[bacchus40]

that was 0-150, not the 1/4 mile.

damnit... so now you expect me to read posts too!!??? lmao :flex:

:2bitchsla

my mistake.. i'll go shoot myself now.. :bash
comments removed :shake:sing:

 

[marcaztls]

agree to a point. although i'm sure a few r6 riders would disagree.....:sneaky

to me (like you mentioned) the Pani has to be good where it matters. at 9 & 10/10s. the rest is details.

i always get the feeling when i read your mag (and the lesser UK ones) that your lot expect pointy-end sportbikes to be good at a farty pace on the street, perhaps even a bit unreasonably?

granted, that's what a big # of your readers care about. But to me, it seems a bit like testing a bazooka in a phone booth.

Honestly Roc, ride one mate :fact

I'm not too naive to think that one man's poison can't be another man's medicine, but if I'd just spent 20 fowsand pounds on a bike, and I was going along the rode at 80mph in thrid gear, and as my mate ahead pulls out on his GSXR750 to overtake a car, I'd have to change down to 2nd to keep up, I'd be questioning what the makers of the bike wanted me to enjoy about it, other than the badge and the looks.

And if I'm following my other mate on an '08 'Blade who wheelies as he overtakes the car, I'd be using all 180+bhp to get me to the nearest Duke dealer and ask for my money back...

I think what Ducati have intended for the bike is obvious. It's a base for a racebike primarily, and they didn't really have much of a secondary plan for it as a roadbike sadly. They've styled it nicely, loaded it with electronic aids and suspension adjustment because they know it'll sell regardless of how bad the engine is for road use and 90% of track use. The people that will eventually end up riding the factory bikes should be those top class riders who can use the peak power in the last two or three thousand of the rev range and then Ducati will be satisfied it's a job well done.

Lets face it, the 749 and 999 are widely regarded as fugly bikes, but it didn't stop them selling. The 1199 is fugly on the inside...

Yet again, ride one Roc. If you can, take it round a track where you know what times you can do on more conventional bikes. PB write about (or at least try to) bikes that can be used primarily on the road, where most of the bike buying public will use them for most of their lives. If you don't get near your usual lap times on the Ducati, then hopefully Motorcycle Racer will try to exaplin why.

Just for the record too, two other PB journo's loved it. Horses for course and all that.

 

[adey]

The one I rode a couple of weeks ago left me with a very different impression Adey... I absolutely hated it.

It's the most beautiful production bike I've ever seen, with the worst engine I've ever ridden on. And that's not to mention the horrendous fuelling at town speeds, hunting like mad, and the handling on the standard settings at least (I didn't fiddle) is terrible. Like it's got a hinge in the middle. The fornt and rear are complately mismatched, soft front, hard rear as all Ducati's come with.

The engine though, that thing is unforgiveable. It's so oversquare there's no hope of any torque low down, in fact as you accelerate the torque actually FALLS.

Here's an overlay of a Tricolore with Termi's and mapping, versus an 1198S with cans too:

Ducati should be ashamed of that... On the road, 5k rpm, third gear, crack the throttle, and it actually feels like it bogs down as torque falls off and power hardly builds. Then there's the huge rush of power, which didn't actually feel that impressive to be honest.

Riding position is weird, it's got bars the width of OCC choppers. There's no need for them to be that wide as the bike steers with minimal input and it's a complete contrast to the waist of the bike being as narrow as it is. It just feels 'wrong'.

ABS and the mirrors are the best I've used on a Ducati though...

And that's before looking at the design... Let's bolt a metre long subframe directly to the rear cylinder head and then expect that to survive any sort of crash.

Sorry, useless motorcycle. Art, yes. Motorcycle, no.

I agree with you about the motor around town. It did feel a bit tamed, but I wasn't getting too aggressive with the throttle since the tires were brand new. I'll be able to give a better assessment after I take it out on Sunday to put more miles on the bike.

