coming soon: the new Bordone Ferrari Rally bike

+1

The 450cc rule in FIM rallies has levelled/broadened the alternatives for competitive mounts/manufacturers... to date it is KTM, Aprilia and the Husqvarna/BMW/Speedbrain effort who have stepped up at a manufacturer support level, which has been a big plus for the depth of competition in the sport.

The YME/YMF (semi-factory) and WRF/YZF JVO kit alternatives (along with various privateer efforts etc.), as well as a variety of HONDA (CRF/X) incarnation bikes from various semi-privateer teams, have meant that both the team blue and red riders have been represented well over the last couple seasons on rally start lines...

But as there has not been a lot of activity from other japanese or euro manufacturers - apart from the occassional "one off special" here and there... the whole Bordone Ferrari team effort and it's commitment to the project, seems like a great positive step for the sport!

Not sure where to put this but it just popped up on Facebook.



From Gas Gas:

SICK..... photoshopped a bit?

i don't think so... if they were going to "photoshop" a pre-prod mock up of the bike... you'd think they would put a front guard on it...? and maybe present it in front of a bit more flattering backdrop then an old shed wall?

Body/plastics/fuel cell by JVO, service/logistics provided by Epsilon... powered by the new Gas Gas 450cc engine (so this bike is a genuine Spanish built effort... not a rebadged YME Yamaha WRF as the last two years).

Look's legit enough... another name in the hat!

Yup, legit, Loving the rear fuel tank/subframe combination, although it looks like it still needs two pumps on either side of the shock, can';t tell how high the exhaust is on the other side

From the Bordone Ferrari website:
...
15 April 2011. A motorbike of the of the Bordone-Ferrari Racing Team lined up on the Qatar Rally reveals the heart of the Bordone-Ferrari Bike. The frame has already shown itself during its first fair race at the Merzouga.
20 May 2011. The Bordone-Ferrari Italian Rally Motorbike prototype ends a long series of tests in Italy, Spain and Tunisia.
31 May 2012. The prototype becomes the final version of the Bordone-Ferrari Italian Rally Motorbike.
7 June 2011. The ultimate line of the motorbike has been chosen among the suggestions of three designers: it's going to be the one elaborated by the architect Luca Mattavelli.
...

You can find the entire "timeline" here.

If, as Brodovitch wrote, Botturi rode a TM a few months ago it is probably that engine the one that this press communication refers to. Hence I'd bet on a TM engine!

In fact, their prototype bike can be seen on this pic (under the date "20.05.12"):

If you click the main imagine of the homepage at
http://www.bordoneferrari.com/

it should open a zip containing 3 (work in progress) photos of the new beast
http://www.bordoneferrari.com/public/mi1 anteprima.zip

Great link Gian, thought I'd post them up for everyone to see









thoughts everyone? I'm not sure about the separate radiator shrouds, a bit too form over function for me...

The rest of the bodywork looks very sleek, loving the huge intake for the oil cooler

There's also the fact that TM have a pretty well-established background of producing 'crate' engines to sell to other people. Whereas I expect going to KTM and saying "I'd like twenty 450RR motors please" may not be too successful.

Here is a picture of the TM MX 450Fi 4T engine...sure look similar.

Photochopped screen :huh

yeah, noticed that.. maybe they want a translucent blue screen a la EXP-2?

hahahah, laughing my head off, they started with a trellis frame and ended up with this

Looks a lot better then the pics of the trellis framed whale I have seen. I guess it's just a TM frame after all

Go Bordone .

are you sure? TM frames are perimetric aluminum...



the one on the rally bike looks steel tubular with a similar design to the GX / Husky Speedbrain of '12....
but bear in mind the pics above may not be the final version of the bike

good one Brodo/Gian... It is certainly a trick looking bit of gear! Here are just a few arbitrary armchair observations to get the ball rolling from moi...



Radiator shrouds... ja, well... I'm a little on the same page as Brodovitch on these as well to be honest. It appears that they have gone with a single core radiator (for sure it offers a good large cooling area/capacity, simplified plumbing etc.) along similar lines to KTM's 450 RR... as opposed to two seperate radiators (like are on most enduro/mx platform bikes). And it's true, many times in rally circles, simpler is better.

But as this bike features what appears to be a single backbone/downtube chassis (the radiator is not nestled in between the frame rails of a trellis chassis; as is the case on say - the KTM 690/450 RR), it seems to me that the radiator is somewhat "out there in the breeze" as far as crash damage is concerned?

As Brodo points out, the radiator shouds appear to be nothing more than a flash of coloured plastic fixed to the sides. With the apparent lack of any sort of radiator shield/support bar, I would be of the impression that any significant crash action (on either side) would fold the relatively fragile core back onto the down tube, like an aluminium banana around a steel post, pretty easily. Given that it is a single radiator confuguration, that means than any crash, on either side of the bike... there is the significant risk of damaging the cooling system substantially.

The engineering pundits could always argue, that although a two radiator cooling system is a little more complicated (pluming wise), it minimises the risk of a total cooling system failure by 50%... As many times a rider can plug or disconect one side (in the event of a crash/damage) and at least continue with one core in tact.

As this is a "work in progress", it will be interesting to see if any developments in this regards, turn up on the coming evolutions?

The rest of the bike looks very sleek an minimalist. The rear fuel cell/guard seems inspired by several design cues from the 450 RR.

One imagines that the linear rate rear steel rod, will eventually be updated with a suitable rear damper from say... Öhlins, Sachs, Paoli, WP...? To perforn the rear suspension duties...?

^^^^ This is true. The TM engine package makes the B/F team into a true competitor of KTM... not a customer.

For the purposes of the "reveal" the imaged screen does the job. I guess they will produce a final moulded component as the project draws to completion. One interesting observation is that the "nav tower" still appears to be designed along the traditional "high roadbook" school of thought... whereas on a number of the recently developed 450 bike (Helders new YZF 450 bike at Qatar, the speedbrain Husky's and the preview photo's of the new GasGas 450) there seems a tendancy to be "lowering" the towers somewhat, in order to improve visability forward in technical terrain.

This also is possibly an area we will see some subtle changes/refinements, as they move to the final product.

All in all it is a pretty good looking machine... and definately worthy of the Bordone Ferrari teams claims that they are developing their own bike/platform to compete in rallies with. Kudos!

I mentioned the trellis frame thing (that Dutchie touched on) but for different reasons.

The frame on the rally bike pictured - as Brodo points out - appears to be a steel single backbone/downtube cradle design... and not dissimilar to the Speedbrain solution at first glance. It would seem they have chosen not to go with a full aluminium chassis - as comes on the TM 450 enduro/MX models.

I don't see a downtube on the bike? Could someone point it out o me?

A cool bike with plenty of air to pass behind the radiator shrouds vs fuel capacity. It looks like they found the right solution, isnt it a single low height radiator across the front of the bike?

Looks like it will breath fresh air with ease, I am guessing here but the max with of the bike is down low, the bottom of the front tanks and the radiator shrouds sit a little 'inwards', covered in a way by the bottom of the tanks.

On closer scrutiny... the black tube I mistakenly took (at first glance) to be a frame downtube... may well be a radiator hose. :huh (behind the radiator - from rear 3/4 view in the middle photo).

I did say it was an "armchair observation" - after all...

As Brodovitch's reference earlier... the B/F frame could well be similar to the Speedbrain design.