2010 Ducati Streetfighter S

Ducati’s ‘S’ treatment of the Streetfighter pushes its tech spec to the red line.

Öhlins suspension front and rear and lightweight Marchesini forged wheels stack up serious credibility, while the front fender and cam belt covers in super-light carbon fibre help reduce the dry weight to an extreme 167kg (368lb).

But the ‘S’ sophistication doesn’t end there. Awesome street-going Ducati Traction Control and Ducati Data Analysis are standard issue, making it clear that the Streetfighter S is not all muscle – it’s intelligent too.

Intelligent muscle

The Streetfighter S was Ducati’s first ever naked sportbike to be fitted with their awesome Ducati Traction Control (DTC) system.

Accessible from the left-hand switchgear and displayed on the digital instrumentation, the system offers a choice of eight profiles, or ‘sensitivity levels’, each one programmed with a wheel-spin tolerance matched to progressive riding levels of skill, graded from one to eight.

While level eight administers a confidence-building, high level of interaction from the system by activating upon the slightest amount of wheel-spin, level one offers a much higher tolerance, resulting in less intervention for highly competent riders.
Once the level is selected and DTC activated, both are displayed on the Streetfighter instrumentation. The system then analyses data sent from front and rear wheel speed sensors to detect wheel-spin. Should the system recognise wheel-spin above a certain threshold, the DTC ECU instantly evaluates the many possible wheel-spin scenarios before administering two types of interaction in varying amounts.

DTC is able to sense the exact use that the Streetfighter is being put to. From slow mid-corner acceleration with considerable vehicle inclination to high speed corner exits while almost upright, DTC is intelligent enough to react according to each and every situation. It’s even smart enough to not intervene if you decide to perform a burnout or a wheelie.

The first ‘soft’ stage of system interaction is executed by high speed software that instantly makes electronic adjustment to the ignition by administering varying amounts of retardation to reduce the engine’s torque output.

During this initial stage of DTC interaction, both outer warning lights on the Streetfighter instruments – normally used to signify over-rev – illuminate to signify that DTC is being applied.

If the DTC software detects that the first ‘soft’ stage of system interaction is inadequate to control the wheel-spin, it continues to administer ignition retardation and instructs the engine ECU to initiate a pattern of constantly increasing injection cuts until, if necessary, full injection cut. During this second stage of system interaction, both outer and central warning lights fully illuminate to signify that DTC has also initiated injection cuts.

After either stage one (ignition retardation) or stage two (pattern of injection cuts or full cut), the system incrementally returns to the original ignition and injection mapping as the wheel speeds approach equalisation. This carefully programmed return to full power delivery is the real key to DTC’s smooth and efficient operation.

In developing its World Championship-winning traction control system for road use, Ducati continue to demonstrate their strategy of transferring technologies from their race bikes into the production environment, and show how solutions developed for performance on the track really can be applied to enhance safety on the road.

Information is power

The Ducati Data Analyser (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. The DDA is available for the Streetfighter from Ducati Performance, and is supplied as standard equipment on the Streetfighter S.

Normally only available on race bikes, DDA records numerous channels of data including throttle opening, vehicle speed, engine rpm, engine temperature, distance travelled, 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, analyse and get an inside view on the performance of the rider and Streetfighter.

Data can be analysed 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 analyse performance in the same way that data technicians can in factory teams.

Streetfighter colours

While the Streetfighter looks stunning in either red or sophisticated pearl white set against a black frame and subtle graphite grey 10-spoke wheels, the Streetfighter S positively seduces in red and menaces in midnight black with carbon fibre front fender and cam belt covers contrasting superbly against the bronze finish of the frame and Y-shaped, 5-spoke wheels.