"And that's not to mention the horrendous fuelling at town speeds, hunting like mad, and the handling on the standard settings at least (I didn't fiddle) is terrible" This is usually due to Ducati using a larger front sprocket than necessary to meet EPA regulations. My 12' Hyper feels the same way at slow speeds in the city. Quick fix is -1 tooth in the front.

I didn't have any issues with the ergos, the wider bars suit my large stature. Just gotta figure out which side of the narrow tank to rest my package against.lol

I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can open her up to see if I feel those dips in power/torque you illustrated.

 

[marcaztls]

I agree with you about the motor around town. It did feel a bit tamed, but I wasn't getting too aggressive with the throttle since the tires were brand new. I'll be able to give a better assessment after I take it out on Sunday to put more miles on the bike.

"And that's not to mention the horrendous fuelling at town speeds, hunting like mad, and the handling on the standard settings at least (I didn't fiddle) is terrible" This is usually due to Ducati using a larger front sprocket than necessary to meet EPA regulations. My 12' Hyper feels the same way at slow speeds in the city. Quick fix is -1 tooth in the front.

I didn't have any issues with the ergos, the wider bars suit my large stature. Just gotta figure out which side of the narrow tank to rest my package against.lol

I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can open her up to see if I feel those dips in power/torque you illustrated.

If you need to drop the front sprocket on a bike that only tops out at 177mph then there's another thing they didn't do very well...

But I get what you mean though. I've spoken to two dyno operators I trust, one of them if you cut in half it would say Ducati in big red letters, and it's the fuelling, again due to the bore/stroke. It's complicated but fuelling two fast moving massive area pistons at low throttle openings isn't easy. It's never going to work as well as engines that aren't so oversquare.

The tank comment made me laugh!

If you get a chance at the wekeend, play around with the EBC and the ABS, those bits are quite cool. EBC takes some adapting too but I'd like more time to mess with it, but the ABS is as good as Honda's top systems.

 

[rm2092]

Sweet looking bike...

 

[drjak]

Wait a minute, I thought our in-house expert already deemed this motorcycle as The King, the GOAT:

http://www.r1-forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333984

"Zero Hype" if I recall correctly. Journos everywhere are fainting at even the opportunity to throw a leg over such a marvel that has "increases in just about everything". Maybe torque and fueling are the insignificant delta between "everything" and "just about everything".

:crash

KMAC, everyone here knows you are the resident expert on everything. We shan't even bother :crash

One opinion versus many contrasting but you're right as always bud :bow

Just read Ulrich's ride on it. He was pretty happy with it but said they need to throw it in the mix with the rest to decide. From everything I've read sounds like it's the real deal when pushing it. Torque and power being moved up in the RPM band was discussed months ago.

 

[racerboy88]

nice pics

 

[KMac]

KMAC, everyone here knows you are the resident expert on everything. We shan't even bother :crash

One opinion versus many contrasting but you're right as always bud :bow

Just read Ulrich's ride on it. He was pretty happy with it but said they need to throw it in the mix with the rest to decide. From everything I've read sounds like it's the real deal when pushing it. Torque and power being moved up in the RPM band was discussed months ago.

Took you long enough. :2bitchsla

 

[RSR Racer]

Honestly Roc, ride one mate :fact

I'm not too naive to think that one man's poison can't be another man's medicine, but if I'd just spent 20 fowsand pounds on a bike, and I was going along the rode at 80mph in thrid gear, and as my mate ahead pulls out on his GSXR750 to overtake a car, I'd have to change down to 2nd to keep up, I'd be questioning what the makers of the bike wanted me to enjoy about it, other than the badge and the looks.

And if I'm following my other mate on an '08 'Blade who wheelies as he overtakes the car, I'd be using all 180+bhp to get me to the nearest Duke dealer and ask for my money back...

