Filippo Preziosi explains technical aspects of the GP12 Ducati Team

The second day of the Wrooom Press Ski Meeting at Madonna di Campiglio saw Filippo Preziosi (Ducati Corse General Manager) inform the international press regarding the technical aspects of the Desmosedici GP12 that Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will ride in the upcoming test at Sepang (31 January - 2 February).

"As is the case every year, it's a pleasure to kick off our season in such a nice setting as Madonna di Campiglio," Preziosi began before providing a brief summary of the work schedule that led to the assembly of the GP12, currently taking place in Borgo Panigale. "Over the recent months, we followed an intensive, consistent test program, which culminated with the two-day post-race test in Valencia. By analyzing the data-acquisition information, the riders' comments and the setup sheets, we defined the target values for the new frame geometry. Now, with Jeremy (Burgess), Juan (Martinez) and our riders, we'll work at the track to define the bike's base setup so that we can then proceed with the customary development work that's typically done during winter testing, with the goal of starting a trend of improvement in terms of competitiveness. Normally, it takes two years to complete the process from the calculation stage, to design, to component construction, to test-bench ‘shakedown,' to track testing, to racing. By compressing this process down to a span of just months, we've accepted a challenge that we know will be very difficult, but we believe it's possible. All this is thanks to the extraordinary group that includes Valentino and Nicky, who last year agreed to a number of tests that often affected their performance, as well as our team, our designers and our sponsors-in particular the Title Sponsor, a partner that has always been steadfastly at our side. Ducati is a company that has already faced significant challenges in the past, and I'm proud to be a part of it."

Tomorrow, Wrooom will be dedicated to the Ferrari drivers, so Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will have the chance to enjoy Madonna di Campiglio before the final day, featuring the kart and auto exhibition with the riders and drivers on the town's frozen lake.

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Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden ready to return to action with the Ducati GP12

The Ducati Team riders were the stars of the first day of Wrooom 2012 at Madonna di Campiglio, with Nicky Hayden first to "take to the track" and answer questions from the international press in attendance. The American, who is recovering well enough from his injured left scapula that he has already removed his sling, then passed the baton to a pleased Valentino Rossi, who is motivated to get back in the saddle and start winter testing in just over two weeks.

"I'm much better," confirmed Nicky Hayden, "so I've been able to remove the sling right on schedule. Here at Madonna di Campiglio, I'm starting to do a little training on a stationary bicycle under the supervision of the team physiotherapist, with the goal of being ready for the Sepang test (31 January - 2 February) as strong as possible. I can't wait to ride the GP12, because it will be my first time ever. I wasn't able to try it in the post-race test at Valencia, and I definitely won't miss the next chance. I never made any secret that I prefer the new displacement to the 800s, although I think things will be much different than in 2006, beginning with the tyres, and the electronics have also come a long way. We'll have more power, and we'll have to find the right balance between controlling it while still taking as much advantage of it as we can. I've stayed in contact with Filippo (Preziosi) and the guys in the Ducati Corse department over the winter, and I know they've worked really hard. We'll have a lot of things to try at Sepang. I know it won't be easy, but I'm also confident that we can start to reduce the gap between now and the first race at Qatar. I believe in Ducati, this project and Filippo, and I want to get back on my Ducati as soon as possible."

"We're starting with a different spirit," Valentino Rossi began with a smile. "When I came to Wrooom, I was still healing from my shoulder operation, and after that, the season didn't go at all like we'd hoped. For this year, Filippo (Preziosi) designed a different bike, and they've made a big effort at Ducati to have it in time for the start of the winter tests. I visited the factory and saw it on a computer, and it's beautiful. We're not expecting it to be immediately perfect at Sepang, but rather to understand if we've worked in the proper direction. We're very realistic, and our goal is to reduce the gap to our competition, step by step, working in a logical way, and from there to be able to refine the details in order to be competitive and to try and win. One of the most important things for going fast is to make the tyres work as they're able to, so together with Filippo, we've tried to come up with a bike that will let them perform as well as possible. We'll see if we've managed it. I like working with Ducati. I feel good here because there's a nice atmosphere and we all have faith."

Wrooom continues tomorrow with the press conference for Filippo Preziosi, Ducati Corse General Manager, who will go into detail on the bike's development and the technical program.

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BMW answers MCN theft campaign

BMW has become the first manufacturer to security mark all new bikes in response to an MCN campaign.
The firm will mark every bike it sells with a unique hidden code on dozens of individual parts linking them to the owner.

