"Honey, I Spent The Aga Budget…"

Categories: Bikes Diary Reviews

Time for a new toy. My old faithful STealth – my ST4s – has served me well for four years and it's a keeper, as a supremely capable all-round machine, so I'm looking for something more specific and more focussed for play on the local roads. Which is where the first of many dilemmas kicks in – which toy for which roads? Around here there are ballistically-fast, sweeping A-roads with sudden sections of tight twisties: that'll be a Ducati 1098S then. Then there are the smaller glen roads - rising and falling, twisting and turning back on themselves as they follow the edges of the lochs: much more Monster or KTM SuperDuke territory. Finally, there are bikes that seek the best compromise for all of these, plus my kilometre of potholed Belgium-on-a-bad-day drive: possibly a Multistrada 1100S - in fact if the Multistrada had the Testastretta engine, it would have been a shoo-in - I've ridden the earlier incarnation enough to know just how good a chassis they've got. But hang on, we're not talking about looking for an all-rounder here: we're looking for the maximum of engagement, hoot-inducing fun and the ability to get from A to B, usually via C to Z, with as much flair as possible and a decent tank range, given the distance between filling stations hereabouts. So I'm off to Ducati Glasgow to sample a selection of their range.

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Posted by Richard at 06:16 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I have seen the Future…

Categories: Bikes Diary

….and it goes "whirrrr".

I spent today at meetings in London: it was hot, dirty and noisy and I was contributing both considerable decibelage and a fug of semi-combusted hydrocarbons to the ambience by whomping around on a 1000cc Ducati. At regular intervals the phrase, "there has to be a better way to do this", kept springing to mind. Of course, my bicycle would have been perfect for the job. Had I been able to get it there: with a despairingly predictable lack of joined-up thinking on transport and the environment, the UK government has allowed the rail operators to ban bicycles from most services. Which has rather put a stop to that.

This evening however I've found that better way: I went somewhere else in space and time, to where the whole future arrives, not with a bang, but with a muted whirring - to my first close encounter with the ENV – the world's first dedicated fuel cell powered motorcycle.

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Posted by Richard at 11:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

DesmoSedici RR, Oh my…

Categories: Bikes

I'm not impressed by power. No, really. If I were, I could have bought any of the current crop of Übersportsbikes for less than I paid for my Ducati, had another 45bhp in my right hand and a license in the shredder. I'm much more interested in handling, real-world performance, and maybe a little bit of cool engineering style. However…

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Posted by Richard at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)

Butting In…

Categories: Bikes Tech

The Ducati STx bikes have pretty good seats. For a Ducati. That actually doesn't do them justice – several 500 mile-plus days without major pain, loss of feeling or feelings of self-flagellation have demonstrated that. However, to be picky, the side ridges of the rider's perch can start digging into the inner thigh after a few hundred miles, and one 600-mile two-up epic revealed a few, ah, points of discomfort for my uncomplaining pillion – it wasn't anything she said as much as the very fine John Wayne impression she did on dismounting. So several alternatives presented themselves: the buy-in, from Corbin or Sargent, a new model year Ducati OEM seat (they're distinctly plusher on the butt) or the full custom route.

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Posted by Richard at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How far? On a what?!

Categories: Bikes Tech

“You go touring. On a Ducati? – so where's the tow truck?” – if I'd had a quid (Eng. coll: unit of currency) for every time I'd heard that from fellow bikers, I'd be at least a couple of dozen cappucinos to the good. So here' we are, three years and 31,000 miles down the line, and me and the Stealth Bomber are not only still hanging around together, but doing very well – I haven't even managed to drop it yet, despite one panic-fuelled deadlift of 210kg – a strained muscle was self-healing, fairings aren't. So, 31,000 miles in three years, on a Ducati. Without a support vehicle? (remembering that the average annual mileage of a Ducati in the UK is 2,500) Er, yes actually, so it's probably worth a review of the score so far – let's see just how temperamental these 'fragile' Italian beasts really are. First, the vital statistics:

Number of breakdowns: 0.
Number of no-starts: 0.
Number of not-quite starts: 1 (cold day and dodgy battery - replaced under warranty).
Number of stops on-the-road: 0 (although a worn-out wheel bearing discovered at the Nurburgring caused some nervous twitching).

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Posted by Richard at 11:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack