French designer, Damien Basset, who is currently design director at Peugeot Motorcycles, used to work with Ducati earlier. He’s the man who had designed the first Ducati Streetfighter, which was launched in 2009 and which was offered with a choice of 1099cc and, later, 849cc V-twin engines. I had an opportunity to do an interview with Basset in 2009, for Faster and Faster, a motorcycle website that I used to own at that time. I had to shut down that website in 2017, but wanted to preserve this interview, hence posting it here, where it will hopefully remain forever.
Please tell us a bit about yourself and your love for motorcycles? How did you get started with motorcycle design?
I am from Laval, a small city in the northern west of France. My father is a
passionate motorcyclist; I've always seen motorcycles in the garage, all
brands, all types and all generations. I wanted to do something related to bikes
– selling them, building them, etc. I was always a hands-on person, restoring
old bikes and modifying my own bikes. One day, I crashed my Suzuki RGV125. The
mechanic whom I took it to saw the parts that I had designed for my bike and he
told me about Franco Sbarro and his design school. I decided to check it out. At
that time, I thought ‘design’ applied only to furniture and other random devices.
I was drawing, but I had no clue I could apply this to creating motorcycles.
While visiting Sbarro's school in Switzerland, I learned about the ArtCenter College of Design. When I entered the students’ gallery, I saw a yellow Ducati there, redesigned
as a thesis project by some student. I was hooked. I enrolled and decided not
to design bikes! I was too involved with bikes and I wasn’t willing to let anyone impose their vision on me. This
remained true until my first internship: I sketched/designed 200+ watches, TVs,
mobile phones and other consumer products but in the end, I realised I’d rather
do motorcycles after all. In the meanwhile, I had transferred to the American
campus in Pasadena, California, and I redirected my studies toward motorcycle design.
When I graduated, I got picked-up by Honda R&D in California where I
designed a couple of ATVs, sportsbikes, cruisers and jet-skis for concept and
production. There, I really understood what was it meant to design motorcycles
and the complexity of the task. The Japanese are very thorough and I learned a
great deal. Those were good times!
Four years ago, Ducati was looking for somebody to design motorcycles exclusively,
so I wrapped up 10 years of American life and returned to Europe to design red
exotic race motorcycles. I worked on the 1098, the SportsClassics, the Hypermotard
and the Desmosedici. Then, started the Streetfighter project.
Do you ride bikes regularly? From a design perspective, which are your
favourite bikes from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and current models?
I have always ridden bikes. Cruisers, sportbikes, motocross. In my family, we
always spend our vacations on bikes; we like to go places, we like to meet
people on the way and motorcycles are great for that, it's a fantastic
community. I’ve had many bikes, sportbikes and cruisers, the latest one being a
Ducati MHe. I just love vintage/classic bikes, but I also love to ride them; The
MHe seemed a good balance of retro looks, power and modern braking/handling.
My favourite bikes, from a design point of view? It’s a little difficult to
answer. There is the professional point of view and there are bikes that I
loved personally, because they meant something to me. It's very difficult to
differentiate passion from profession. I have respect for all motorcycles, I
always find something interesting. In general, I like bikes designed by non-professional
industrial designers. The bikes done in a garage with little resources can be
amazing; it often leads to amazing and original ‘design solutions.’ This is in
the spirit of when it all started, from the 1900s De Dion-Bouton cycle cars, to
Britten. It has to do with people being able to see through their design, no
restrictions, no limits, no meetings, but lots of passion.
1970s: Yamaha XS1100 and the Honda Goldwing GL 1000 and Watsonian
sidecars.
1980s: Yamaha V-Max. It's one of the first bikes I really wanted to
have. I was 11 at the time. I still think the original looks more modern than
most bikes today.
1990s: Suzuki GSX-Rs, Honda CBRs and the Kawasaki ZXR750 for its monstrous
air-intakes on the tank. Those were the forbidden crazy rides, the racer replicas
with 0-to-60 in under four seconds! Also, the Britten V1000 for the story and
the innovation.
Other bikes that I like are the Yamaha MT-01, Sachs Beast,
the Honda NAS concept, Benelli Tre, MV Agusta F4 and my baby, the Ducati
Streetfighter.
How was working in the US, for Honda, different from working for Ducati, in
Italy? Is the work culture at Japanese companies very different from European
ones?
The work is pretty much the same, the environment is different. LA is a big
place, Bologna is a small place. Honda is a big company, Ducati is a small
company. The culture of the company is related to its size. I think that's the
main difference between Honda and Ducati. Hence, Honda even if Japanese, has design
studios and factories all around the world. Things are not as planned here, therefore
it takes a while to gather all the resources necessary. Once it starts, it's
very quick, efficient and to the point. Just like a race. Also, it seems that designers
are more involved from day one, therefore have a little more control over the
outcome. The Japanese plan everything, products are defined in advance in a
very tedious process, everybody and everything is considered. When your turn
comes, there is the necessary time to achieve exactly what was expected; you
have to be quick and efficient but it's also framed much tighter. The job description
has been refined according to years of experience, generations of designers. It
follows the concept of ongoing quality improvement; the design of the process
is as important as the result. Usually, the results are good if the process is
right.
What are your thoughts on European vs Japanese motorcycle design? How have
the two evolved differently over the last 2-3 decades?
Japanese manufacturers must follow their market very closely. They are huge
enterprises therefore must sell lots of products to sustain their activities.
This is something that drives their design. A bike will look different if you
sell them for 15,000 euro to 4,000 people or sell them for 9,999 euro to 20,000
people. Because it's a saturated market, you must make sure you'll design
something that will please all those 20,000 buyers. Europeans only have smaller
shares of those markets and therefore they must identify a narrower set of
tastes and opinions. This leads to more targeted design. This what BMW or Ducati
are doing.
