Ducati Scrambler Pro Flat Track

 

 

The biggest and most important show in motorcycling, EICMA, is going on in Milan this week. Ducati have got in early, with an Apple-style product launch on stage in a theatre setting.

They launched a 400cc V-twin Scrambler, called the Sixty2, plus Diavel and Multistrada derivatives and this, the Scrambler Pro Flat Track. Following the mould of their own Monster and, notably, the Triumph Bonneville, the Italians have rolled out a slightly tarted-up Scrambler to bolster the range at the minimum cost. 

The 803cc Pro Flat Track is very similar to the Full Throttle, one of the three Scramblers the company launched in 2014 to great success. It has the same Termignoni end cans, short front mudguard, 10-spoke alloys. In fact, only the following details differ...

Sidepanels (that don't look very flat track)

Headlight fairing (ditto)

Paint colour

Seat cover

Grips (I know, I'm scraping the barrel here...)

Photos: Ducati

They had Ducati legend, and flat track racer, Troy Bayliss ride it on stage. I like the Scrambler a lot, especially the styling of the Urban Enduro, but as a purely styling exercise, this has missed the target. Lloyd Brothers and Ducati did a great job of making their race bike look related to a Ducati Scrambler, but when the parent company have tried to reflect dirt track cool back on the street bike, something's going missing. 

It's so difficult to make road bikes look as cool as flat track race bikes, because their beauty is in their brutal minimalism. Homologated road bikes can look brutal and act deranged (180bhp, 190mph road bikes for £14,000), but it's hard to make 2015 nakeds look minimal and tick all the EU's boxes. And really, the Pro Flat Track has a good name, but it looks bugger-all like a street tracker.

The wheels are the wrong size and the rear's too far. The seat's wrong. The number boards are neither one thing, not the other. 

Still, God loves a trier. 

If you want to read about the gorgeous race bike that inspired the road bike, buy Sideburn 22 and read my story from Bayliss's most recent AMA flat track race, the 2015 Sacramento Mile. G

Troy Bayliss's Mile Missile

This is the first shot (or computer-generated mock-up) we've seen of Troy Bayliss's Lloyd Brothers Ducati and it looks great. I wonder what all the hipster-haters* are going to think of this Scrambler-sponsored Mile weapon with a true legend on board? They won't know whether they should love it or hate it, but they'll wait for someone to tell them.

The former World Superbike champion is scheduled to race the five GNC miles this year, the first being Springfield at the end of May. And he's team mates with long-time friend of the mag, Johnny Lewis.

We featured the original Lloyd Brothers Ducati, from which this bike is a development, back in Sideburn 4, in 2009, jut saying. G

Troy Bayliss Race Calendar –AMA Pro Flat Track 2015 Series

 24 May - Springfield Mile (Round 3)
30 May - Sacramento Mile (Round 4)
4 July - Du Quoin Mile (Round 7)
11 July - Indy Mile (Round 8)
6 September - Springfield Mile II (Round 13)

* that's haters of hipsters, not hipsters who are haters

Troy Bayliss to Race in GNC

Road race hero Troy Bayliss, one of the proper good guys in world racing, is going to race a select number of GNC Miles on the Lloyd Brothers Ducati this season.

At the age of 45, the former car sprayer has had a second wind. He is Aussie dirt track and Supermoto champ. He raced at the Superprestigio (but didn't make the final) and hosts his own high profile, star-studded Troy Bayliss Classic flat track race in his hometown of Taree.

The announcement is getting non-FT fans very excited, which has only got to be good for the sport.

Bayliss is one of a handful of riders to win a MotoGP and WSB race (Bayliss didn't just win a WSB race, he won 52 of them and three WSB titles). Bayliss, Hayden, Biaggi, Kocinski, Checa... Who am I missing?

All Bayliss's wins were on Ducati, so the link with Lloyd Brothers make sense.

If Bayliss has a good showing (easier said than done), perhaps it will convince Nicky Hayden to pack in being an also-ran on an uncompetitive bike in MotoGP and go back to his first love.

The Lloyd Brothers Ducati won back in 2010 with Joe Kopp on board. It was Ducati's first and, so far, only GNC win. Two-time GNC champ Jake Johnson rode for Ramspur Winery-Supported Lloyd Brothers team in 2014, and had the choice of XR750, Kawasaki and Ducati (see above, our own snaps from Pomona in October).

