We haven’t seen much in the way of spy shots lately, but that changed yesterday, with secret snaps of projects from Ducati and Suzuki.
The Ducati shots come via Il Ducatista; they’re claiming their shot proves Ducati is working on a water-cooled version of the Hypermotard hooligan bike, powered by their 848 motor. Of course, it remains to be seen whether they’re right or not, but the photo is convincing.
If they’re correct, the next question is, what happens to the 796 and 1200 Hypermotards, and the 1200 Multistrada? Will they all be replaced by bikes with the 848 engine?
It’s unlikely the Multistrada 1200 will disappear, as it shares a motor with the highly successful Diavel, but what about Ducati’s new Streetfighter 848? Some people would think it redundant to have a supermotard and a streetfighter both in the lineup with the same powerplant.
The other spy shots to come out this week are from Suzuki’s MotoGP project. Suzuki pulled out of the roadracing series this year, mainly due to financial issues – costs for MotoGP teams are skyrocketing.
However, Suzuki assured the world they’d return in 2014 with a new machine, and they seem to be good as their word so far, with Cycle World’s photos of them test-riding their prototype MotoGP machine.
The bike seems to be powered by an inline-four engine, but employing a different firing order. Commenters are guessing that’s due to a cross-plane crank, similar to Yamaha’s R1.
They should be putting the 796 motor in a MTS chassis with standard suspension and 19″ front wheel and sell it for $12,000. People would be lined up.