Ducati Developing Sportbike Auto-Clutch

Automatic and semi-automatic transmissions have been a hotbed of development in recent years with the likes of Yamaha, KTM, and BMW joining longtime proponent Honda in launching mainstream models fitted with self-shifters. That list of manufacturers doesn’t include one of the most tech-heavy bike companies of all, Ducati, but in the near future the Italian brand looks set to join the fray with its own take on the technology.

A brace of patent applications filed by Ducati reveal that the firm’s engineers are working on a halfway-house toward a full or semi-automatic gearshift, with a system that automates the operation of the clutch while leaving it down to the rider to swap cogs conventionally using a foot lever. That’s not a first, of course. MV Agusta’s SCS (Smart Clutch System) combines a centrifugal clutch with a quickshifter to relieve the rider’s left hand of lever duties, while Honda’s more recent E-Clutch system adds an actuator and computer-control unit to an otherwise conventional clutch, allowing the bike to take over clutch operation while retaining a completely conventional manual control if you prefer to do the work yourself.

Ducati’s system is closer to the Honda E-Clutch than to its Italian rival MV Agusta’s SCS, and like the Honda design it uses a computer-control unit and an electromechanical actuator to work in parallel with the conventional clutch lever, allowing the choice of a manual or auto-clutch mode and always leaving the rider with a manual override. However, it operates quite differently to the Honda design, as Ducati’s auto-clutch is hydraulically controlled rather than cable-operated.

Related: Honda E-Clutch-Equipped CBR650R/CB650R First Ride

There are two variants of the system explained in Ducati’s patent applications, both operating identically as far as the rider is concerned, but taking a different route to the same goal. The simplest version is designed to be easily incorporated into existing bikes with hydraulic clutches, and has four main components. There’s the computer-control unit that operates the system, connected to an electromechanical actuator that’s essentially an electric motor that spins a threaded rod inserted into a ball screw assembly, which runs up and down the threaded rod depending on the direction that the motor spins. That, in turn, operates a thrust rod into a hydraulic clutch master cylinder. Those parts are present on both versions of the Ducati design.

On the first version, that master cylinder is hydraulically connected to a new clutch lever cylinder with an additional piston and fluid chamber. It can work like a conventional master cylinder, so when you squeeze the clutch lever it moves a piston, pushing fluid down the line to the slave cylinder at the clutch, but there’s also another chamber and piston, connected to the first master cylinder operated by the electromechanical actuator. In short, it means that either the clutch lever or the actuator can apply pressure to the hydraulic system, operating the clutch.

The second variant eliminates the lever-operated cylinder, instead directly connecting the actuator-operated master cylinder to the slave cylinder on the clutch. There’s still a clutch lever on the left bar, but instead of a mechanical connection to the clutch, it’s wired to the electronic control unit. Pull the lever in and it tells the electromechanical actuator to extend, pushing fluid through the hoses to disengage the clutch.

Both versions offer the same benefits, which are similar to those of Honda’s E-Clutch. There’s no need to use the clutch lever at all if you prefer not to, with the electronics automatically disengaging it when you come to a halt and reengaging it when you twist the throttle to pull away. Alternatively, you can use the clutch manually, with the system as a safety net, providing an anti-stall capability.

Ducati also specifies that there is a launch control mode for the system, so you can open the throttle and dump the clutch then rely on the electronics to juggle the throttle opening and clutch position to maximize acceleration. And finally there’s a gear-shift strategy for the system, working in harmony with a load sensor in the foot-operated shift mechanism to engage and disengage the clutch suitably during up- and downshifts, while the engine management deals with automatically blipping the throttle to rev-match.

In the patent applications, Ducati points out that its system is designed specifically with racing and high-performance bikes, offering a level of speed and precision that rival designs can’t achieve. Notably, by incorporating the system into a production bike, Ducati could skirt rules banning automated clutches from WSBK and WSS racing, since the FIM technical rule book states: “No power source (i.e., hydraulic or electric) can be used for clutch operation, if not installed in the homologated model for road use.” (Emphasis ours.)