The system deters thieves by making it more difficult for them to sell the bike or parts without getting caught. A discreet sticker on each machine warns them of the markings, which are almost invisible to the naked eye but can be read by police under UV light.

MCN has been campaigning for manufacturers to adopt security marks as standard equipment.
Our Mark Our Bikes campaign has already led a top bike insurer to give away a security marking pack with every policy.

A BMW spokesman said: "From January 1, all BMW models will be fitted with Datatag's industry-leading system to deter theft, free of charge. The system enables the identification of stolen and unclaimed motorcycles and parts, thereby assisting the police in prosecuting motorcycle thieves and making BMW motorcycles less attractive to criminals as a result."

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Battle of the twins: Harley Switchback vs. Victory Cross Roads Tour

These two similar-looking machines are the latest tourers from Harley Davidson and Victory. Fresh in from the States, the 2012 £13,400 Harley Davidson Switchback and £14,995 Victory Cross Roads Tour have been crafted to transport you from A to B in laid-back, V-twin comfort.

These are two similar takes on the ‘bagger’ – cool customs with hard panniers or ‘bags’.  Although similar-looking and painted in an almost identical shade of metallic red, there are plenty of differences. The Victory is physically bigger, so much so, it actually makes the Harley look dainty by comparison – which is some trick. The Cross Roads Tour’s magnificent, swooping rear end and faired-in panniers give a huge road presence looking like a cross between a ’70s Cadillac and a fairground ride. In fact its back-end is so big it makes even the largest of derrieres look small sitting on it, so the Victory is a bike to make you look thin.

What do you get for your buck?
Both have big, air-cooled, fuel-injected, 1700cc, V-twin engines, comfy seats, tall screens, good-sized panniers, footboards, fuss-free belt drive and ABS. The Victory goes one-step further by giving you cruise control as standard.

But the Harley has a party trick: Its screen is fitted with a quick-release system, so with the panniers removed too, you can turn your Switchback from long-distance tourer to sleek, less clumsy, low-speed cruiser in less than a minute.

Hard to handle?
At low speed, yes. These are big beasts. Harley claims a wet, ready-to-ride weight of 330kg for the Switchback, but the Victory is heavier still, weighing 338kg dry – or around the same as TWO Suzuki GSX-R600s.

As a result, they’re not easy to paddle around at walking pace, especially backwards, but the lighter Harley is marginally easier.

As you reach normal road speeds the Harley and Victory are far easier to handle. The Harley’s new cartridge-style forks and twin rear shocks give the Switchback decent poise in the corners, far better than Harleys of old. Remove the Harley’s screen and it feels even sportier and more nimble.

The Victory is similarly capable on normal roads. It’s a little more agile, sporty and the brakes are a fraction better, too, but it has to bow down to the Harley on A and B roads as it’s bigger and heavier. On the motorways it’s a different story…

Touring
When you’re touring, the Victory’s extra weight helps flatten out the bumps and its size keeps you more cossetted than the Harley. Add in the Cross Roads Tour’s smooth six-speed gearbox and engine and you’ve got a supremely relaxing ride. It’s fine all the way until you creep past 70mph and then the tall, barn-door screen creates an extreme amount of buffeting. Not such a problem in America where you get shot for doing over 55mph, but not so good keeping up with fast lane traffic here.

Although the Harley isn’t quite as accomplished on the motorways, there’s not much in it - you have to jump from bike to bike and back again to really figure out the difference.

Verdict
There’s really not a lot to choose between these two bikes and they ride as similar as they look. They’re both smooth at motorway speeds and have punchy acceleration. They enjoy the safety of ABS, have decent luggage-carrying capacity, but suffer buffeting from their tall screens at motorway screens and aren’t brilliantly-equipped.

The Victory is definitely the smoother, most modern-looking and the one to pick if you’re going to spend lots of time touring.

But it’s the Harley that just snatches the win here. It’s lighter and easier to handle at parking speeds and on the twisty roads. It’s comfortable, smooth and the quick-release screen is a nice touch, letting you enjoy a less cumbersome feeling Harley around town and to let the wind in your hair in warm weather.
Best of all, the Harley is £1496 cheaper, and that clinches the deal.

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How Tiny MV Agusta Threw Down a Challenge to Big Boys

MV claim their new F3 will take the supersport class by storm, thanks to its high power, light weight and sophisticated electronics. But how can a company with a fraction of the staff and investment of the major players manage to build a class-leading bike for competitive money?

