anonymousagain

Caught up to seeet looking supermotard bike yesterday, just prior to entering a nice ~30mi of very tight canyon road with a few short straights and lots of switchbacks. Couldn’t tell quite what it was, but guessed either Ducati or Aprilla by the v-twin sound.

7/10 the entire drive, with an occasional brief stab. I kept a good following cushion to not pressure him into turns and he made an effort to not shoot too hard going in …a couple drifts in and a few coming out by him, but good composure by both of us to not push the fun factor to too competitive and unsafe.

I had a blast (obviously) with a front row seat to the symphony of movement and killer exhaust note when the throttle was cracked open. Growing up with bikes, you frequently wondered what you must have looked like going through a fast fun section and this let me see it first hand.

Clearly I had the turn advantage with 10x the contact patch to deal with typical bumps and dips in the asphalt and carry more constant speed, whereas the Duc clearly was leaping out of the hole quicker, especially with SATA unable to access 1st gear. Braking was where I could easily close any occasional small gap, but again you can’t expect much more on such a surface, unless he was willing to drift it in at full clamp, which thankfully he didn’t try, other than the couple small step outs to find early entry straight line limit. A couple small wheelie exits were really fun to see and I could tell he was having a lot of fun too.

We did catch a nice looking 350Z half way through, wide tires and lowered, and although it significantly picked up the pace, the guy shortly slowed to let us pass. I saw him initially try to pull back up and keep pace, but he quickly fell farther and farther. He seemed to be trying, but can’t say for certain, so unfair to say he couldn’t keep pace. Interesting though, since I was not pushing enough to make tire noise or hammering the throttle out of turns, I thought he might be able to keep up longer…but maybe he just wasn’t trying.

Anyway, out of the canyon dumps to ~5mi of meandering long straights. He slowed to 30-35 for a few seconds and then we nailed it. Five or Six of these 30-120 blasts and it was clearly evenly matched, with the Duc pulling a bike or two initially and SATA gaining slightly on the upper end. A 65-120 sandwiched in there as well, but he realized that was easier for me and went back to the slower starting roll-on (gotta love the top of 2nd gear).

Stopped at the end to talk a bit and found out it was a Ducati Hypermotard 796. I expressed how awesome the sound was at full boil (I think the twin pipes were Akrapovich?) and that it was sorta like watching a video dancing through the curves. He said thanks and pointed to SATA and said “that think smokes!” He was surprised he couldn’t lose me in the turns, really surprised actually, and honestly thought the roll-on’s at the end would be unfair. “Really? That’s an ’86? Niiiiice.”

We both acknowledged the 7/10 pace to keep it smart and fun, even though he wished he had his full race leathers so he could push it a bit more to see if he “could have” gotten away from me. Still, we conceded that both had some reserve and the track would be more appropriate for anything faster, and besides, he was already starting to catch his boots a few times! Said he was an ex-racer that hung it up after a nasty crash that wadded him up bad in the bales, so a fun run through the canyon like this was really his high point now and having someone in tow to keep him honest was a kick…especially in a car (as he shook his head).

“Have fun, but keep it smart and right side up” was exchanged and we went our separate ways. Nice to meet a sensible spirited rider and get a flavor for 2 vs- 4wheel with a turn specialist like the Hypermotard. SATA is 24 this year and still bone stock - you’d never have guessed it could hang with such a modern bike…well, now he knows.

Bill51sdr

Csaba Csere when he was with Car & Driver did a column about this kind of thing. He was in a BMW 540 as I recall with 3 passengers in it and began dicing with a guy on some kind of Asian superbike. He related pretty much the same account you did, basically about how the car is more capable in some areas and vice-versa. The bike never got away from Csere either.

Sounds like a LOT of fun, glad you both had the sense to keep it safe.

the flyin' scotsman

As a past superbike racer I truly believed at the time that the bikes could not be beat...............then I saw the lap times at some of the bigger tracks in the US/Europe where superbikes/GP bikes ran on tracks where sport cars/ Indy cars/ F1 cars raced...............no contest; 4 wheelers win hands down although the excitement factor on a bike is something else.

Tom. M

I prefer 4 wheels over my 2...but a good rider can make all the difference. Had the guy been riding a Ducati Streetfighter or 1198...he would have walked away from you on the straights..probably enough to make up for losses in the corners.. Check out this vid of a Lambo vs. the Duc 999... pretty cool..

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/88786/...ini_vs_ducati/

Tom. M

Not sure if Akropovich makes stuff for Ducs... but most Ducatisti put on Termignoni exhausts....