Piling in on the Diavel

[Dirty Duc]

So I recently spent 24 hours with a rental Diavel in TX hill country. Rode on a cold day to get used to it, then took a long ride 2 up, then a shorter ride 2 up on the third day (rental period started at 2pm).

Impressions:
The key fob sucks.

Wow, this thing is spooky in turns. 

But fast! 

The key fob sucks.

Pillion in a million noticed her knees weren't hurting after 4 or so hours... bonus! Neither are mine! She can see where we are going due to the seat, but all the rest of the passenger ergos are wrong: grab bar sucks, tank is too far away, seat is slippy.

This thing gets terrible mileage, and the tank is way too small.
The key fob is stupid! 

Wow, this thing is spooky in turns. 

But fast! 

The key fob sucks.

Oh, that's how you switch modes... I like Sport better than Touring. I hate ride by wire throttle.

Oh, look, a red light... maybe I should see what Urban is like... Why the make the beast with two backs would I want the same bike with LESS horsepower??!! Turning this thing back to Sport at the next stop light.

Wow, this thing is spooky in turns. 

The key fob sucks.

But fast! 
[/stream of consciousness recap]

In the end, I really don't want one. The key fob is the most annoying experience I can imagine living with. The bike doesn't recognize your arrival until you have dicked around holding it in various places and flicking the kill switch, pushing the starter button, pushing any button you can find, etc. for an indeterminate amount of time/dicking around.  Unless you left it in the seat lock (pointed down, under the tail, used to access the surprisingly useful tool kit - allen keys and everything) where it is likely to fall out and leave you stranded when you run out of gas 90 miles from when you filled up last. Once you get it running and start to ride off, it may forget where you put the key fob and warn you the key is back where you started... but it is really still in your pocket.  And you still have to dig this thing the size of a flip phone out of your pocket every 90 miles to put fuel in it! 

The rental place was great, however. Accomodating, useful, not unreasonably priced, lots of options, and friendly. On their website, they talk about a fee for drop off on the days they are closed, but there was no talk of such nonsense when I scheduled the drop off on a closed day. If you are doing something in or near Austin and want to get your ride on, Lone Star Motorcycle Rentals was good to me. 

[Speeddog]

I'm 50/50 on RBW throttles.
M821 and HYM821 throttle maps are teh suck.
MiniPani and MTS12 throttle maps were fine.
I'm an olde farte git offa my lawn and give me a 1:1 to the TB's and I'll handle it.

Spooky in the turns due to riding position, or did it start up with the hokey-pokey?
The feet-forward cruiser ergos make all of the 'danger! danger!' alarms go off in my head.

[Dirty Duc]

It didn't feel very feet forward... Diavel S Carbon or something. Somewhere in between Monster and V-strom ergos for me. Not so much like a Victory or an Indian, or even a HDinosaur.

When talking with the one of the rental company owners after I was done, he blamed the weirdness on the fat rear tire. It seems to take a lot more faith in the turn-in feel than I was usually comfortable giving it. Once there was an impending problem, I pushed through the spooky and it was fine... just spooky at tip-in.

No real hokey-pokey but I wasn't comfortable pushing it hard enough to induce any, either.

In my book, the problem with the RBW is the lack of feedback... I couldn't tell how it was going to react to inputs, and it has kind of a lot of reaction available. My pillion expressed concerns over the violence of acceleration due to the pillion ergos. I try to make smooth transitions on and off throttle for her, and I didn't get the kind of feedback I'm used to from the throttle.

[hbliam]

Never had a problem with the key fob.

[Dirty Duc]

Never had a problem with the key fob.

Fair enough.

It was a (for me) low mileage bike. It was a couple of years old, and only had 5k miles on it. Regardless, it did not leave me with the warm IZ_ that the thing recognized the fob.

In fact, I can understand why people who are not me might like it. It's not a terrible bike, it has lots of power, and if I had a month to get used to it, the handling would likely cease to be an issue.

My complaints amount to whining, but for something so expensive I expect not to have to whine.

[Drjones]

Ducati needs change the operating frequency of the FOBs so it doesn't get stepped on.

The key FOB on my 2010 MTS is completely dead signal around gas stations or other areas with high RF energy floating around; have to use the pin code to start the bike in those situations.  All other areas it works fine.

[The ModFather]

Are we talking a Gen 1 Diavel, Gen 2 Diavel, XDiavel here? Feet forward comments say XDiavel but the "it was couple years old"  comment has me questioning. 

[Dirty Duc]

I don't know.

The webpage doesn't say.


It was a Carbon?

Strange flat footpegs, but in a Monster-ish location.

[The ModFather]

I believe that's a Gen1

[GregP]

I never enjoyed the Diavel aesthetically. I've sat on a few in the dealership and they don't really feel that comfortable either. I'd go as far as saying the riding position is a little awkward, not a cruiser but not sporty either.

To each his own but if I wanted an Italian cruiser I'd go for the Moto Guzzi California.  I know it's not a "muscle" bike but it's lines are way more sexy than the Diavel IMO and it is very comfy, at least in the showroom.

[Charlie98]

It could handle like a F-16 for all I care, I can't get past the aesthetics.  First time I saw it I couldn't believe Ducati would kick something like that out the door... and then the Scrambler showed up, and then I knew why.

[The ModFather]

I owned a Gen2 Diavel for a year and honestly it rides great. Tons of power, handles like a sport bike (for a Cruiser), great cornering and plenty comfy compared to my other two Ducati's (05 Monster 620 w/ clip-ons  & 07 Sport 1000s). It looks okay from the side but from almost any forward angle it's freakin hideous. Which is why I sold it. I'd come out to the garage and see it next to my other 2 gorgeous bikes and I'd say "what are you doing in my garage ugly? "
I do think they fixed all the aesthetics on the new XDIAVEL especially the S model. If that had been the Diavel I bought I'm pretty certain I'd still own it. The XDIAVEL is a different riding experience though with the feet forward but I didnt mind it when I test rode one albeit for a short ride. There is probably an XDIAVEL-S in my future someday but before that a Monster 1200R. 


This was her poor old ugly gal... and this was her best angle too.
IMG_4904 by ricknieto, on Flickr