I think what Ducati have intended for the bike is obvious. It's a base for a racebike primarily, and they didn't really have much of a secondary plan for it as a roadbike sadly. They've styled it nicely, loaded it with electronic aids and suspension adjustment because they know it'll sell regardless of how bad the engine is for road use and 90% of track use. The people that will eventually end up riding the factory bikes should be those top class riders who can use the peak power in the last two or three thousand of the rev range and then Ducati will be satisfied it's a job well done.

Lets face it, the 749 and 999 are widely regarded as fugly bikes, but it didn't stop them selling. The 1199 is fugly on the inside...

Yet again, ride one Roc. If you can, take it round a track where you know what times you can do on more conventional bikes. PB write about (or at least try to) bikes that can be used primarily on the road, where most of the bike buying public will use them for most of their lives. If you don't get near your usual lap times on the Ducati, then hopefully Motorcycle Racer will try to exaplin why.

Just for the record too, two other PB journo's loved it. Horses for course and all that.

Your opinions are very valuable and I personally would have to defer to your experiences as a rider and a reporter. Do you think the above average street rider will have any objections to downshifting a bit to "keep up"? I don't think I will mind down shifting. My race cars are geared in a similar way for different tracks. I feel that although the torque curve may have a flat spot mid range, keeping the bike at its optimal RPM for max power is part of the animal that is inherently designed into the 1199's. I feel that if I wanted a mid range torque monster, I probably would buy a different bike. Your dyno values show that although the flat spot is there, you would have to agree that the slope of the final aspect of the 1199 has a much steeper and higher final value, pound for pound, so to speak. I like the idea of keeping the power on tap at 7500 and up on the RPMS...gas isn't that expensive, after all and if one does maintain that range of at or above 7500, then the guy on the blade isn't going to have more fun than me!! Luv high rpms!!

I intend to wring the sh*t out of this b*tch and look forward to the challenge of trying to keep it in the best part of the power curves.

Thanks for the great dyno data. Will you be testing other bikes to see the variation that may exist within the line up?

 

[j@y]

comparing that chart to this one overlaying the inline fours it looks like they tamed the midrange of the 1199 compared to the 1198, BUT the topend is going to Sid Vicious clothesline you compared to ALMOST everything else out there.

 

[pitbullkiz]

Looks beast..

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Motorcycle.com App

 

[MelvinAkshay]

hmm, based on your reviews, bmw is still the liter bike king ? Anyway Ducati has always been a trophy bike. People buy it for the looks and honestly they rarely see the track.

 

[Sindarin]

Thanks for your thoughts marcaztls. This was my suspicion as well when reading the 1199 specs when it was announced. Would you think if Ducati went with a twin spark design this would help with the low speed fueling issues? KTM is going this route with its big bore engines (RC8 and the new 690 LC4). BMW has had twin spark on its boxer engines for a long time now and I have always found their fueling to be excellent.

At least the Ducati red 1199 will contrast well with the green in the Starbucks logo. :hammer:

 

[RiderR1]

Mcn already gave the superbike shoot out to the s1000rr over the panigale S

 

[greenstreak9205]

At least the Ducati red 1199 will contrast well with the green in the Starbucks logo. :hammer:

:hammer:

 

[ebags]

Mcn already gave the superbike shoot out to the s1000rr over the panigale S

And you believe what they say? :hammer:

 

[marcaztls]

And you believe what they say? :hammer:

In this instance I'd agree entirely though. The Beemer kicks the arse out of the Duke on all but the aesthetic and flashy gizmo departments.

I'm not sure if they've written about it but the BMW's optional datalogger is astoundingly good. I was blown away by that and would much rather have that over electronically adjustable suspension.

It's insanely cheap too and smartly, retro-fittable to the first gen S1000RR's.

 

[ebags]

I should have pointed out I agree with MCN regarding S1000RR vs 1199 too, but generally speaking.... :sing:

:lol you know what I'm saying!

 

[RiderR1]

Don't listen to any of the motorcycle media. I make my own opinion on the bikes.

 

[bacchus40]

. I make my own opinion on the bikes.

:bansign:









:crash j.k