Who Wants to Ride Ducatis? (Saturday Aug 21)

[G.Irish]

Coleman Woodbridge is having a demo ride day on Saturday. I want to go down and take spin on a R1 and 1198S but they'll have Hypertards, Monsters, and the like available for demo rides as well. They're also putting helmets and gear on sale.

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My roommate (not RJ) just got a Ninja 250 so I'm gonna try to convince him to head on down to at least try on some gear. Maybe test ride a Monster or something. Anyone else game? I'm gonna try to be there before 10.

[.RJ]

Shit...

[Kaan]

DOH! i'll be at summit!

[G.Irish]

As expected it was a lot of fun. Tim and I got there a little bit before ten and were the second ones to sign up. I signed up for the R1, 1198S, and 848; Tim rode the Monster 796 and R6. I was actually kind of surprised but people really didn't start showing up until after 12. If I had the time I would've rode the Multistrada and R6 too but I wasn't terribly interested in either so no big loss.

The demo route was pretty basic, only a few nice turns to work with but I did get a chance to get on the power a bit with each bike. The R1 and 1198 both felt pretty stout from the low end on up but ultimately they didn't feel faster than my CBR. I think part of that is that both the R1 and 1198 have a flatter torque curve so you didn't get that rush of speed as you increase the revs. One thing I've loved about the 3 bikes I tried is the sound. They all sounded so good I was leaving them in first everywhere just so I could hear more of that engine note.

Handling-wise the 1198 was the slowest to turn, the R1 less so, and my bike the fastest turning. If I could put 1000's I've ridden in order of nimbleness it would be CBR, ZX-10, R1, 1198, RC8. One thing that was a little bit weird was that all of the bikes I demoed had a different feel as I was leaning over to the standard inline-4's I've ridden. It's hard to explain but the feedback from the handlebars was different, like the gyroscopic forces had changed or something.

The only major gripe I had was the heat coming off those engines. The R1 in particular was damned near bbq'ing my inner thighs. On the rides where I was on the Ducatis whoever was on the R1 would turn off the bike at the long stop light or would be sticking their legs out to avoid the heat. And this was on 86 degree. I'd hate to be riding that thing when it's 95 out. The Ducatis were hot too but less so.