Much has been speculated about the alleged Ducati 799 Superbike that surely is being planned in Borgo Panigale this very minute. Connecting the dots with the Italian company’s product roadmap, Ducati surely has a smaller-displacement version of its 1199 Panigale in the works, though what it will be called and what displacement it will use is still the subject of much conjecture. Today Oberdan Bezzi takes us back down that thought process with his Ducati 798 Desmosport R concept.
A supersport-market model, Bezzi’s focus is not with the water-cooled 1,200cc Superquadro motor, but the tried and true DesmoDue air-cooled lump currently found in the Hypermotard and Monster lines. Looking for a €9,000 price point, 100hp power figure, and 365 lbs dry weight, Oberdan Bezzi is striking the same vein that Radical Ducati and NCR have been touching on for the past few years, albeit at different ends of the price spectrum.
Clearly taking some design and technical cues from the Panigale, the Ducati 798 Desmosport R concept still features a traditional Ducati trellis-style frame (sorry frameless chassis lovers). It seems unreasonable at the price and performance spec mentioned that the Desmosport R concept actually be a 800cc-ish machine, given that the 1,100cc version of the air-cooled twin puts out a paltry 100hp in its EVO form. Still, a lightweight air-cooled Italian sport bike? That is something Ducatisti have been clamoring about for ages — thankfully Pierobon built one.
Source: Oberdan Bezzi