race technology into production.

Data acquisition

Normally used on race bikes only, the system records numerous channels of data including throttle opening, vehicle speed, engine rpm, engine temperature, distance travelled, laps and lap times.  The system also automatically calculates engine rpm and vehicle speed data so as to also display gear selection as an additional channel of information. At the end of a ride or track session, up to 2mb (approximately 3.5 hours) of data can be downloaded to a PC ready to compare, analyse and get an inside view of the performance of both the rider and the 1098 R.

Data can be analysed in graphic form with options to zoom into detail of specific sections. Dragging a trace along a timeline to reveal individual values of the above listed channels enables the user to analyse performance in the same way that data technicians are able in factory teams.

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