This Ducati has 'titanium' fever

The Ducati Hypermotard 1100 is a very neat piece of kit, a relatively lightweight and agile motorcycle with a grunty V-twin being the icing on cake.

But what happens when that sweet butter-cream icing melts and you want more power to satisfy your appetite for acceleration? You can talk to NCR, and ask for the Leggera Special.

The Bologna-based factory has a tendency to take already powerful Ducati motorcycles and make them either more powerful, or more powerful and lighter – the latter being the case with the NCR Leggera Special.

Step one is to scrap pretty much every element of the bike that isn't titanium, then replace it with titanium components. That means the entire frame is made from the lightweight stuff. And if the old titanium trick doesn't work, then try carbon fibre...

The 17-inch BST wheels are made from the fibrous carbon stuff, as is much of the body work. Combine these modifications with a bunch of titanium engine components and the net result is a motorcycle that tips the scales at just 157kg, some 20kg lighter than the stocker. The frame itself weighs just 4.8 kilograms. Yikes.

The 1078cc Ducati motor remains stock, pumping out 90hp (66kW) at 7750rpm, but a 2-into-1-into-2 full exhaust system could be expected to liberate a few herbs. The exhaust system is made from (surprise, surprise) titanium, and is about half the weight of the stock setup.

Chassis wise, and the NCR Leggera Special features 300mm wave discs up front with four-pot radial monoblock Brembo Racing callipers, with a twin-piston unit at the rear.

Keeping the front wheel suspended are chunky 46mm fully adjustable Ohlins forks (with titanium nitride coating, no less) with NCR Corse valving, not to mention adjustable offset NCR triple clamps made in aluminium. A full adjustable Ohlins steering damper is tacked on for good measure, as are NCR Corse billet fork bottoms.

The rear wheel gets a similarly sporty treatment, with an NCR-tuned fully adjustable Ohlins monoshock, with settings for low and high speed circuits.

All told, that's a fairly serious setup for a bike designed for burnouts and wheel stands, but the fun doesn't stop there. The company also offers the NCR Leggera 1200 engine kit, which increases power and torque while dropping the bike's weight even further.

From the already featherweight 157kg, the NCR Leggera 1200 engine kit lowers that figure to 135kg, while boosting shunt from 90hp (66kW) to 132hp (97kW) at 9500rpm.

The engine kit consists of titanium connecting rods, titanium valves, racing cams, high compression 102mm pistons and cylinders, a billet stroker crankshaft, slipper clutch kit, titanium hardware by Poggipolini Titanium, clutch and alternator cases in magnesium, carbon fibre valve cover and oil cooler kit in aluminium.

A hardcore titanium racing exhaust system with 45mm diameter pipes is also added. So what's it all worth? How does £87,800 sound -- that's about $150,000. Quite a lot of money really...

Check out NCRfactory.com for more details.

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