AntonLargiader
11-06-2007, 08:06 PM
I get to Earle's house, still a few hours of daylight left and he has a new-to-him 748S. This was meant to be.
Low miles, box stock (except for the obligatory cutaway clutch cover), yellow & white. I sit on it. I feel like my ass is higher than my hands, and the bike is VERY short. Photos subsequently confirm both impressions.
Man does that thing sound nice. A quick familiarization lap around the industrial park tells me that I'm actually a very inexperienced rider and should take things pretty easy. OK.
Off we go. Down a few familiar streets, lean the thing a bit. Cold day, don't want to do anything too bold. Man does this thing sound sweet! The turn signal switch is just wrong and I hit the horn when I try to cancel it. Their guys need to talk to BMW's guys.
I'm keeping the revs up, not because it's "only" 748cc but because it's just so nice to listen to the upshifting and downshifting. Oh, the shifting. Upshifting, it feels like nothing has happened, that the lever was just stuck in place. But the bike is in the next gear. Downshifting has quite a bit of feedback, though, but after riding for a while it wasn't anything I remembered.
Must be a bump in the powerband somewhere right in the middle; giving it a little goose to float the front wheel over a bump suddenly (and I mean suddenly) has me pointed at the treetops right before a corner! Damn! OK, drop it down, turn it in, hmmm gotta watch out for that. My friend Jim reported the same sort of surprise. Might be a riding style issue, you think?
Gradually I get used to it, as much as I can on a cold day on a gorgeous bike that's not mine. It is super-solid, just as well-planted as I could want. The chassis is perfectly neutral regardless of whether I'm bolt-upright or hanging off a little. Hanging one cheek off the saddle works a bit better, though. Bumps in the corners? No problem. At a traffic light I bounced the suspension a bit. It felt like the rebound was a bit too strong in the front, but the front and rear were well matched so any adjustments I made would have to involve both ends. Not worth it.
The bike had fresh Pirelli Diablos. Fresh, as in less than 100 miles on them and very little cornering. At least once I felt the back slither around a bit; could have been the fresh rubber, the cold pavement, tire pressure, or the road. In any case, the composure of that chassis (and probably the nature of the tires) made the slides a non-issue. One of these was what I described as my "Rossi Moment" coming through a left turn towards a dropoff in the pavement where I planned to float the front wheel down onto the next straightway. Halfway through the turn, rolling on the throttle for the straight, the rear wheel starts to walk out to the side (there was some dirt on the pavement but I thought I was inside it) and right when it's in mid-slide, just before the dropoff, the front wheel slowly comes up and I head into the straight on the rear wheel, in a slight slide. I'm sure it wasn't exactly MotoGP-level riding I was doing, but it sure felt like it! And the thing is, I never felt like I needed to back off or do something drastic to save myself; it was just doing that and I was riding it.
I think the main thing I was not used to was an actual power-to-weight factor. Even the more sporty Beemers pretty much just have a weight factor, and certainly the ones I'm used to riding do. But the Ducati has enough power (and low enough weight) that breaking the rear loose under power is very real. It's a new concept.
It's nowhere near comfortable. I constantly reminded myself to support my weight with my hips, keep the weight off my hands, but my wrists were still killing me halfway through the ride. I think pulling the bars back a few more degrees would have helped with the hand angle, but I didn't check to see if there was clearance at the tank for that. At speed, though, (and this really only happened once or twice on that ride) everything changes. I'm not saying it would be a comfortable interstate bike but the pressure on the hands is gone at 80+.
Later in the ride I kept the revs down so I could hear yet another great engine noise - lower in pitch this time - as I rolled on the throttle. Kept running out of clear road, though. It just sounds so good. At 3k, at 4k, at 5k.....
On a subsequent ride, I would check the tire pressures (probably go with 30 on a day like that to ensure they got a bit warm) and familiarize myself with the suspension. With the bike weighing barely three times what I weigh, I suspect tuning the chassis to the rider is even more critical than on heavier bikes.
I'm not sure there's a place for a bike like that in my life. It's a hoot on the road, but how long before I meet the wrong cop? Would I actually take this bike to the track? Would the lifters self-destruct, the wiring catch on fire, something even worse? How would I feel if I tossed it at the track? Tom would be all over me calling me an idiot for not buying a $1500 Gixxer instead. Hmm. Maybe a pre-crashed one; then I could buy race plastic and do a cheap Tricolore paint scheme.
Lots of Ducati info on the web. Just Google it. Some decent ones were:
http://www.yoshimune.com/748/
http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/ducati/first-ride-year-2000-ducati-748-14387.html
http://www.motorcycle.com/shoot-outs/2001-world-supersport-shootout-15642.htm
Lots of fun. Thanks, Earle.
