That big 659cc single cylinder and conrod spinning around between your shins like Thor’s hammer while your perched atop its paranormal suspension with the near telepathic quickshifter and deft brakes merciful of daft indulgences is quite a ride.
The more time aboard this quite un-Ducati contraption, the less clear it became what or who was the tool of conveyance here. It’s good, molto molto good!
It’s a lightweight at 151kg and 77hp but with a large dollop of modern Ducati refinement to round the rough edges off the big single, it had me wondering more than once where it came from.
According to a fly on the wall at a Ducati Friday afternoon meeting it started something like this:
Accounting: Our range is complete. Sportbikes, nakeds, tourers, adventure bikes, scramblers, motards and a power cruiser. Time to zip up the spending purse.
Product development: Well.. How about capitilizing on our new MX campaign?…
Engineer: As it happens, one of the old 1299 V2 Panigale motors fell off a bench the other day and split in half, making for an interesting single. With a little work, it ran so we put it in a chassis and well…the test riders love it!
Accounting: Of course they do… Che tempismo, come sempre.
Ha!
It seems an odd addition as it sets in the Ducati range very closely to the stalwart Hypermotard, which has been with us since 2007 and has a loyal following.
But this is the lighter Mono cylinder to that bigger Hypermotard’s duo of cylinders. It’s around 40kg lighter and a few centimetres taller at the hip line too. At 1,744,000yen though, it’s barely 150,000yen cheaper than big brother 950. Very close…
I first drained my adrenal taps aboard a Hypermotard 1100s back in 2008 and it made a long lasting impression so for this one, I had expectations… white-knucled whiplashed grinning expectations.
It took one week, an epic twistybutt, some cowboy legs and around 1100kms to fall into a pit of despair at having to give it back.
It isn’t lightening fast or supremely comfortable. It has no wind protection or rain protection. Actually, that fenderless front wheel showers boots in water and road muck in corners! Which is exactly where you want to ride it. It demands regular butt healing breaks and doesn’t make expressway hauls to better roads easy. Neither does it aspire to carry stuff well. But, it does reward fettling of its numerous and easy to use knobs, clickers and electronic options and by the bedevilling of the Road Gods, is it an abetting tool of laughter, exhilaration and stress dissipation!
Someone asked me why I found it harder to give back over other bikes recently ridden and instinctively I blurted out, ‘Character!’ The Monster has a bit of it too, but softer and cuddlier. The Streetfighter V2 is a more dangerous character, better suited to fights…very fast ones. This one has that thumper punch and a surprisingly effective playful chassis, it looks cooler the more you see it and dirtier it gets and it never whispers. It just trucks along with a gravelly undertone of, “Let’s rip!”
It’s a minimalist thing of seemingly narrow focus with rewarding feedback, engaging controls and jedi mind-trick like manoeuvrability that translates to a very capable and forgiving road bike. And it does it from pedestrian speeds up, from U-turns and stoplight balance practice on up to chasing V4 200hp monsters up mega mountain twisties.
But, tight twisties with less than ideal surfaces is where it gets your juices flowing. The lean angles afforded by that tall suspension and typical Ducati delicious controls makes pushing it under you and balancing it on the throttle symbiotic, especially on tighter corners.
In less than ideal conditions, the electronics provide a very healthy window of forgiveness, too. It was fun and almost game-like playing with the settings and feeling the safety nannies do their thing to more or less effect in the wet.
With just 77hp, it isn’t really taming tigers though.
But the big oversquare single is an integral part here as its power and torque delivery is so flat and predictable. It really is a thumping locomotive, listen to it chug around this corner.
The test bike had the euro-spec suspension with a seat height of 904mm while the standard jp-spec bike is lowered 40mm for a seat height of 864mm. Being so tall, 70-80mm taller than say an MT09 or Monster, I found putting a foot in the stirrup, or on a footpeg, and climbing aboard the enjoyable way to mount up. Just like on the Desert X.
Getting the suspension set up and sitting right isn’t an exercise in finger disfiguring contortionism or needing a toolbox either. Just a tool each for front and rear preload and then it’s all finger fettling of knobs and dials for the fine adjustments.
Going back n forth on Rt.70 and the Yabitsu Touge, I got the suspension fairly well dialled in for the wet and bumpy surface then proceeded to try and get lost exploring the side roads n such.
Plenty of U-turns were possible on typically 3-point turn roads due to the minibike like turning circle. You can get some serious lock on and it’s stable. No steering stabiliser at higher speeds as a compromise either. It was a welcome change and made it a great side road explorer down those roads less negotiated.
Best part of all that slow speed poking around was the ‘Let’s go!’ growl from the mufflers once pointed and the throttle is twisted followed by the crack of a quickshift between first to second. Have a listen…
That noise is engaging and I wonder if the decision to add two pipes, on a single cylinder, at the expense of weight and doubling expensive damage, particularly on a crash-prone motard, was one made for aural appeal as much as or if not more than visual balance. It would seem to make more sense to lose the weight as it is marketed under the ‘Live, Play, Ride’ mantra as being ‘Simple, lightweight, and agile…’ Then again, it only weighs 151kg wet, minus fuel. In any case, though the pipes do make luggage attachment less than ideal, those stylish mufflers tucked up under the rear are a visual and aural magnate. I wonder how good it would sound with the optional Termignoni mufflers or the ‘Race complete exhaust’ that saves 1.5kg, adds 7hp and interestingly comes with an unlock of some trick wheelie control, which you may need escaping from the bank you’ve just robbed to pay for it and the smogcops who deem the race exhaust a circuit use only exhaust. Lol
Practicalities
Nope. Ducati themselves tag it Simple. This is the bikini of twisty bikes. Just the bare essentials covered. Oh, there’s a USB under the seat somewhere and there’s barely room for anything else under there. Heated grips are an option. Luggage is not. A taller screen is not. A comfort seat is not. There is DMS which was not sampled but quoting the Ducati site: ‘A practical infotainment system that allows for a Bluetooth connection with smartphones and Ducati rider and passenger headsets.’ Yeah, not really a passenger type bike either.