MCN’s visit to MV’s Italian factory reinforced just what an achievement this would be – the picture, left, shows ALL the people involved in the project. By comparison, Triumph has 200 people just working in R&D – 10 times as many as MV – never mind the other 430 in production, sales and marketing.

To find out how MV produced the F3, MCN went inside the company’s R&D test facility, the design house in San Marino and the engine department.

“The gravity-cast crankcase is the biggest innovation”
Gianluca Negri sketched out the first version in his spare time back in 2006, so when the late Claudio Castiglioni told Negri he needed a new three-cylinder engine, an initial version was already underway. It then took another four iterations of the basic layout to get to the production version with 132bhp.
Incredibly there are just four people who have worked on the actual design of this engine from the start of the project.

Negri said: “The first element of the design was the easiest part. Getting the engine ready for production was the hardest; that and getting the gravity-cast design of the lower crankcase to work.

“In fact the crankcase has been the most difficult part of the design; that and the overall size of the engine has created some big challenges. The dimensions, weight and strength needed from the crankcase has been a tough balance to get right. It’s just not possible to get that balance from die-casting as it cannot get the depth of the casting that is possible with gravity casting; you wouldn’t be able to extract the stamp afterwards.”
The original design rules laid down by Castiglioni stated the engine had to be the most compact in class and Negri is very proud the finished production version is just 3.5mm wider than the first version despite having to move the generator from the back of the engine to the left side to keep production costs down.

Negri added: “I think the Triumph engine is very well designed; very simple. I think our engine is better in every way though.”

“The hardest element was making everything so tightly designed.”
The F3 was the last bike the late Claudio Castiglioni saw in finished form before his death, and he played a big role in making sure it met the strict criteria laid down at the start of the project in terms of styling. British designer Adrian Morton worked on the bike’s design almost completely on his own but it was the exacting demands of Castiglioni’s brief that gave him the biggest headaches during the development.

Morton explained: “Mr Castiglioni spent a lot of time working with us; probably more than any other MV because Massimo Tamburini (designer of the Ducati 916 and original MV Agusta F4) had left the company and he never liked being watched while he worked. Space was the biggest issue and there are some incredibly tight clearances between fairing panels and the frame and engine; some as low as 3mm.
If you look at a Honda all of the clearance will be around 20mm but that’s why a Honda looks like it does and an MV looks different.”

Morton spent five months carefully crafting the full-size clay model of the F3 at the design headquarters of the firm called Centro Research Castiglioni (CRC). He said: “Designers always want to be a bit wacky but Mr Castiglioni was very clear about what he wanted the bike to look like and he gave a very strong direction before we even got started.”

“The F3 has completed 250,000km of testing.”
MV’s test team has been busy over the past three years on both the road and the track as it prepared the F3 for production with a team of three test riders, four mechanics and the boss. A new development for the F3 was getting a wide selection of employees to ride the bike and give feedback as it developed.

Aristide Cremonese is the head of the test team. He said: “Our work starts with building of the very first prototype bikes and progresses all of the way through to production while carrying out all of the testing needed. The F3 has covered around 250,000km (156,000 miles) in total through all of the different versions but that doesn’t take into account the engine dyno testing.

“We then build a second series of bikes to match the development prototype which is followed by the second prototype stage which uses not hand-built parts but those supplied by outside suppliers. By this stage the bike will have covered around 100,000km on road and track. Once we get past this stage, in the production side of the factory, we build what are called pre-series bikes which keep on testing.”

Even once the bike has been signed off, the test team’s work is not done as they keep on riding bikes to work on the fine tuning of maintenance schedules.

“Getting the ride-by-wire throttle to work perfectly was the toughest thing.”
The F3 has the most comprehensive set of electronics ever seen on a supersport bike, with all of the work done by just three permanent MV Agusta staff and technicians from Eldor, the ECU design company.
Traction control can be fine-tuned through eight levels of intervention, the throttle is fully electronic ride-by-wire with four different riding maps available too; Rain, Sport, Normal and Custom. All of these can be tweaked and adjusted within each map according to the rider’s preference.

Mauro Marelli has been at the helm and explained the toughest element to get right was the part throttle reponse of the F3. He said: “The ride-by-wire (RbW) system was a huge amount of work; particularly the way the throttle works with small inputs. Getting this right was tough and we used lots of riders to help us with that; not just test riders.

“There is still work to be done on this; maybe the last 0.25% of that throttle response but it’s also something that can be worked on into the future. If there are any improvements then we can send those to dealers and they can update the software on the bikes during a service.

“Our aim was to make the bike as easy as possible to ride; fast or slowly. The traction control works very well at achieving this as well.”

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