In the fast lane of quality design

An article on the design of the MH900e from Telegraph Motoring Sep 2000
In three weeks we'll be bringing you a report from the Munich Motorcycle Show, at which most of the world's major bike manufacturers will be presenting their 2001 models. Like last year and 1998 too, this will mean many new machines, probably more than 100, many of them very high profile and very glamorous, such as Triumph's new twin-cylinder Bonneville, the supersports Suzuki GSX-R1000, a V-twin sports tourer from Aprilia, and many others I daren't mention because it's so near, if I get them wrong you'll remember!

Despite the array of really exciting new bikes which appear annually, there's usually one that stands out and makes all the front covers and headlines. In 1998, it was Ducati's highly innovative MH900e, a bike that blends futuristic design with styling cues taken from one of the most famous racing bikes in history, Mike Hailwood's 1978 Senior TT-winning Ducati 900SS. The MH900e incidentally is available now as a production bike, but only via Ducati's web site and not its dealer network - the original thinking has extended to the way it's being sold, very successfully too.

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Futuristic: AKA's clay mock-up of the innovative Ducati MH900e

Last year, it was the dramatic, angular lines of Benelli's three-cylinder Tornado supersports bike that grabbed the most attention, both for its arresting looks and for engineering innovation.

Both machines are Italian and were prototypes, but they have more in common: one English company was instrumental in their genesis, using its world-class design expertise and equipment to produce these near, production-ready motorcycles in an astonishingly short time. Amazingly, for AKA Design, based near Stevenage in Hertfordshire, these were the first complete motorcycles it had been involved in, yet both stole their year's major shows.

The man behind the MH900e, Ducati's design chief Pierre Terblanche, turned to AKA because he knew the company's ability to work within tight schedules. His faith proved well-founded: the MHe went from idea to show-ready prototype in only 12 weeks, a process that often takes a year. Director Paul Critchley puts this down partly to AKA's state-of-the-art design technology: "We use for example Alias AutoStudio modelling software - one licence for this costs around £60,000, and we have seven or eight here. Even BMW might only have 12, so we're right up there with the big players in this respect. We also have three- and five-axis CNC machining equipment, but it's important to understand that these are all just tools.
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"What's special about AKA is how our team operates. It's impossible for us to meet every single demand on a project, so we integrate with our customer's staff very closely. For example, Adrian Morton of Benelli was based here and not in Italy, and when Benelli boss Andrea Merloni disagreed with something, Adrian was fighting the case with us. This is far better than the usual company versus consultancy situation which so often arises."

The recently revived Benelli so far has only produced scooters, but the company's future seems based on solid foundations. "Benelli's engineering department is one of the most competent I've come across," says Critchley. He's worked with many well-known names, including TWR, Volvo, Mitsubishi, Fiat, VW and Daewoo among others, but AKA does have a problem with the car industry. "There's a perception in the larger companies that we are too small to be able to do a job properly. But we don't need 50 staff or more because of our method of involving the client company's own staff. It's a much faster and more satisfactory way of working."

The key to AKA's amazing turnaround times is producing a plan and sticking to it, says Critchley. "We lay out exactly what we're going to be achieving and by when, and adhere to it from the outset. And a belief that we can do it is crucial. With that in place, we don't have to work long hours as people expect."

Adrian Morton struggled to come to terms with this at first, expecting to be putting in many late nights on the Tornado. But AKA completed the project on time, working no more than 9am to 6pm most days, apart from the last few, when a lot of sleep was missed. "It's important to put quality, not time, into a project," says Critchley.

Ducati is in the process of setting up its own autonomous design studio, but still plans to use AKA for some jobs. "There are some things even Ducati can't justify buying," says Pierre Terblanche. "AKA has that equipment and uses it very effectively."

Although motorcycle production in England is small scale now in world terms, the knowledge and capabilities of companies such as AKA are still pivotal behind the scenes.