Out of the 12 mile or half-mile races, he chose the Ducati four times; XR750 five times and the Kawasaki three times. In a very consistent season he was never lower than sixth,. He scored two seconds on the XR, one second on the Kawasaki, but 'only' three fourths and a fifth on the Italian bike. G

Bayliss in Australian dirt track action. 

On the 1098 Superbike.

And the Desmosedici. It's going to be great to see him on the Miles. He sounds confident and Jared Mees is quoted as saying he's ready (though he's hardly going to say he'll get his ass handed to him). 

Troy Bayliss Classic

Multiple World Superbike champion, former car paint sprayer and all-round good sort, Troy Bayliss has organised another of his Classics, a kind of Australian Superprestigio.
Bayliss (pictured above at this year's Superprestigio) is now Aussie dirt track and supermoto champ and a big fan of dirt track.
He has invited Jared Mees, Henry Wiles and Sammy Halbert. Look at them pretending to tolerate each other.
There is a who's who of Australian racers from different disciplines, too.

It all goes off this Saturday in Taree.
More info at Troy Bayliss Classic.

Taree is an oil track. In the old days they'd soak the dirt in old motor oil to help keep it together and form a tacky track, now, I've read, it's vegetable oil. There are no new oil tracks because of environmental issues, but the old ones can still run.

The Australians tend to race lefts and rights. Read Andy from the Jerkyls inside line on racing as a happy amateur, in the current Aussie scene on a vintage two-stroke in Sideburn 19. G

Watch Superprestigio LIVE

The Superprestigio goes off tomorrow evening in Barcelona, Spain. It's arguably the most hotly anticipated dirt track race of the 21st century, and Fanschoice TV, the same great service that has brought live casts and YouTube recordings of every GNC race this year,  is offering a live feed.

If that wasn't enough, our old mate Chris Carr is guest commentator.

The official press release (aimed at Americans, hence the Eastern Time - just google it to work out what time that is where you are) says:

The Superprestigio is set to begin at 12:00 noon ET (9:00 a.m. PT) on Saturday, Dec. 13 and all of the action will be broadcast live on www.FansChoice.tv, the official home for live streaming of all AMA Pro Flat Track events.

There is an incredible line-up of riders including:

SUPERPRESTIGIO CLASS
Marc Marquez - 2014 MotoGP WC
Tito Rabat - 2014 Moto2 WC
Alex Marquez - 2014 Moto3 WC
Scott Redding
Bradley Smith
Toni Elias - 2010 Moto2 WC
Troy Bayliss - 2001, 2006, 2008 WSB WC
Kenny Noyes - 2014 CEV SBK champ

OPEN CLASS
Brad Baker (2013 GNC Champ)
Jared Mees (2x GNC champ)
Shayna Texter
Joonas Kylmakorpi (4x long track WC, who is racing a Zaeta painted by Maxwell Paternoster!)
Thomas Chareyre (3x Supermoto WC - surely a dark horse)
Fabrizio Vesprini (2x FIM Euro flat track champ)
Francesco Cecchini (2014 FIM Euro flat track champ)
Ivan Cervantes (4x Enduro WC)
Taddy Blazusiak - (5x Superenduro WC)
Guy Martin

And from the DTRA in the Open Class

Tim Neave (2014 champ), Tom Neave, Aidan Collins (4x UK champ), Ollie Brindley, Alan Birtwistle

(WC = World Champion)

The winners of each class race each other in a grand final.

Below is a photos from the @marcmarquez93 instagram feed of him practicing yesterday at the Canudas track. Many of the top riders were there.

Aussie Dirt Track Champ - Troy Bayliss

From Paul Dawson in Australia

Not sure if you are aware but just thought I'd take the time to inform that Troy Bayliss (#21) recently picked up his first Australian titles, Troy is obviously somewhat famous for wining 3 World Superbike championships but up until the beginning of this month he'd never won an Australian championship. 

Firstly he won 3 Australian Dirt track titles at the Old Bar track at Taree in NSW, this is the track where he grew up racing. Taree is an oil track which makes the surface more like tar, it's dirt with oil mixed in and rolled flat. He picked up the 250, 450 and Open class trophies against some of the best dirt-track racers in the country, including Ex-AMA flat-tracker Michael Kirkness. Race report here

The Following weekend he raced supermoto at the Whitsunday raceway in Queensland and came away with 2 Australian titles in the 450 (S2) and 250 (S3) class, competing against some multiple time Australian champions.