Called the Superquadro Mono, the 659cc motor is claimed to be the highest revving and most powerful road-going single-cylinder ever produced, kicking out a claimed 76.4bhp in standard spec and an impressive 83.4bhp in track-ready form.
It’s also capable of engine speeds previously unimaginable for a non-race mono, revving up to 10,250rpm – courtesy of a desmodromic top end.
Bustaspoke wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 5:04 pm
I wonder who they aim to sell it to?
Singles and motard style bikes are still big in €urope. I'll be very interested to see how much better (if at all) the Ducati motor is than KTM's 690. It might even spur KTM to upgrade their 690 offering.
That'll be a (Du)cat among the KTMs. Be interesting to see dyno measured bhp as they claim 2bhp more than the 690 which as we all know could be paper bhp whereas plenty of dyno'd 690s with 72-73 odd. Also the KTM is at about 8k ish where as Ducati say it revs to 10.2k which is impressive if it doesn't explode.
I love singles and only KTM were really pushing the boat out with them so good that someone else is investing in them.
As for 80bhp there's a bunch of racing 690s been punting that out since when I bought mine back in 2015 so don't find that particularly impressive unless the Ducatis explode less
Ducati do have the magic of Desmodromic valve actuation to keep valves under control at stratospheric revs, but to be honest the power curve on my 690 R plateaus after 7k, so you're actually wasting your time revving it much past that. Change up and use the fat part of the power/torque curves.
The Supermono from 93 was a 550 desmo, which allegedly put out around 75 hp at 10,000 rpm.
[And that was available as a road bike]... EDIT double-checked my memory and whilst... someone I knew had one... I think he must have converted it himself for the road!
Last edited by The Spin Doctor on Thu Oct 26, 2023 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Exciting concept, but the thing that will kill this is the weight.
The original Supermono was a racer weighing about 125kg, but if you strap another 60kg on it like todays road bikes, then it's going to feel like taking a pillion passenger on an RGV250 - i.e. it will completely ruin it.
Making it high end won't make financial sense because this isn't the 90's so there isn't enough people to buy them, so the accountants will make them put budget suspension on it, budget generic parts, and punt it out at a price that still doesn't really make sense to anyone when you can get a KTM much cheaper.
The Spin Doctor wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 9:35 pm
The Supermono from 93 was a 550 desmo, which allegedly put out around 75 hp at 10,000 rpm.
[And that was available as a road bike]... EDIT double-checked my memory and whilst... someone I knew had one... I think he must have converted it himself for the road!
Valves ain't the problem it's the bottom end. The v2 panis rev higher with similar sized valves.
Potter wrote: ↑Fri Oct 27, 2023 4:08 am
Making it high end won't make financial sense because this isn't the 90's so there isn't enough people to buy them, so the accountants will make them put budget suspension on it, budget generic parts, and punt it out at a price that still doesn't really make sense to anyone when you can get a KTM much cheaper.
Unless they follow KTM's lead and make 2 levels of spec; a base model and an 'R' (or probably SP in Ducati-speak) model which is significantly higher-priced.
Potter wrote: ↑Fri Oct 27, 2023 4:08 am
Making it high end won't make financial sense because this isn't the 90's so there isn't enough people to buy them, so the accountants will make them put budget suspension on it, budget generic parts, and punt it out at a price that still doesn't really make sense to anyone when you can get a KTM much cheaper.
Unless they follow KTM's lead and make 2 levels of spec; a base model and an 'R' (or probably SP in Ducati-speak) model which is significantly higher-priced.
I think it's a given that they'll do an SP version, but that will be twice the price of the KTM/GasGas is and I'll be a monkeys uncle if it's twice as light and twice as good.
Sadly I feel like Ducati has lost it's sheen for me, you either pay £50k+ for something special, or you take a fairly run of the mill looking offering that's only as good but twice the price as anything the Japanese have made, ITMS.
