Italian Race Bikes

Veloce come un razzo!
(It means “goes like stink!” well, literally it means, “as fast as a rocket”)
Italian Street & Race Bikes

Text & Photos © AdPix.Biz
Location & motorcycles: Platinum Imports
Model: Stephanie S

In several periods throughout world history, from the “Pax Romana” at the time of Christ, to the Renaissance Period in DaVinci’s day, Italians led the world in style. Italian style influenced architecture, fashion, food, wine, transportation, and even political systems. Italian style seems to be increasing again. Is it merely a short trend, or something more permanent?

Some commentators describe it as a “New Italian Renaissance.” Maybe it started with fashion in the 1950’s, or maybe it was with cars, perhaps even the Ferrari – Lamborghini rivalry of the day. Maybe it began with Italian race bikes from before World War II. That industry had the luxury of being spared most of the ravages of the war, since motorcycle manufacturing was not seen as much of a threat, and motorcycles were heavily used by average citizens to keep the economy going. When the war was over, motorcycle companies were already in production and Italian ones were quickly in demand.

For some reason an Italian anything is so much sexier than the same thing by anyone else. How do they do it? Italians say it is because they take pride in one common feature of their lifestyle – a relaxed attention to detail. There must be more to it than that. No one can say the German creators of a Mercedes or the Japanese creators of the Acura, for example, do not pay attention to detail. That is their target, and they hit it perfectly. Yet somehow a Maserati Quattroporte, even with its alleged strange shifting, or an early Ferrari with its awkward seat and steering wheel position, holds more exotic appeal than an Acura NSX, which has no faults.

What Italians mean by attention to detail is that they focus on the simple things in life. They drink lots of coffee, but not because of the caffeine, like Hollywood types, but because they so enjoy their coffee breaks, which to Italians are frequent social hours. These are not drive-up Starbucks, but rather neighborhood bars where they stop to enjoy a great cappuccino, by itself, and talk with friends. Coffee is an after dinner drink, like a desert – not a during dinner drink like here in the US.

Speaking of food, another clue to the draw of Italian goods is that, despite the wide variety of their cooking, divided by their geographic areas, they have one common characteristic – they strive for a simple collection of fresh ingredients, all carefully balanced. They love balance and they make time to get the balance right.

Consequently, the passion in Italian goods comes from their affinity for relationships. They spend extra time on the little chrome door openers, or exhaust supports. And not just so they are perfectly functional, like the Germans and Japanese, but sometimes even at the expense of functionality, a characteristic that can make them even more endearing. They go the next step and make them little pieces of art– something to admire at the coffee bar. It’s much more difficult to do this than to just add bling. It takes the kind of time Italians proudly invest in projects, even if it is just coffee drinking.

We Americans, however, just want to get our coffee to go. American cars have just enough design in them to sell this season.

Whether it’s a trend or a full-fledged Renaissance, sit back with a cup of cappuccino, turn off that “Smart Phone” data assistant, and enjoy the beauty of Italian Sweet Life, illustrated here with three exemplary Italian sport bikes, and Stephanie Stover.

Ducati. People who know nothing of motorcycles know Ducati – it means serious racing. Ducati earned that reputation with 11 World Superbike Championships since the series started in 1988; the most recent was 2004 with the Ducati 999.

This Ducati, the hand-built F1, is considered the last “true” Ducati, before they got soft. The Ducati F1 significantly solidified Ducati’s reputation as a lean, mean, race bike for the street, with zero extra fat.

Ducati apparently knew that they were creating a reputation with this F1. It sets the standard for Italian sport bikes.

The belt-driven V-twin Pantah engine in Ducati’s F1 was designed for long-distance, such as the LeMans 24 hours enduro race. At 60 hp, it was built for reliable endurance instead of horsepower. Stretched to 749cc from an original 499cc, the over-square displacement shape allowed much higher revving. They added simple improvements, like an hydraulic clutch, to make it solid – not superfluous toys.

It did, however, use the famous Ducati desmodromo – the valves were forced back mechanically, rather than using valve springs like most every other motor on the planet. This makes for a much more complex motor, but allows for higher revving since there are no springs to allow the valves to “float.”

Like the factory race bikes, the engine was a stressed member of the chassis, and the Ducati F1 chassis was really the key to the bike. They knew the motor had less umph than the Japanese competitors, some of which were by then producing 90 hp or more. But its frontal area was more narrow, and it was slick with streamlining, allowing a 125 mph top speed, just like its more powerful competitors.

