2011 Ducati Streetfighter | Preview

2011 Streetfighter

Ducati coins the 2011 Streetfighter as a motorcycle with a “Soul of a Superbike – Attitude of a fighter.” The Italian bike, also released in an upgraded “S” version, features a 155-hp Desmodromic L-Twin 1098 motor, but with a body stripped to the bare essentials.

New for 2011, the Streetfighter arrives with a new artic-white color scheme, and the radiator covers arrive in a subtle black finish. And as alwasy, the true Ducati spirit is captured in the Streetfighter by an incredibly powerful Desmodromic L-Twin 1098 “Testastretta Evoluzione” engine with a wide spread of power thanks to 85 lb-ft (11.7kgm) of torque.

Debuting in 2007, the 1098 went on to form the basis of a motor that powered Ducati to Superstock and Superbike World titles that left the competition stunned. Now, its massive bore, short stroke and incredible torque powers Ducati’s most extreme naked and the results are equally as stunning.

The Streetfighter’s awesome 1098 power house fears nothing of the naked sports competition. The L-Twin, Testastretta Evoluzione engine gives both the best power-to-weight and the best torque-to-weight ratios in its class.

Surface features include enhanced detailing on the cam belt covers and the magnesium dry clutch cover as well as a new black finish for the main outer casings and carbon-grey finish for the crankcases, which employ the same weight-saving technology used for the 1198.

The vacuum die-cast process used to make the crankcases ensures consistent and precise wall thickness and increased strength from absolute material purity while reducing weight considerably.

Streetfighter Equals Power

Using the Testastretta narrow valve angle, super-straight intake ducts and specially shaped combustion chambers, the Desmodromic motor continues to breathe through MotoGP-derived elliptical throttle bodies and four large diameter valves per cylinder to achieve its incredible spread of torque.

A high performance six-speed box and racing-style dry clutch makes sure the transmission package delivers 155hp as efficiently as possible.

The Streetfighter’s power house is protected by twin coolant radiators, carefully curved in pure naked style for optimum performance and stunning with visual effect. The upper radiator is assisted by lightweight, high flow electric fan assemblies while the lower sits in the front of the belly pan, which also houses a highly efficient oil heat exchanger.

Having more experience and success with twin-cylinder high performance engines than any other manufacturer, the air-cooled L-Twin remains central to Ducati’s philosophy of motorcycling.

This experience, plus constant investment in quality by design, advanced materials and engineering techniques, has enabled a distance between service intervals of 7,500 miles, making Ducati ownership even more enjoyable than ever.

The massive Streetfighter 2-1-2 exhaust system is made from weight-saving 1mm thick steel and flows from 58mm to 63.5mm diameter pipes. The system uses two lambda probes to ensure precise fuel mapping for optimum performance and an electronic valve in the mid-section to achieve a wide spread of power.

The cannon-style, vertically stacked mufflers sport the same finishes as the Superbike family: Brushed steel for the Streetfighter.

Streetfighter: Light Chassis

At a class-leading 373 lbs. dry weight for the Streetfighter, the motorcycle came to the fight with the highest power-to-weight ratio in their class. The purpose-built Trellis frame, which uses 25.6° of rake compared with the Superbike’s 24.5°, ensures a well-planted front-end, while a 35mm longer single-sided swingarm at the rear ensures the Streetfighter’s acceleration need never be compromised.

The longer, beautifully created aluminium swingarm follows the same dual construction detail as the Superbike models and is anodised finished in black.

The lower triple-clamp also gets more muscle development. Formed in a strength-enhancing gull-wing shape for even more rigidity, it maintains a vice-like grip on the fork legs, giving a precise and solid feeling through the bars on fast direction changes.

The revised rake, longer wheelbase and cross-mounted steering damper ensure stability even under the extreme acceleration of Ducati’s incredible L-Twin torque.

