1198 Ride Report

OK, so here it is. The ride report on the 2009 Ducati 1198 as best as I can recall. In terms of a real long “wring it all out” this is going to be lacking. Hey, it wasn’t my bike but was just tossed to me by someone who knows me and knows that I’m a Ducati nut who’s logged some time on a few different models including my old 2003 999. The owner is our friend from South Africa who had his Yamaha R6 stolen a few months back. He was talking about getting an 1198 at that time but wasn’t ready yet. A few weeks ago I saw the new Yamaha R1 with the crossplane engine down at the dealer and thought sure as anything he’d probably go for it. When I pulled up at Starbucks/Jamba Juice and saw the bikes there with the red 1198 I immediately guessed that it was his. I guessed right. After borrowing one of the other riders S4R for a few rides he knew he was on the right track but he wasn’t going for the Monster. “Monsters are too wiggley you know”.

Our first leg was up & down Tantalus and I could tell that the group was fired up a little more than usual. There was a bit of hot dogging in the lower curves and before long there were cars in front of me and the bikes including that 1198 were out of sight. I know that road and I’m pretty comfortable on the Gixxer 750 but the road was wet with leaves everywhere and having crashed up there a long time ago in similar conditions I wasn’t in a hurry. When I finally caught up with everyone at the top there was some chatter going on. It seems the 1198 doesn’t like Tantalus. His wrists were sore from muscling it through the corners. Too tight, too many 1st gear corners and he almost stalled it in a couple of those corners. So it was out of there and up over the Pali and down to 13 turns. Down to the bottom of the turns and then turn around to go back up. It was like a replay of Tantalus. While we were taking a break at top it was offered / suggested to me that we swap bikes and go up H3 to the Tech Park. Hell yeah!

Taking off down Kam Hwy to the H3 on ramp it was like old home week. The feel & operation of the bike was so familiar that it was easy to pay attention to some of the other things. I almost always bring up the rear of these rides and that day was no different so it allowed me to watch what was happening in front of me and use that as a sort of benchmark. Dropping into that fast right hand sweeper on ramp it hit me right away how much easier the 1198 turns than the 999. It’s still not as easy as the Gixxer but there it was. The torque was also there, so much so that I wasn’t comfortable nailing it coming out of the ramp and onto the main road. You can play with the Gixxer some and push it around but the 1198 just plain steams and commands your attention and respect. Just like the 999 it is a whole different game plan when you start to go fast as the throttle plays a much bigger part in how the turn goes than it does on the Gixxer. That is, what you do with the throttle affects the handling more so than it does on the Suzuki. Out on the highway it take nothing to catch the folks in front of you. The Suzuki zooms. The Ducati lunges.

Oh, did I mention the brakes? All that you’ve read and heard is true. The front brake is absolutely fierce. One finger feathering is all you need. I have always thought the 750 brake was outstanding. It talks to you. Strong but friendly. The 1198 brake is on another level and you don’t dare work it like the Gixxer brakes. Our friend was saying that he’s picked up the rear wheel unintentionally more than a few times and once during our ride he didn’t think the Suzuki was going to stop in time when another rider cut in front of him. The 1198 is not for the ham fisted folks when it comes to stopping and going. I believe it when they say the 848 is easier to ride.

Once out on the freeway there was time to take in some of the other aspects of the bike like riding position, controls, heat, etc. For starts you get the impression that you’re sitting on top of the bike and not in it. You’re not quite perched up high like the Daytona 675 but almost and it’s nothing like the seating position on the Gixxer, or the 999, where you are definitely down “in” the bike. Your wrists take some load but unless you are going for long distances it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Another thing that I noticed is that I was sitting up over the fairing & instruments, i.e., I was looking over the front side of the windscreen and would have to pull my neck & head back some to look under the windscreen at the instrument cluster (because the bottom of my helmet visor cuts off the view). There one could ask, “why bother?” The instrument panel is more useless than the mirrors. On a machine that runs over $15K you would think that this would be more sorted but noooo....... In fact, the only time I got a decent view of the instruments is when we went through the tunnel and it was lighted in the darkness. It still sucked to read what was going on even at that. I announced that the instrument cluster was a piece of crap at a recent Ducati ride and had a chorus of riders in agreement.

The seat might get a little warm but it’s tolerable. One thing about the heat control is that the inside of your right leg doesn’t get cooked from the heat coming off the vertical head anymore. That’s real nice. Wind blast off the nose is much smoother than the Gixxer but not as nice as the 999 was. A double bubble wind screen might solve that.

So off into the Tech Park we went. Since I was a bit chicken on the big Ducati it was easy to let the rest of the group get way out in front of me. I moved through the first left easy with the bike leaning over with no problem. Then I got on the gas a bit heading for that first downhill right hander. I could feel the suspension pushing the bike “back” working through the first turn and it fought the turn in on that right downhiller. It caught me up a bit with the initial understeer and I have to admit there were those wee milliseconds of “whoa, whoa” until I shoved in the countersteering. Boom! It leaned right on over and a bit little quicker than I imagined it would. That was good , it was doing exactly what I was asking it to do but I was a bit behind the curve with it if you know what I mean. This means that while I snapped it over a bit late, we made it but at a bit of a steeper lean angle than I was planning on. Thrilling and just a touch scary at the same time. Ducati’s definitely like a bit of prior planning and aren’t at their best if you change the plan anywhere in the corner. If you’re not “on it” it makes you work harder but it works great if you know the bike and set up for the corners properly from the get go. Makes sense?

So this 1198 does corner a whole lot better than the 999 but it’s different and not as forgiving as the Gixxer 750 or the Daytona 675. While the owner of this bike is working on suspension geometry to improve the handling I think working the spring rates and damping rates would be the first thing to do. For the price you pay it seems like you shouldn’t have to do such things but such is the Ducati. It’s a bike for riders who can feel what’s going on with a bike. I guess it’s like saying if you want a bike where the bike does most of the work for you then go for one of the Japanese type bikes. If you want one where you have to make the bike work just a bit and it pays off with that big grin then the Ducati may be the way to go.