Ducati has filed these diagrams in a recent patent application in the USA.
Labelled the "Simplified Motorcycle", the diagrams show a motorcycle that doesn't have a conventional frame but instead bolts the swingarm and front end directly to the engine.
However, Ducati have not called this a frameless motorcycle design. Here's the way they've described it in their patent application:
“A motorcycle comprising a propelling group or engine, a saddle support, a support for the rear wheel, and a front directional group comprising a handlebar integral to a steering headstock functionally associated to a supporting organ of the vehicle front wheel, wherein such front group is connected to a box-like body incorporating the function of filtering box, constrained to the engine and apt to support the latter by connecting it, therethrough, to said front directional group, said support for the rear wheel and said saddle support being constrained to the engine, the vehicle being not equipped with additional members apt to constrain said engine to such front directional group.”
Will the next Ducati superbike use the engine as a fully stressed member, as seen on the Britten V1000 back in 1995?
