The carbon cleverness behind Ducati’s new Superleggera
New video details the Superleggera’s cutting-edge frame tech
More details have emerged of Ducati’s new V4 Superleggera and they go some way to explaining how they’ve shaved 20kg off the stock machine. Ducati have worked with V4Evo – an American company that specialises in complicated structural carbon fibre components, who have helped them unlock a new manufacturing process. In the third of eight videos gently teasing the new bike (codename Project 1708) before its full unveiling in February, Leonardo Bagnolio, Head of Vehicle Simulation at Ducati, explains the process.
“In Project 1708, we focused a lot on weight reduction and the use of innovative materials. Unconventional materials require extensive research activity both for material characterisation and above all for choosing the right material to be put in the right space.”
To help design the bike, Ducati have worked closely with their racing department, and used tech normally saved for MotoGP bikes, to carry out enhanced modelling and digital stress testing to help engineers strip out any unnecessary weight. “Developing a bike like the 1708 is equal to developing a technological demonstrator,” adds Bagnolio. “But for such a technological demonstrator to also be a production bike and be compliant with all the requirement for type-approval and for durability, entails an enigma we needed to solve.” This attitude is perfectly encapsulated by the new swingarm where Ducati have been able to use unidirectional carbon fibre for the first time, rather than more typical woven sheets of the material.
“Using unidirectional carbon allows us to reach the same stiffness targets with a lower weight,” says Bagnolio. “This technology is commonly used in Formula 1, in aerospace and aeronautic industries. For it to be adapted to production bikes, even limited edition ones, you need to make considerations that are not at all trivial: how to insert unidirectional layers into composite laminate, how to compact them in between the other fabric layers, so how to stabilise their behaviour thanks to the surrounding structure. It is all part of the enigma but in Ducati we love enigmas and challenges.” We expect Ducati to unveil the finished machine next month, when they will likely announce the price and begin to formally accept orders.
‘It lets us reach the same stiffness with less weight’
LEONARDO BAGNOLIO, DUCATI