Ducati CEO confirms 1198 replacement for 2012

Ducati’s new 1198-replacing superbike will be ready in 2012, Ducati boss Gabriele del Torchio has confirmed.

A relaxed del Torchio let the info slip in an interview with an Italian journalist in which he also spoke casually about the fait accompli that is next season’s MotoGP dream team of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden.

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Yet more photos of the forthcoming sports cruiser (which you can see in complete, undisguised form in this week’s MCN) surfaced at the same time, though they don’t add to the sum of our knowledge of the 150+bhp / sub-200kg musclebike.

Last year MCN revealed the plans for a MotoGP Desmo-aping frameless future for the next-generation superbike which replaces the traditional trellis with a structural carbonfibre or aluminum airbox.

A new engine ultra-short-stroke engine designed with the required mounting points for the new-style chassis is well down the development path. 
 
More from del Torchio in Cycle World