Talking about evolution, it seems there is much more crossover these days. The
market for bikes used to be classified in just a couple of categories – standards,
cruisers, sportsbikes. Nowadays it's motocross meets streetbike, and sport tourers
with 300kph top speed! They're all doing it, but Europeans have to stick to their
core market due to limited resources. The Japanese have expanded exponentially
in all directions, not only in the motorcycle business. Honda is making jets
now.
Whose idea was the Ducati Streetfighter? What was the design brief for this
motorcycle? How happy are you with the end result and with the response that
the Streetfighter has got from Ducati fans?
Claudio Domenicali identified an opportunity to use the chassis and engine
of the 1098. Because of the new Monster 696, we had to find an alternative for
the S4Rs. At the beginning, I proposed design all across the board. From the liquid
cooled (new) Monster to the 1098 very roughly undressed or overly simplified fighter.
We rapidly decided that the ‘streetfighter’ had to have its own style. Due to time
restrictions, we decided not to modify the chassis, engine and airbox. It was
clear to me from that point that the fighter would be closely tied to the 1098.
So, identifiable details and form language are directly drawn from the 1098,
but proportions are clearly more aggressive and the lines more directional.
Also, I put it on steroids, so more muscle. I really wanted it as the
pissed-off alternative to the 1098!
Of course no creator is ever satisfied with his own creation; they're many
items I wish had survived the industrialisation. The original design brief I
wrote, stated the bike would not have any unnecessary covers, rather making the
part under beautiful, so it wouldn't need any cover. Another design prerogative
was to make it a 160kg/160bhp motorcycle. We blew it somehow but not by much
and certainly those figures remain easily reachable. Overall, I am quite
satisfied, considering the complexity of the project.
Proportionally the Streetfighter is very short, narrow and directional. The
goal was to keep most of the volumes contained in the perimeter of the frame.
Proportions are the most important aspect of design; the rest is detail. In
terms of integration, creating a sense of unity was one of the biggest challenges.
Unlike a faired bike, bodywork and surfaces are interrupted by mechanical
components. I spent many long nights making sure the headlight was integrated with
the rest of the bike even though it was quite detached in space. The key was to
allow the gas tank to grow forward around the fork tubes, and bridge that gap
by aligning in space the surfaces of both elements. Overall, I kept the bodywork
on top of its mechanical functional part. In term of surface treatment, I wanted
fluid surfaces, along with clear and sharp character lines.
You must understand it's more complex redesigning around an existing base than
starting from the ground up where you have a little more control over layout
issues. This bike was conceived covered and all that stuff had to disappear. I
have to pay tribute to the patience and perseverance of the development team in
charge of producing the bike; they're the ones who really made the
Streetfighter, not me. Time-wise, and considering the concepts we had decided
during the clay stage, it turned out to be an engineering nightmare; but I
think they really pulled it off!
The response of Ducati fans, first internally has been very good, then the bike
won best of Milan Show. I guess that means something. I still get criticism about
the headlight, the belly pan (I hate it by the way!) or from people who only
saw pictures of it. But once they have seen it physically and felt it's volume,
size and proportions from all angles, critics have the tendency to vanish. At
the end, can't please them all, right? I can't wait to see personalised
Streetfighters. And I dream of making a ‘director's cut’ version; all carbon
and AL bodywork, MB radiators etc. And 160bhp/160kg.
From the Ducati 851 to the 1198, how has motorcycle design changed?
From craftsmanship to industrial process, computers, the way we draw, the
way we introduce a bike to management... Nowadays, executives have an
anticipated preview of what the bike will be. The goal is to provide more
evaluation opportunities and provide choices, options. We draw the bikes, many
of them, so executives can choose early. This is necessary because compared to
20 years ago, many more departments are involved in bringing a bike to the
market. Many more suppliers are involved and their location is often quite far
away. Quality expectations have evolved and the earlier you can test the final design,
the more time you have to remediate possible failures or problems. It's a chain
of events, the faster the design is frozen, the more efficient will be the
industrialisation process.
Designers are just an element in the team, but we are at the beginning of the
process. we have the responsibility of controlling the aesthetics of the bike
in a macroscopic way. This is achieved only by lots of visual communication and
understanding of each other’s responsibilities. The bike must be beautiful, but
it must work perfectly too, then it must sell. This has to be a common goal of
the team.
Between the Ducati 916, the 999 and the 1198, which one would you choose?
And why?
I would choose the 916 because it became such a design icon, a classic. At
the end we always come back to that bike. If I wanted performance before all I
would choose the 1198, but the 916 is our [Porsche] 911 and if you offered me
the choice between a current Cayman or a 1993 911, I choose the original.
Among older Ducatis, which one is your personal favourite?
I really love the F1, which is my favourite, the 1972 Ducati 750 Imola and
the 916.
If you had full, complete freedom to design an all-out superbike, a
replacement for the 1198, what would that bike be like?
It would have to be identifiable as a Ducati in any colour without any logo; just
gorgeous by any standards! The bike would be small, very aggressive, it would
have a pair of eyes and flowing lines, shapes inspired from nature, designed by
wind tunnel. A mix of the 916 and Desmosedici. Its beauty would come from its
purpose. Don't you find that Formula 1 cars have such an intrinsic beauty due
to their absolute function-oriented shape? I'd like people to think at first
glance, ‘That is the F1 of motorcycles!’ And it would be red.
Note: I did this interview with Damien Basset in 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment