Ok guys get you coffeee and a few biccies,sit down and enjoy the read!
Well collecting a new bike and travelling 700km plus in two days is asking quite a lot especially when the bike you have selected is not what you would choose as first choice for such a trek!
What became apparent to me very early is that this bike is a whole different dimension to anything I have actually ridden before...this when acnowledging that I have owned some pretty wicked pieces of kit in my time.
Out on the highway it just strides out there completely effortlessly, I could wind on from 4000revs in 6th and she would just get on with it. In top you cruise at about 4500 revs and are doing already considerably more than the speed limit here!
Something that I had to learn real quickly was the fact that down changing to the correct gear when slowing to a stop was very important, if you had not gone down low enough before the stop there was almost no chance of clicking down to 1st or neutral. Found that using more gearbox braking than the Brembos was the best action.
I am not the smallest of blokes and the bike is relatively small,but I did not feel like I was over powering it as you really do have the sensation of sitting "in" the bike and becoming as one with it.
On my hoon across Spain I was having car drivers happily move over for me,locals in pueblecitos(villages) stop to watch me go by, the pump man in the petrol station happy to engage in conversation, motorists at road side cafe's engage me in chit chat. I pulled in to a hotel in the sticks and a group of young local lads gathered around the bike to admire it, I chatted to them and they were really pleased that this foreign city boy with the erection provoking bike was happy to shoot the breeze with them!
So we arrived home mid Friday afternoon and had already rang my pal Jose at the local bike shop to see if I could get the chain adjusted there.No problem called in and done in 15 mins and was sent on my way with a bag of all manner of cleaning goodies and chain lube! She is booked in for an oil change on Tuesday as she must have been sitting around quite a lot before I got her due to the low kilometrage.
The Ducati tool kit is presented very well in nice red envelope with velcro for affixing to inside of fairing.The contents however have to be the most frugal of any bike tool kit known to man!
After the chain adjustment I popped to see my other half to show her what had been taking all of my attention for nearly 2 weeks...she was suitably impressed.Purely by chance I bumped in to a French friend who has a yellow 749 and is waiting to get his back with the Termi kit fitted. It was he that recommended that I go for a 749. he could see that I was more than happy with my choice. He did not tell me...but told my good lady in confidence that he thought my bike was "a brilliant buy!"
So after all of that I got back home to the garage and went for a shower and a coffee.No sooner done then I was there with her giving her a loving wash and clean. Sleep my beauty....sleeep!
So Saturday arrived and it was time to take her to the kind of roads that she would live her life with me. Roads that at any speed are not for the faint hearted and at pace a good bike and 100% concentration are needed from the rider.
Ok Lolita it's time to play....let's go hit The Ronda Road it's a canyon road as our American buddies would call it with every type of bend and curve from 1st gear switch backs to flat out sweepers a great run of some 50 km each way..........
Despite riding this track many times on the SV...I ignored all that I would normally have done on that and just got on with it.
I found every type of bend I was taking so much faster even the 1st gear hairpins! The Michelin Sports never even got near to protesting and I was having some real lean over fun! I was moving around on the bike pre turn in and this actually added to the exhiliarating feeling of the cornering.
Select your line and drop her in...she absolutely tracks it...marvellous! Find you need a little bit more lean mid corner? No problem it's almost like you think it and the bike does it! I was using gear box for most of the braking,keeping the gas on and the revs at about 6k and just rolling it on just before the apex. The point and squirt was incredible I was repositioning myself ready to drop her down for the next bend before I knew it....just fantastic acceleration and without on many occasions having to work back up through the box.
I only squeezed her up to about 8k revs on a couple of occasions...but from 6500 the noises from the motor are just unbelievable! You would swear it's going to blow in to a million pieces any time too soon! But I guess that is what the Desmodronic doo dahs are all about...
So I would have to say that I am errr...somewhat pleased with my purchase! It was a fast ride today....nothing silly,no undue risks taken but the experience was so rewarding and enjoyable.
If you like to hoon it in the hills and lanes, if you like track days, if you like drawing attention to yourself without having to act like a knob or (Like happened to me this morning) you can handle gorgeous girls ,total strangers to you, engaging you in conversation when filling up with gas.....
Then a Ducati 749 has got to be your bike!
Go here for some pics:
www.urbanbiker.co.uk/galleries/peterh.htm
Many.many thanks to Steve for the hosting.