There are few things I care less about than this. When you buy a bike, do you spend your hard earned based on a paper figure, or how it felt on the test ride ?? If Ducati suddenly declared my bike had 50 BHP, I still wouldn't care, cause it feels adequately fast and rides really well. End of......
Back in 2005 or thereabouts Ducati changed the way that the HP was measured. My then ST4s jumped from 117bhp to 120bhp, yet there were no changes made to the bikes. The change was made to be in line with other manufacturers as it gave the impression the Ducatis had lower hp figures. It seems they have been made to revert to the previous way of measuring. Perhaps someone can explain the difference between a "Chassis" dyno and an "Engine" dyno. I thought figures were stated either at the rear wheel or at the crank. And why does the 950 Multi remain at 113bhp while the Supersport and Hypermotard with the same engine and power train drop 3bhp to 110bhp?
Wheel or crank was always my thoughts ?? I didn't know my chassis produced power ?? Fecking lost !!??
Have looked on wikipedia it seems that a "chassis' dynamometer is just a rolling road dyno that measures the power at the rear wheel. An "engine" dyno measures the power directly at the crank. So it just different terminology from what I'm used to. That doesn't explain though why the article in the Visordown weblink quotes the MTS950 as having NO transmission losses.
Bike Company exaggerates HP figures - Shock Horror. Next you shall be telling my battery run items over estimate their battery life.
Nothing new about that. I'm more interested in how the measurements are made and why there are some apparent discrepancies.
Which would make the new figures higher, so that can't be it. I know they can don on the bench, although always thought that was crank measure so no idea what chassis is! Unless its an estimated number of some kind...ie not measured at all. These numbers are still crank, so take 10-20% off depending on state of chain and tyres by the time it hits the back wheel
From Visordown - "While the discrepancy lies in how power is measured – Ducati has used chassis dynos to get its advertised performance figures, while homologation requires the use of an engine dyno – in updating its claims the firm’s bikes have become ‘less powerful’ on paper." So it would seem that Ducati have used a rolling road to measure rear wheel hp then calculated the crank hp based on estimated transmission losses. The actual crank hp, in most cases would appear to be lower than Ducati's "estimated" figure.
I think its really interesting what dyno figures tuning shops like for example Hilltop post up when theyre running bikes....ie a stock s1000r makes (from what they say) 127.26 at the wheel....not the "180 bhp monster" that the magazines touted it as... i cant find but the 1290GT came in at something like 136....again not the monster that it was pitched as.... im interested to know what stuff actually makes but only from a fact finding point of view....plus more often than not other stuff isnt taken into account...ie my hyper makes a paltry 96bhp after being mapped but totally stock it only weighs 170 odd kilos (im pretty sure thats 10kilos lighter now plus some more). So, it doesnt bother me but is kinda nice to know...
Here's my dyno chart with a full Termi system v standard exhaust, 2015 DVT (click for larger). Details are in the text below the chart:
Calling total bullshit on those graphs. Even the American ones, which use a different scale so always show quite a bit lower, show the s1000r as 150hp. U.K. Mags that have tested are 160.
Always find it amazing how a bike goes in 'low' and comes out 'really high' with just a tune and no real work. Some dealers have a drawer, I hear, that means if you don't like the first one, they whip out another