Low miles, box stock (except for the obligatory cutaway clutch cover), yellow & white. I sit on it. I feel like my ass is higher than my hands, and the bike is VERY short. Photos subsequently confirm both impressions.
Man does that thing sound nice. A quick familiarization lap around the industrial park tells me that I'm actually a very inexperienced rider and should take things pretty easy. OK.
Off we go. Down a few familiar streets, lean the thing a bit. Cold day, don't want to do anything too bold. Man does this thing sound sweet! The turn signal switch is just wrong and I hit the horn when I try to cancel it. Their guys need to talk to BMW's guys.
I'm keeping the revs up, not because it's "only" 748cc but because it's just so nice to listen to the upshifting and downshifting. Oh, the shifting. Upshifting, it feels like nothing has happened, that the lever was just stuck in place. But the bike is in the next gear. Downshifting has quite a bit of feedback, though, but after riding for a while it wasn't anything I remembered.
Must be a bump in the powerband somewhere right in the middle; giving it a little goose to float the front wheel over a bump suddenly (and I mean suddenly) has me pointed at the treetops right before a corner! Damn! OK, drop it down, turn it in, hmmm gotta watch out for that. My friend Jim reported the same sort of surprise. Might be a riding style issue, you think?
Gradually I get used to it, as much as I can on a cold day on a gorgeous bike that's not mine. It is super-solid, just as well-planted as I could want. The chassis is perfectly neutral regardless of whether I'm bolt-upright or hanging off a little. Hanging one cheek off the saddle works a bit better, though. Bumps in the corners? No problem. At a traffic light I bounced the suspension a bit. It felt like the rebound was a bit too strong in the front, but the front and rear were well matched so any adjustments I made would have to involve both ends. Not worth it.
The bike had fresh Pirelli Diablos. Fresh, as in less than 100 miles on them and very little cornering. At least once I felt the back slither around a bit; could have been the fresh rubber, the cold pavement, tire pressure, or the road. In any case, the composure of that chassis (and probably the nature of the tires) made the slides a non-issue. One of these was what I described as my "Rossi Moment" coming through a left turn towards a dropoff in the pavement where I planned to float the front wheel down onto the next straightway. Halfway through the turn, rolling on the throttle for the straight, the rear wheel starts to walk out to the side (there was some dirt on the pavement but I thought I was inside it) and right when it's in mid-slide, just before the dropoff, the front wheel slowly comes up and I head into the straight on the rear wheel, in a slight slide. I'm sure it wasn't exactly MotoGP-level riding I was doing, but it sure felt like it! And the thing is, I never felt like I needed to back off or do something drastic to save myself; it was just doing that and I was riding it.
I think the main thing I was not used to was an actual power-to-weight factor. Even the more sporty Beemers pretty much just have a weight factor, and certainly the ones I'm used to riding do. But the Ducati has enough power (and low enough weight) that breaking the rear loose under power is very real. It's a new concept.
It's nowhere near comfortable. I constantly reminded myself to support my weight with my hips, keep the weight off my hands, but my wrists were still killing me halfway through the ride. I think pulling the bars back a few more degrees would have helped with the hand angle, but I didn't check to see if there was clearance at the tank for that. At speed, though, (and this really only happened once or twice on that ride) everything changes. I'm not saying it would be a comfortable interstate bike but the pressure on the hands is gone at 80+.
Later in the ride I kept the revs down so I could hear yet another great engine noise - lower in pitch this time - as I rolled on the throttle. Kept running out of clear road, though. It just sounds so good. At 3k, at 4k, at 5k.....
On a subsequent ride, I would check the tire pressures (probably go with 30 on a day like that to ensure they got a bit warm) and familiarize myself with the suspension. With the bike weighing barely three times what I weigh, I suspect tuning the chassis to the rider is even more critical than on heavier bikes.
I'm not sure there's a place for a bike like that in my life. It's a hoot on the road, but how long before I meet the wrong cop? Would I actually take this bike to the track? Would the lifters self-destruct, the wiring catch on fire, something even worse? How would I feel if I tossed it at the track? Tom would be all over me calling me an idiot for not buying a $1500 Gixxer instead. Hmm. Maybe a pre-crashed one; then I could buy race plastic and do a cheap Tricolore paint scheme.
Lots of Ducati info on the web. Just Google it. Some decent ones were:
http://www.yoshimune.com/748/
http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/ducati/first-ride-year-2000-ducati-748-14387.html
http://www.motorcycle.com/shoot-outs/2001-world-supersport-shootout-15642.htm
Lots of fun. Thanks, Earle.