An engine revving at 5000rpm will consume more than an engine spinning at 1000 rpm. Sat in neutral. Both subject to identical load. They both have an effect. What you are talking about is something completely different. It stands to reason that to shift a weight faster and/or heavier requires more energy to do so. I can drive from a to b at a constant speed of 30mph on a perfectly flat road. I can do it in 1st gear at 6000rpm. Or 3rd gear at 2500rpm. Both subject to identical load. I suspect the faster spinning engine will consume more fuel - it has to lol
Makes me smile to read the comments from all the budding engine designers on this thread. Surprised that some have not been snapped up by a F1 team! I once spoke to a test rider (not Ducati) and his job was to try to break the engine by any amount of abuse he could muster - from full throttle from idle in 6th to rev limiter in 1st and everything in between. After weeks of this the engine is stripped and examined for any excess wear or damage. If found it is redesigned and re-tested. There will always be numpties that are in the wrong gear at the wrong time and the engine designers know this and it has to be able to cope. This likely includes the designers at Ducati. Bearing sizes and oil pressure are absolutely basic design parameters that I venture to suggest will be more than adequate in an engine that has been in service since 2010 and with a major update in 2013. There may be a design weakness or a problem with bearing oil supply in certain circumstances but only Ducati will ever know and everything said here can be no more than a mixture of guess work, scaremongering or just an attempt at explaining away a tiny fraction of one percent failure rate. Best thing we can do is to stop worrying about it and enjoy riding the bikes. A dash of common sense in not labouring at 2000 rpm in high gears nor sitting on the limiter for long periods should be all that is required to ensure the prospect of a long engine life. All IMHO as someone with no knowledge of course.
That got me thinking, but I have looked at some parts microfiches and they definitely have plain bearings
mr R knows his stuff I'm going to fall off the fence his side , i don't have any immediate plans to venture much below 4000 but purely i like the noise and its how I've ridden since all them 350 lcs i owned
Your half right Mr R and I'm half wrong The SP has split mains and needle rollers, TL engines have plain bearing mains. Guess its because they like horizontally split crankcases
bike magazine. "ducatis go bang" i wonder what they really meant by that. what was the out come from their test on the panigal that went bang.
Getting back to engine load and fuel consumption, If a gear is to tall for the speed your traveling at you use more fuel, as you have to open the throttle to over come the drag at that speed. To put it in layman's terms it's like constantly going up hill with the adage of the taller the gear for that speed the steeper the hill. if that makes sense.
And the opposite is equally true. There is a sweet spot. Too high or too low is wasteful Too high is more fun though
Question, how come if the same engine is in the Diavel we haven't heard of so many of them going pop, is it down to sheer volume sold on the Multistrada?
Not sure I would agree about the gearing. Do you not gear for one or another? You cant have both increased top speed and faster acceleration with the same gearing, each requires gearing in different directions surely.
Whos talking about top speed or acceleration. The general flow was with regard to usability and economy Seems your low is my high lol
@Psy69 I think Mr R is talking about a shorter gearing meaning you can actually pull max revs in fop, rather than a taller gearing meaning you cant, ie on a gearing calc if may say dropping 2 off the rear gives a 10mph down but the bike wont pull red line in top on std, but will on the shorter gearing thus the top speed ends being the same and you get there quicker
Yeah very interesting but going back to the original topic.... I cnt say too much but my old (blown engine) as gone to a better place also DUK may be back on my Xmas card list sorry cnt go into more detail at this point.
Quick update, Ducati leeds av stripped engine but said too much damage to say what the cause of the failure was, DUK will repair it and put it back in my bike foc. I have in last couple of weeks decided I cnt afford to run a multi without warranty so I've bought a tiger 1050 sport, maybe try again in a couple of years, one lesson well n truly learned :-(