Sak Art Ducati Hypermono

A few months ago the designer's at Italy's Sak Art released conceptual drawings for a modern interpretation of the wonderful Ducati Supermono of the 1990s'.

This design makes intelligent use of the new Ducati Monster's frame and swingarm. Being a 'hyper' sports model it deserves top-rate equipment. This is provided via a carbon fiber tank and bodywork, Ohlins suspension, Brembo brakes with 305mm rotors and 17" Marchesini wheels.

The engine is configured in the same way as the original Supermono. That is, utilizing an existing Ducati Superbike engine, but instead of the vertical cylinder a counterweight is attached to the vertical con-rod. This provides the natural vibration damping of a 90° v-twin allowing the engine to achieve much higher RPM than possible from a normal single. It also has the advantage of creating an all new engine configuration while reusing most of the existing Superbike engine parts. This was the stroke of brilliance afforded to the original Supermono by, then Ducati chief engineer, Massimo Bordi.

Sak Art produced a series of playfully styled variations of the supermono theme in homage to various Ducati race bikes of the past.

Orange/Black reflects some vintage models of the 70s including the 350 mono.

The version presented above is devoted to a Ducati 175 F3 that won a host races between the '50s and '60s, and honors Francesco Villa who rode to victory in Monza ('58-'59-'60) in this 175 category. His number (16) was the number used in Villa's first victory in 1958.

Finally, the "Desmo Racing" version is a tribute to the 450 Desmo single "king of the mountain" that dominated championships in the early 70s.

Sak Art's ernest hope in producing this concept was to spark 'grass roots' interest in their lovely design in the hopes that someone at Ducati is taking notice and maybee, just maybee put into production the bike they could have given us twenty years ago.

To this day, the only serious supermono sports bike in production is the CR&S VUN. In the mean time, Ducati seem much more interested in entering the market already defined by the CR&S DUU (as witnessed by recent spy shots).

 

Mimicry is flattery I guess...

DUU Modularity

Below is a study drawing for a DUU front wheel option.

The DUU, that goes into production early next year, will be the basis for a series of substantially different variations using a modular component approach.

Below is a study rendering for the seductive cafè racer version of the DUU.

VUN Undercarriage Concepts

The VΨRUS 987 4V uses underslung, side-mounted radiators. This arrangement neatly reduces the visual impact of having side-mounted radiators while also lowering the center of gravity (as shown below).

The VΨRUS 987 4V

The following conceptual drawings show how this arrangement could be utilized on the VUN to achieve the same results (improved visual appearance and lower center of gravity).

Note: These drawings also use the VUN front fairing concept from an earlier Blog article.

Dream Ducatis

This is a conceptual Ducati Supermono 599 by Australian designer Dan Anderson. It uses a single-cylinder, 4-valve, water-cooled Ducati engine a-la Ducati Supermono.

This gives you a good idea of the kind of beautiful, superlight, sporting single that Ducati 'could' be making. Unfortunately, they chose instead, to design the 'Beaked Avenger' (aka Multistrada 1200), and are rumored to be working on a new cruiser.

VUN Mini Fairing

One of the areas where the VUN suffers compared with other sports bikes is streamlining. The standard VUN is basically a naked bike with sports handling in the café racer style.

Lack of streamlining affects the VUN in three critical areas:

• Top speed,
• Fuel economy,
• High speed comfort.

A standard VUN is easily capable of 180 km/h. This is quite a reasonable speed (illegal in most places), but is still pretty slow when compared to most other sports bikes. Going out for a Sunday run, your friends will be amazed at the VUN's speed around a tight road, but once you hit a few long straights you will be left in their dust.

My VUN is fitted with clip-ons which allows me to ride in a lower, more stream-lined position. It has also been tuned to provide a bit more power. Lying flat on the tank on a flat road I have managed to hit 200 km/h but, above that, wind resistance wins the battle.

Sustained speeds of more than 170 km/h on the VUN is impractical and uncomfortable. What the VUN really needs then, to keep up with bigger bikes on the straights, is streamlining. But how to make a streamlined VUN without spoiling that beautiful, minimalist silhouette?

Below are presented three conceptual drawings of a VUN front fairing design. I would like to know your opinions: (a),(b),(c), or (d) on which option you like best (click each image to enlarge).

Option (a) - Bezzi Design #1

Italian motorcycle designer Oberdan Bezzi was kind enough to create this rendering of a VUN mini-fairing design.

Here Bezzi presents a minimal front fairing which utilizes the standard headlight and bolts directly to the existing carbon fiber instrument support. The bottom half of the fairing flares outward to wrap the leading edge of the side mounted radiators.

Option (b) - Bezzi Design #2

In this image, Bezzi has removed the radiator cowlings to keep the side profile as small as possible. The lower fairing has a straight line of attack which then curves upwards to meet the lower line of the fuel tank.

Option (c) - Modified Bezzi Design

I modified the bottom profile of Bezzi's #2 design to provide a more flowing curve starting from the front of the fairing and blending into the fuel tank. The change is hard to see here, but click on the image for a larger view and you will notice the difference.

This image also adds a lower oil reservoir cover for some visual balance. The oil reservoir cover is already available from CR&S as a standard option.

Option (d) - Standard Fairing

The standard VUN fairing is shown here to provide a reference point for comparison.

Bezzi Imagines the Vòtt

Another fanciful CR&S design penned by Italian motorcycle designer Oberdan Bezzi.

This time it is the "Vòtt", meaning "eight" in Milanese dialect. As you can probably guess, the engine in this concept is a V8. The Vòtt steps in the opposite direction to the simple, single-cylinder VUN. Nevertheless it is a beautiful rendering worth adding to the catalogue of dreams.

Bezzi's DUU Vision

Back in June, 2006 Italian motorcycle designer, Oberdan Bezzi, penned this vision for a CR&S DUU (two).

Click to enlarge

The concept uses a lightweight 650 twin cylinder engine, titanium tubular frame, and (as you would expect) top quality suspension, brakes and wheels etc, for a target weight of about 130 KG. Nice!

For more beautiful two-wheeled concepts check out Bezzi's Motosketches Blog.

To see the 'real' DUU concept from CR&S click here. The 'real' CR&S DUU will be unveiled to the public at the Milan International Motorcycle show (EICMA) in November.