I have been looking at the reviews of the 1199 and I’m not sold. All the reviews proclaim this to be the bike of the future and then it proceeds to get out run, out turned, and out everything on the road & track. I recently spent a few hours waiting in the showroom of a Ducati dealer and studying the bike while waiting for my Busa to be dyno tuned. It’s stunningly beautiful, comfortable to sit on and looks really slick. But is that enough? It looks much more stunning in photos than in person. In person it looks like a really great looking Ducati. I would say that the Aprillia is as beautiful, but it's more like a cool weapon and the Ducati is a beautiful sclupture.
In one review in Bike magazine, the guy was having trouble keeping up with a K6 GSXR1000 with lots of race pieces. I’m thinking did I read that right? In a recent comparison of European superbikes in another magazine it came in 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] out of 4, the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] being the MV F4! Also, what’s the point of a V-twin without the low end grunt? The V-twin doesn’t turn as easy due to all that rotational mass, doesn’t rev as high, etc. Ducati seems to have worked against the laws of physics on the 1199 engine but I wouldn’t bet on the long term reliability of pistons cut that much moving at those speeds in the cylinder.
As for the electronics they are awesome. The electronically adjusted shocks are neat, as you can have settings for sport and street switch automatically with mode. That’s really what the fuss seems to be all about – mode switching of the suspension and the color instrument display. But for it all to really be a step forward, they need a sensor on the forks and shock to measure sag and adjust the preload based on the rider weight. Without that, it’s all just a convenient trick.
I still can’t get introducing a new race replica and then not racing it. Isn’t that basically an admission that the bike has issues?
I’m not totally knocking the bike, it’s a really awesome piece of engineering and I applaud Ducati for being the feisty little guy. But the BMW seems to still be the better performer (at a whopping $14,000 less than the top of the line 1199) and the Aprilla seems to have all the wizardry in a package that’s race ready and has a peach of a V-4 engine. I know, when you are in race mode you have to adjust the suspension before setting out on the track – is that really that big of a deal?
And yes, this was written to poke you Ducati loyalists, but it is interesting to look at the current crop of bikes:
1. The BMW is basic, affordable and dominant. How can you find fault in engineering this good at $16K?
2. The Aprilia is like riding a real SBK.
3. The ZX10R is a great, low-key easy to ride bike. In many ways it's like a Suzuki, not a Ninja.
4. The Ducati is a gadgety piece of art that frankly puts performance second.
5. The Honda & Suzuki are the best of a past generation - still formidable and cheap in comparison.
In one review in Bike magazine, the guy was having trouble keeping up with a K6 GSXR1000 with lots of race pieces. I’m thinking did I read that right? In a recent comparison of European superbikes in another magazine it came in 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] out of 4, the 4[SUP]th[/SUP] being the MV F4! Also, what’s the point of a V-twin without the low end grunt? The V-twin doesn’t turn as easy due to all that rotational mass, doesn’t rev as high, etc. Ducati seems to have worked against the laws of physics on the 1199 engine but I wouldn’t bet on the long term reliability of pistons cut that much moving at those speeds in the cylinder.
As for the electronics they are awesome. The electronically adjusted shocks are neat, as you can have settings for sport and street switch automatically with mode. That’s really what the fuss seems to be all about – mode switching of the suspension and the color instrument display. But for it all to really be a step forward, they need a sensor on the forks and shock to measure sag and adjust the preload based on the rider weight. Without that, it’s all just a convenient trick.
I still can’t get introducing a new race replica and then not racing it. Isn’t that basically an admission that the bike has issues?
I’m not totally knocking the bike, it’s a really awesome piece of engineering and I applaud Ducati for being the feisty little guy. But the BMW seems to still be the better performer (at a whopping $14,000 less than the top of the line 1199) and the Aprilla seems to have all the wizardry in a package that’s race ready and has a peach of a V-4 engine. I know, when you are in race mode you have to adjust the suspension before setting out on the track – is that really that big of a deal?
And yes, this was written to poke you Ducati loyalists, but it is interesting to look at the current crop of bikes:
1. The BMW is basic, affordable and dominant. How can you find fault in engineering this good at $16K?
2. The Aprilia is like riding a real SBK.
3. The ZX10R is a great, low-key easy to ride bike. In many ways it's like a Suzuki, not a Ninja.
4. The Ducati is a gadgety piece of art that frankly puts performance second.
5. The Honda & Suzuki are the best of a past generation - still formidable and cheap in comparison.