Streetfighter: Armed with the Best Suspension

The Streetfighter is armed with fully adjustable 43mm Showa forks up front and a fully adjustable Showa monoshock at the rear, giving the bike high performance agility and the rider absolute ‘feel’ and confidence from sure-footed handling.

The forks feature a natural chrome slider finish and radial mounts for the brake calipers and are fully adjustable in spring preload as well as compression and rebound damping. On the rear, the single Showa unit operates through a progressive linkage and is also fully adjustable in spring preload and damping, both in compression and rebound.

Important attention to performance detail is inherited from its Superbike bloodline with rear ride-height adjusters that allow fine correction after setting personalized spring preload.

Streetfighter: Lightweight Wheels

The 10-spoke wheels in lightweight aluminum keep the overall motorcycle weight down and maintain an all- important control on unsprung weight. This weight is made up of all the components between the suspension and the road and consists of wheels, tires, brake discs and calipers etc, but when rotating at high speed, it is the wheels that store most of the kinetic energy and offer the most resistance when steering, accelerating or braking.

Their weight saving, therefore, is a serious contribution to both the handling and the performance of the bike and the Streefighter pulls out all the stops to be the best.

Streetfighter: Powerful Brakes

The Streetfighter uses Brembo’s powerful Monobloc caliper race technology. Machined from a single piece of alloy, the calipers achieve higher rigidity and resistance to distortion during extreme braking.

The result not only delivers planet-stopping brake power, but also gives an enhanced and precise ‘feel’ at the brake lever. The twin Monobloc calipers each have four 34mm pistons that grip huge 330mm discs to achieve their spectacular performance. The weight of the discs has been kept to a minimum by using racing-style narrow braking surfaces.

Streetfighter: Evil Face and Naked Looks

The aggressive looking headlight is the ‘face’ of the Streetfighter and it leaves little doubt as to its character. While the main lighting source and multi-reflector design provides powerful illumination to cut through the night, its two evil eye strips of LED positioning lights give a striking and unmistakable identity to the bike.

Keeping design matters clean and stylish, the directional indicators remain unobtrusive with clear lenses and colored bulbs, while the rear light is integral to the shape of the tailpiece, providing unobscured illumination while maintaining the smooth and elegant look to the high and sharp rear-end.

More attention to detail than ever before went into creating the Ducati Streetfighter. Repositioning many of the components usually hidden by bodywork and continuing to keep them out of sight was a major challenge for the design and engineering teams, but they’ve pulled it off with impressive results. Add to this details such as the perfectly formed passenger seat cover, a rear hugger fitted as standard equipment and the pre-minimal license plate holder, and it’s plain to see that Ducati have gone that extra step to achieve the highest level of finish.

Streetfighter: Information is power

Availabe for the Streetfighter is the Ducati Data Analyzer (DDA), which is standard equipment on the Streetfighter S model.

The DDA complete with PC software, a USB-ready data retrieval card and instructions – evaluates the performances of the Streetfighter and its rider, and provides a graphic presentation of data from various channels of information.

Normally only available on race bikes, DDA records numerous channels of data including throttle opening, vehicle speed, engine rpm, engine temperature, distance traveled, laps and lap times.

The system also automatically calculates engine rpm and vehicle speed data, enabling gear selection as an extra channel of information. A channel of data is also dedicated to recording the DTC index, which can then be viewed as a graphic trace that shows the amount of DTC interaction during wheel-spin.

At the end of a ride or track session, 4mb of data can be downloaded to a PC ready to compare, analyze and get an inside view on the performance of the rider and Streetfighter.

Data can be analyzed in graphic form with options to zoom into detail of specific sections. Dragging a trace along a timeline to reveal individual values of the above-listed channels enables the user to analyze performance in the same way that data technicians can in factory teams.

2011 Ducati Streetfighter Colors:

• Red or Arctic White, set against a black trellis frame and grey 10-spoke wheels

2011 Ducati Streetfighter Price:

• USA MSRP: $14,995
• Canadian MSRP: $17,495CDN
• Mexican MSRP: $18,995 (EVA included)