Breil Launch

2004 was the first year the 749RS was raced. The factory had previously campaigned a pair of 748RS's in WSS with Casoli and Xaus aboard.

Testing for 2004 began the previous year, with the specification of the bikes being fixed at the end of '03.

Since Ducati removed the original press release and pictures from their site, I have been looking for high res pictures of the Breil bike and finally found some on my old laptop and from the web.

Press release from ducati.com

2004 will be a testing year for us and we chose to have just one rider for the development of the 749R. We are entering the championship for the first time in three years, with a completely new bike, the 749R. We have to see exactly how competitive we are with these Supersport championship rules but we will make every effort to make the bike competitive.

We tried to include into the production bike all the features that we thought it would have needed directly for racing and most probably the 749R is the most advanced twin-cylinder bike ever built in the company. It’s an ongoing process for us, we will keep developing the bike throughout the season.

Racing is in our DNA and the 749R is in our sportsbike product range so in a way it was a natural decision for us to go Supersport racing. Our fans were waiting for us to race the 749R, so here we are and we will try to do the best possible this year and develop the bike further with the aim of running a two-rider team in 2005.

Claudio Domenicali
CEO Ducati Corse

This picture clearly shows the titanium belt adjusters, race radiator and cooler, kevlar oil lines and oil pressure sensor. The clutch cover is carried over from the 748RS.

Potentiometer to record shock performance.

Race term system. Note the lack of road fixings.