[REDDUC1]

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:mvZxhvzdonQJ:http://www.motoforum.cz/galerie

Someone at work told me that Ducati purchased the concepts of the Honda NR for its 916 superbike format. I told him that was an amazing story. Then again, anytime someone gives me a BS story, I subsitute the word bull$hit with AMAZING.

 

[alamoduc]

GP star in North Hollywood, CA has one or two for sale NR750 $50k+

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Bene...oryZ6719QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[John]

Honda NR precedes 916 design

Sounds plausible at least the undertail look. Other than that the NR is ugly while the 916 is beautiful.

That Benelli has too much junk in the trunk.

 

[DukeDesmo]

Well alot of the features that 'made' the 916 different are on the Honda, which pre-dates the Ducati; single-sided swingarm, twin underseat exhausts, fox-eye head lights even the fairing shape is similar, the main difference is that the Ducati is a thing of beauty and the Honda is, err.... well the Honda isn't...

I'm sure Tamburini was inspired by the Honda but he added some Italian flair to the design, also the Ducati's concept worked and was successful both in racing and commercially.

I know which I'd rather have......

And I'm fairly sure Ducati had to pay some sort of royalty payment to Honda for using the single-sided swingarm?

 

[st2lemans]

And I'm fairly sure Ducati had to pay some sort of royalty payment to Honda for using the single-sided swingarm?

No, the SS swingarm was used decades before (on the Guzzi Galletto of the 1950's, for example), so Honda did not in fact own the rights.

Tom

 

[SeanFromTX]

And I'm fairly sure Ducati had to pay some sort of royalty payment to Honda for using the single-sided swingarm?

There was a lawsuit brought by Honda against Ducati over the SS design. I haven't found it yet on the WWW. However, it was determined that there were enough differences between the two that Honda lost.

 

[trussdude]

Elf held the patent on the RC30 single sided swingarm.

 

[st2lemans]

Elf held the patent on the RC30 single sided swingarm.

Perhaps, but Guzzi had been mass-producing them 40 years earlier.

Tom

 

[francois]

When Honda tried to put pressure on ducati,the italian pulled a single swingarm scooter dating back to world war II and that was the end of the fight.

 

[rockk]

japanese were always and are 50 steps behind italian design when it comes to cars and bikes also, and innovations too (and european for that matter)

while european styling is much more organic, leans towards beauty asians always tend towards the abrupt angled manga style lines , wich might be considered cool when u look at it once, twice but after a while it just gates an irregular shaped thingy.

just my subjective 2 cents. i do like jap superbikes, cars nop, not all, but bikes are cool, still, i cant think of any bike that is similar as a hole like the 916/f4/ motoguzzis, etc. also performance wise, the bmw was better then all inlines...

just look at lambo`s /ferraris/alfas / bentleys / astons / jaguars (before murcielago /audi era ofc) like miura, or the ferrari gto and you ll see that asians were nowhere near what supercars /roadsters were used to be. their cars looked like ugly boxes.

2 different continents, with different cultures and different tastes, still ... at best i consider japanes bikes looking "cool", while europeans mostly are beautiful (and i dont even mention the mv agusta)

 

[Dmitry]

You have outdone yourself, this is 6 year old thread.
do you check the dates when you hit reply?

 

[Miyagi]

Honda NR750 ridden - YouTube

 

[Cali_RSV]

Very old thread. But still an interesting theory. I can see how it could have inspired the 916 design.

 

[Dmitry]

This is not theory, can clearly see that Tambourini was inspired with NR styling, the legend is that he already had new bike designed till he looked at NR then he tore up the drawings and started over. That is hard to believe considering NR came out at least 2 years before 916.

As for Pro-Arm Honda holds the patent to it, but it was developed by ELF France for it's motoGP racer powered by Honda, license was probably granted or rights turned over as a payment for engines. Once ELF left GP racing Honda continued to use it on street bikes, NC24 was first in 1987, followed by NC30, RC30, RC31 and RC36, all came out before 1990.

As for the "old thread" gripe, if this was the only one I'd say yes, perhaps good old thread to rehash, but rockk regularly dredges up old threads and posts some useless comments... half the people who contributed to this one are no longer active on this site