It's a now common maneuver: during Grand Prix starts, the three factory Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso, Danilo Petrucci and Jack Miller take on the appearance of dragsters by locking their rear suspension in the low position to lower their center of gravity in order to counter the tendency to wheelie.
This allows them to use a little more power with the same wheelie, and therefore to make good starts. Arriving at the end of the straight, the riders disengage the system using a rotary lever placed on the triple clamp.
This device has been used for a long time in cross country by blocking the fork, and also seems to have been tried without much success by the Gresini team with Álvaro Bautista for Honda in 2012.
According to information from the site speedweek, however, this is the solution that was tried Aleix Espargaro on his Aprilia for the first time during the test in Brno.
The Spanish rider has not yet given any feedback on this experience, but already, the cross specialists that are the men of KTM illustrate the weak point of this provision.
Mike leitner : “The thing with these starting devices that I know is that they make a motorcycle less agile. In motocross, everyone stands and starts on the same line. It's about who comes out of the starting gate best. But if the fork is lowered by a mechanically controlled lever at the start of a GP, the maneuvering of the racing machine becomes cumbersome. If, for example, you start from the 4th row and you have to avoid an opponent in front, immediately after the start, you must accept the obvious disadvantages of such a starting arrangement.
This is probably why Ducati chose to block the rear…