There are track accessories such as footpegs, sliders, rear stand and levers to make circuit work more practical.
Now, let’s talk seats. The standard seat is long, sculptured just right for performing cornering calisthenics on and looks the part. Although seemingly thin, it’s not and plenty comfy for a motard or sporty type bike of its calibre.
There’s an optional sport seat giving more grip and bolder colour.
The low seat option is 15mm lower, which combined with the jp-spec suspension brings the seat height to around 850mm. Incidentally, that’s still 5mm taller than a Streetfighter V2 and 15mm taller than a Duke 990 or MT09 and 20mm taller than a 660 Tuono or Monster.
The standard seat was what I had to work with and on short runs it was great. Plenty of room for and aft to ride the nose or the tail and the accommodating edges to lock into the butt crack for spirited cornering.
Unfortunately, I love a good twistybutt and here’s where motard fans slap hand to forehead. The vid below is of my sorry bowlegged corpse gingerly sauntering out of a hotel the morning after doing a 600km+ twistybutt around Fuji the day before. Haha! I did it so you don’t have to and can confirm that you ought to wear ample cushioning if you intend to go tank to tank on that seat repeatedly. Doing 100-150km stints on other days was fine though.
So, the seat makes it less than ideal as a long distance enduro, but there are a few things it does to make riding much easier. Namely the effortless and seemingly telepathic quickshifter. Gold standard smooth and willing. Ducati is really doing mechanical black-magic with quickshifters on current bikes.
Second is the fuel range afforded by its 12 litre tank. On the Twistybutt, not dawdling, it was getting 23-25km/litre, equating to 275-300km between refills, which is a lot of twisties and smiles! And two to three butt rests. 😉
Last, intriguingly useful practicality would be something Ducati terms PCM, power control module, that effectively stops that big lumpy single from stalling and makes you look a ‘master of single-cylinder throttle finesse’.
From what I’ve been able to dig up, it manages fuelling and timing to provide or maintain high enough revs to prevent clumsy clutch or throttle input between those long single cylinder power pulses that typically leads to jerkiness and or stalling. So, when setting off and letting out the clutch, the revs climb autonomously for a smooth getaway. It isn’t idiot proof as this idiot found out when daydreaming and stalled on realizing the light I was stopped at had turned green and popped the clutch in a panic. But it was handy when the same idiot forgot to do up his helmet strap and was racing falling revs to get it done up before stalling only to find that it got to around 1800rpm and chugged along on its own like a makeshift if unrefined cruise-control. Incidentally, it doesn’t have cruise control.
As you can see in the vid above with poor audio, it’s a handy bit of kit that definitely knurls the edge off a typical big single-cylinder riding experience gripe.
While we are talking rider aids, the ‘slide by brake’ for backing it into corners needs a mention as whoever activated it on this bike before I got it owes me some underpants and a round of applause for throwing me in the deep end and making a cornering gladiator of me.Having the rear predictably come around and slide in to the corner before punching the throttle on the exit in such a smooth and fluid manner just felt like the natural thing to do on this bike. And conquering that corner with such panache, I wanted to jump off and pound my chest!
So, how much of a rocket is it?
It’s quick but it’s no rocket. More like a hyperactive goat. In my head, it earned the title of ‘Red Racing Goat’ on that twistybutt.
Being tall, narrow, short and with long travel suspension, its enjoyment factor comes on sooner with the limits much slower and easier to test.
So, it’s fun but you’ll be getting passed a lot? On the third gear and up sweeping stuff, yeah sure. Below that, there’s definitely the potential to reel in tail lights.
And it’s all about the experience of being in the elements. You’re perched up high above lower mortals on lesser machines hiding behind their fairings and bulging powerplants. Your legs dangling and elbows out throwing it into and outa bends. Like the comprehensive and easy to navigate dash, which may as well be purposely small to minimise the distraction and weight, it does everything effectively and without fuss.
Is It Popular?
Plenty sat on it. Many asked to ride it. In general, it got looks from bikers and indifference from everyone else. Maybe due to the pipes sounding great to the rider but not the whole neighbourhood and it not looking like it’s racing everywhere.
So, is it THE bike for Japan’s twisties…?
It’s up there. My deep reluctance to return it culminating in three loops around the block before giving it back was a first for me and a strong indicator.
It dominates twisty roads in a way the other sporty bike bike contenders haven’t and the grin factor is HUGE. If you lived amongst or not far from twisties and went out for shorter runs of 100-150km, to say… devour a good breakfast, lunch or an epic road and then twisted back, it would be a magic sporty bike for Japan’s twisties.
Endless twisties though? Well, it isn’t endlessly comfortable. But it is endlessly capable and would continue to help its rider grow and refine skills for a long time. With its advanced suit of MotoGP inspired tech on board, you could baby step learn to wheelie, back it in and endo confidently.
Then there’s that character! You can’t see it, but under that Hemet is a grin from ear to ear
It makes slides, little wheelies and pinpoint stops at epic vistas on those twisty hints the norm. It is a benchmark twisty machine!
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Thank You Ducati Japan
This review is only possible due to Ducati Japan. Your enthusiasm and passion for your machines is intoxicating. Keep at it!
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See you on the road Red Racing Goat!
Touge Express 