HiYa Guy's,
In the last couple of weeks I was given the keys for a 2 hour demo ride of
the two bikes that are available from my local Ducati dealer.
Well they were like chalk and cheese, but not most people would expect an
old 55 year old bikie to say.
The 1098S Superbike was for me, a far more a suitable road bike than the
Mulistrada.
I found the 1100cc Multi to have an engine as rough as gut's, not happy at
all unless 4000+ rpm was on the tacho. It snatched and protested and up to
80kph ,stayed in third gear by my choice, as any higher (out of 6) was not
on.
I think it would have needed abour 400 kph in top gear to run smooth.
Riding in morning stop & go traffic was a killer on the clutch hand,
keeping the clutch slipping to make steady motion achievable.
Seat comfort was poor, and the legs were not happy as the peg placement
didn't suit my 1800mm height either.
Happily Ducati have fixed the screen buffetting of the first 1000cc model.
It was overgeared to buggery, and I think the 1100 is worse in that area.
Mirror's blurred all the time, and adjustment was not possible as the bike
was set up for someone shorter than me, but that doesn't fix the blurring
does it?
The digital speedo/tacho was unreadable on the go, due to vibration.
Needless to say, I was glad to have a police motorcycle leading my way for
a
good 30 minutes, once out of the city traffic in the mountains, as this
really added to my testing of the high speed handling (not). Once he
parked
to set up to hide his hand held radar, I was panaroid he was behind me,
due
to the useless mirrors!
The Cheeese
The 1098 was a delight in comparison. It moves on from the fugly 999, in
most way's,
Ergonomics are good, not the nut cruncher of the 749/999, but not in the
excellent roadbike way of the Suzuki GSXR1000 K6.
The 1098 is a race bike first and last, and in that light, is good for
several hours in the saddle.
The motor is very reasonable at low rev's, say 1500 to 3000 rpm, and
smooths
out well after that to 5000, and I didn't have the chance to go higher,
due
to the curvy mountain road. It makes the 1100cc 2 valver seem like the old
dinosaur it is.
The mirror's are still a problem, but I could sort of make out the make of
car behind me, but when one bloke wanted to race me, it was not really on
,
as I could not be sure if there was a police car behind him or not. The
mirrors are convex to give a wider field of view, but make every thing
look
small and distant.
It drinks fuel pretty fast, and half way of my 2 hour trip, the reserve
lamp
was on, and slowed things down till I could refuel.
8.85 litres filled the tank to about 70 mm from the filler neck, so I
think
it doesn't hold much.
The instrument glass is plastic, and was very scratched & slightly milky
from dry poli****ng, and when the sun shone on it at most angles, turned it
into a prism of rainbow's, and was useless, as was the vibration harmonics
at some rev's, blurring the display.
For the $36 000 Australian Dollars, I would rather have my $19 000
GSXR1000,
and keep the change, but as a Troy Ballyiss Clone, it feels really good to
be envied in traffic, by other salavating bikies!!!!
In a couple of weeks, the dealer want's to twist my arm and force me to
take
out the S****t Classic ****d 1000, to see if my bad experience of the 2
valve
motor is just me or that particular Mulistrada 1100 bike.
I really think the Multistrada would be better suited with the 800cc
Monster
motor, and the 620 would be enough for a single rider, if my prevous rides
on the Monsters are transferrable.
Thanks for reading this, and I dont think I pinched too much bandwith on
this Newsgroup, as only the Lost Ducati Riders pass down this road, so it
seems.!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the read,
Rob.
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