Byrne: I could have won second race.

the airways ducati and er, the airways ducati and er, the airways ducati and er,and err to be honest the airways ducati................
Please, change the record shane.

the airwaVEs ducati and er, the airwaVEs ducati and er, the airwaVEs ducati and er,and err to be honest the airwaVEs ducati................

Please, read the article noise

1098 Ducati what a steaming pile of dog poo. It's an eff'n 1198 factory prepared 100%racing machine, you could not buy one even if you wanted to. When are people going to realise the contest is rigged for Ducati in exactly the same way that WSBK is.

What's the matter J_T .... can't afford one? Boo Hoo!!

Duh, Go and buy an HM Plant Honda - you cant get one of those either!

You can buy similar bikes - the NorthWest200 Ducatis and the Hydrex Hondas, both of those are customer bikes.

mike hunt ... missing the point the Ducati is a machine made specifically by Ducati corse for the purpose of racing end of you can't walk into your local dealer and buy one they don't exist any Honda dealer can sell you a blade and suzuki dealer a GXR and Yamaha etc.. the only outfits I can think of that have been given the luxury of racing machines in SBK they don't sell to the public are Ducati and Foggy's Petropish

jock-turd... Have you ever thought of using some punctuation in your sentences ? Some full stops and commas wouldn't go a miss. I had to read your last post nine times before it made any sense !!!

I've just read 4 or 5 magazine test of 1098Rs for the last couple of months so I know they exist. So why can't you buy a 1098R at a dealer (if they are not all pre-sold)? I just went to the Ducati North American site and they are taking reservations on 1098Rs now. Of course you can't get the Superbike internals but you can buy the 1098. You probably can't get one today but you can get one.

Nitro Nori - Yes I will. From now on I will try my best to make better use of punctuation. Sorry for any distress I may have caused you. I must admit that when on forum's such as these I tend just to type away, all the while, forgetting that some poor unfortunate has to read the pish I'm spouting. I am dreadfully sorry it won't happen again. I think what I may do from now on is type my reply into MS word and do a spell and grammar check then, using the cut and paste function, edit it into the dialog box. That way it would save the readers of the comments I make the trouble of having to reprimand me for my poor use of the English language. I am sorry for any upset caused.

This year I think the format is pretty well balanced between twins and fours.

Honda and Suzuki are the bikes of the moment!

They only work within the rules, would you rather Ducati didn't bother or put in less effort? Superbike racing would not be the same(ie worse)without Ducati pushing the boundries. I'd like to see them put the V4 Desmo in Superbikes, they've sold enough, that would push the game on.

Raw Dawg
You are highlighting the point I am trying to make. The 1098R as raced is in fact 1198. Sooo the barrels, rods, pistons, heads are all entirely different from the road machine. The 1098R as raced is 100% a Ducati Corse race prepared race machine. Now I don't know about this year but last year all the fours had to use standard spec cams and cranks. The point I am attempting to make is SBK racing used to be about racing machines,albeit tuned, available to the general public. Honda know all about beating Ducati with one off race spec bikes they did it first time out with the V twin. They gave up for the same reason that Ducati would have had to.. they are too expensive to race.

Rob w - I think it would be interesting if Ducati did race the V four. I very much doubt they will though. I think it would be too expensive to race in SBK. I could be wrong though maybe they will.

The road going 1098R is 1198cc and has the traction control.
All twins are allowed to raced up to 1200cc. The 1098R is a 1198 machine - everyone knows that. Every Ducati that has raced Superbike has had different internal than the street bike. The reason they went to 1200cc was because the twins had to run in such high state of tuning that they had to do rebuilds after every race. The move to 1198 was so that they won't have to be at such a high state of tune. The trade off was that the 1098R doesn't have the freedom of tuning as past Ducatis. If Ducati didn't make 1098R road bikes with 1198cc and they had the same state of tune that the 999s had than there would be a problem - but it isn't

I may be wrong, but I think the confusion you have is that you think the 1098 (with 1098cc) is the homologation bike for WSBK - it isn't. The 1098R (with the R and 1198cc) is the only bike Ducati has homologated for Superbike.

Jock I don't see them doing it either, much as I would like to see it why bother when the twins are very competitive within the current rule structure. I admire ducati they do things differently

Yes Raw Dawg my point being 99% of those 1098R's are on a race track some where near you.

I suggest you look on Ducatis web site

www.ducati.com/en/bikes/my2008/ModelPage.jhtml?family=Superbike&model=SBK1098R-08

Want to buy a BSB/WSB spec Honda? show me the same page on the Honda Web site