Cycle News

Cycle News 2013 Issue 37 September 17

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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P24 IN THE WIND DUCATI SET FOR ALL NEW BIKE Bernhard Gobmeier has confirmed that Ducati will have an allnew MotoGP bike for the 2014 season. D ucati will have an all-new bike next year, after yet another year of disappointment with the evolutionary version of the existing Desmosedici. But the hoped-for "big step" will not be ready for the Valencia tests in Spain at the end of the season, with the target being the first tests of 2014. This was confirmed by race department head Bernard Gobmeier in an exclusive interview at Misano. "We are certainly redesigning the complete bike," he said. "We are looking at every angle, the data, the information we have gained this season. "For Valencia tests we will have let's say a step in between, still part of the development. So we will have singular solutions. How we are going to fit it together after the Valencia tests, we are still planning about this. It will not be the final solution," he added. Gobmeier, who took over from the departed Desmosedici designer Filippo Preziosi, ruled out a return to the carbon-fiber mini-chassis concept, saying: "We know now much more about the stiffness parameters and the stiffness influence on the behavior of the bike. With the carbon-fiber chassis we made a big, big step from the previous chassis, and one thing we could see was that even a guy like Casey Stoner, who was capable of managing the bike, even he had some problems with it – mainly because of a lack of feeling – and that is always the danger." Nicky Hayden said at Indianapolis that in his one test of the carbon chassis he had been significantly quicker, and wondered why it was ever replaced. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE ogy. At the moment the seamless shift has never "There are many sportsbikes in production with been on a road bike, but in 10 or 15 years, we don't electronic suspension that is not allowed here in know." MotoGP. The rules should be linked to production, HRC's Livio Suppo brought up another point but it is a difficult question." where regulations separate racing and road bikes. Michael Scott "When you don't feel what the bike is doing, you might be faster on one or two or three laps, because the chassis was very precise when you are changing direction. So certain aspects are good," said Gobmeier. "But on the other side the feeling, especially the feeling for the front, which was always criticized by every rider in the past, we have to attack with different technical measures. We are in a good way of addressing this. I don't say we are there, but we have some progress." Michael Scott SPIES OUT FOR THE YEAR L uckless Ben Spies will not be back to MotoGP racing this year, with his latest shoulder injury ruling him out after a first Ducati season in which he has contested only two races. He withdrew after the second to allow his right shoulder time to recover fully after surgery in the winter, after one abortive return attempt at Mugello; then came back fully recovered at Indianapolis - only to crash again and injure the other shoulder. continued on page 27

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