Even better, and this is what makes Ducati so revered, and what makes the Ducati F1 such an example of why Ducati is so revered, the Ducati F1 may be the most agile bike anyone could ever pilot. No bike, not the 3-cylinder BMW, not the Jap bikes, nothing was quicker, and all due to the F1’s exquisite balance.

Ducati was also somehow able to combine the suspension needed for tactile feel, with softness that allows for comfortable riding on public roads without jarring. There’s that wonderful Italian balance.

The only weakness of the standard F1 was some horsepower grunt. Ducati knew what it was doing and then quickly offered three special edition F1’s. This one shown is the Montjuich version, with special features such as a “hot rod” motor with higher-compression pistons and less restrictive exhaust, hotter camshafts, and costing about 25% more than the already-exclusive standard F1. These were quite close to the factory racing bikes, some were even delivered on slicks and without lights and turn signals.

Bimota (combining the names of the partners Bianchi, Morri, and Tamburini) is considered one of the world’s most exclusive motorbikes. It was started in 1970 by Massimo Tamburini, a sport bike racer, who set about designing the first revolutionary Bimotas while recovering from three broken ribs he sustained crashing his Honda 750.

The Bimota breakthrough was its tubular steel frame which reduced the weight and lowered the center of gravity, revolutionizing racing bikes. By 1977, Bimota was producing nothing but exclusive high-performance bikes. They use engines from others, Ducati, BMW, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Honda. They are able to command such high prices because they do such a good job of maximizing the performance potential of proven motors.

In that sense, making an analogy for car buffs, the Bimota is akin to the Pagani, Spyker or Koeniggsegg – all are “tuners” with someone else’s motor (BMW or Mercedes-Benz), yet able to command a multiple in price simply due to their exquisite execution, and no-limit performance.

Clutch, shifting, engine management, all seamlessly integrated electronically and massaged with a fine balance like Italian wallets and shoes. It just all fits so well.

The Bimota DB1/SR (curiously marked RS) used the Ducati Pantah 750 2-cylinder desmodromo with Montjuich power modifications putting it around 80 hp at 9,200 rpm. It had a 5-speed gearbox and multi-plate dry clutch.

Exclusive and exotic materials were used, with a chrome space-frame, allowing for even less weight and better balance, than even the Ducati F1. Its performance matched that of the larger 4-cylinder sport bikes, and could hit 145 mph. Only 153 were built.

Bimota SB8R C It surprises some to know that Ducati’s F1 was the last of their “classic balance” bikes, only to discover that the Bimota was an even hotter version of the Ducati F1, and then to learn that the Bimota SB8RC, shown here, makes Ducati look like a “mere” Ferrari, compared to this SB8R C, which is like the Ferrari FXX.

The “C” means “Corse” or “Race” in Italian. This bike is kin to the Suzuki-powered SB6R that went 202 mph at a timed event for the Eastern Timing Association.

“Kondo,” The artist responsible for this masterpiece, loves titanium. Even the fasteners, about 300 of them, are all titanium. The titanium billet exhaust itself is $4,500.

Notice there is no rear subframe? That is because the gorgeous carbon-fiber seat is actually load-bearing. The sculpted exhaust tubing that tunnels up and out under the seat, is suspended by the seat!

The bike is loaded with Super-bike components, such as composite aluminum and carbon-fiber frame, a full-race Öhlins suspension, and racing Brembo brakes. It weighs only 391 pounds.

With a 12.5:1 compression Cosworth pistons, special fuel injection, and a race-kit gear box, plus a whole bunch of that trick air-flow massaging that comes from the inner sanctum of race engineers, this bike makes 130 horsepower at the rear wheels. That computes to about three pounds per horsepower. (The 2000 Porsche Turbo was 8.19 lbs/hp; the 1999 Dodge Viper was 7.51 lbs/hp)

This bike won the Battle of the Twins race for street bikes between the Superbike races in Japan last year. During the race it regularly hit 170mph.

So that helps explain the lure of Italian sport bikes, with bonded aluminum, structural carbon fiber, titanium, death-defying top speeds, 3 lbs/hp, an aural feast, and extreme exclusivity, all in a tasty balance of Italian passion.