What Ducati’s aluminum beam GP frame means for the 1199

Imagine a production bike — more powerful than any v-twin before — benefiting from the recognition of Italy’s most popular sportsbike brand and also the star power of MotoGP’s most famous rider, a rider that just happens to be Italian. Imagine also that that rider was winning races, maybe even a championship, on a machine with a clear point of unprecedented mechanical distinction shared by said production bike. Sounds like a perfect storm to create high sportsbike sales, right? That must have been what Ducati was thinking while it was developing the 1199. They’d give it a similar “frameless” chassis to their GP bike, then hire Valentino Rossi to put that GP bike on the podium. Race success + clear connection to race bike + impressive specs + famous dude = winning.

But, reality hasn’t cooperated. Rossi isn’t winning and he’s blaming that failure, at least partially, on that funny frame configuration. Now, Ducati is developing a — gasp — twin-spar aluminum beam chassis to see if it can fix the GP11’s handling problems. What does that mean for the “frameless” Ducati 1199?

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