Pierobon stuns with X80R

Italian frame-building masters Pierobon showed their X80R at Milan, a demonstration of the frame and chassis kit it has developed to house engines from the pre-Panigale range of Ducati sportsbikes.

Engines that will fit include the 848, 1098 and 1198 motors, which all sat in trellis frames before the Superquadro engines from the Panigale range of superbikes moved Ducati down the monococque route.

Pierobon is a family-owned company and is based around the corner from the Ducati factory in Bologna. It’s been closely linked to the Ducati factory racing effort in both World Superbike and MotoGP for many years. It currently builds the fuel tanks, swingarms, rear subframes and other elements of the WSB factory team bikes.

The X80R is a track-only machine that can either be bought as a complete bike or supplied as a frame, swingarm, fuel tank and subframe with which the owner then builds their own bike.

Massimo Pierobon told MCN: “This bike is built with an engine from an 848 and it feels nice because the weight is only 150kg, so the performance is very high. I haven’t built one with an 1198 engine, perhaps it would be a little bit too much! It might be fun to try though.”