Thread: Ducati 1098 Bike

To the unintiate ,it will sound like the irritating, cacophonic exhaust noise of a diesel powered three-wheeled seven-seater. To the connoisseur it'll be an intoxicating mix of intake, mechanical and exhaust boom. No matter how controversial it may sound while idling, the music keeps getting sweeter and sweeter as the revs build up. But even with all the fights over its predecessors' sometimes timeless and sometimes disappointing appearance, this Ducati is one of the most mystical machines to have graced the world. The Italian bike has managed to make more news across the world for its maker than the manufacturers of its Japanese counterparts could only dream about.

With its 916 inspired horizontally positioned eyes, the 1098 looks achingly beautiful. Anything that's not made in Italy won't even manage to land in this Ducati's zip code, aesthetically. Although even with its breathtaking form, the 1098 will probably never be able to become as timeless a beauty as the 916. The 916 was a masterpiece of its time. Place it in the showrooms today and it'll put most of the competitors to shame. It wasn't inspired by any previous design, it was an original. The 1098 is beautiful but it borrows a lot from the 916. It looks gorgeous today, however, its skin isn't as wrinkle-proof as its 916 predecessor. Having said that, the newest litre-class super sport from Ducati looks stunning enough to make you want to splash your Japanese bike with some gasoline and show it a lit match.

I had just finished a long stint with a crazy GSX-R1000, which by no means was a particularly relaxing bike in terms of riding position. I realised three things once I got astride the Ducati. First, the seat was slightly higher. Second, my toes were considerably more towards the rear of the bike than the Gixxer, and third, the amount of weight on my wrists had increased substantially. The 1098 makes no pretensions about its unrelenting focus on the racetrack. It cares two hoots if you have to 'visit an orthopaedic physician after a sokm ride. Your body will have to adapt itself to the extreme riding position of this bike - the Italian firm that made it thinks you'll go faster around corners that way. And with a devil-may-care attitude if you disagree! It's kind of exclusive, which means practicality can go where the sun doesn't shine.

Once you've thrown a limb over the bike, you have one of the coolest looking instrumentation consoles in front of you. It's a single large LCD unit with the upper arch indicating revs. Speed is displayed where it ideally should be, prominently in the centre, and it's nicely flanked by displays that indicate other info. That particular bit on the bike looks more or less the same as the one on the MotoGP Desmo. With its classy overtures, sporty stance and that amazing instrumentation, the 1098 feels like a proper sports bike. It'll devastate your notion of how it feels to sit over a superbike. Forget your past flings with the Japanese beauties, this one's Italian, if you know what I mean!

Right then. A slight dab of the left toe on the lever, a careful release of the clutch to see the tall first gear through and off I go. Featuring a V-twin spunky enough to make it a bike with the world's best torque-to-weight ratio, this baby is particularly strong at the bottom of the rev range. The performance takes a slight dip around 4000-sooorpm with a minor drop in power and torque, but unless you're really charging around a racetrack you'll hardly notice the difference. Fit in a Termignoni exhaust, though, and the issue will be resolved. The power starts building strongly again at about sooorpm and the torque curve starts charging skywards once more at around 6000rpm before peaking out at about 7200rpm.

Outright acceleration from o-1ookm/h is ether better or at par with most of the litre class super sports from the Japanese big four. Needless to say, the 1098 feels enormously quick for a V-twin. The first two gears have to be handled cautiously if you aren't too fond of being behind an airborne front wheel However, there isn't a lot of wind protection at high speeds. The relatively low fairing could have been bigger and slightly higher to help the typhoon of wind at high speeds slip by instead of hitting you in the face.



Aboard the 1098 on the expansive Palm Beach Road in New Bombay, I am reminded of the Pulsar 220 DTS- Fi. Weird comparison, I know, but I can hardly see what's happening behind my back in those mirrors. Being a Ducati, it's this bike's birthright to mock functionality - and it does that shamelessly! This is not the kind of bike that you'll hop on at any hour and zip away happily. It'll make you feel apprehensive; reminding you of the last time you rode it hard and walked like a robot for the following three days. Compact and diminutive, the 1098 feels like an extremely track focused machine - light and nimble. Plus it's immensely f1ickable, almost as agile as a 600.

The trellis frame for this Ducati is made of steel. While one may wonder what that age old (and heavy) metal is doing in such an expensive and technologically advanced machine, Ducati has used the high specification chromoly steel cleverly to use strengthening exactly at the required places. The diameter of the tubes in the new frame has gone up from 28mm to 32mm but the wall thickness has come down from 2mm to 1.5mm, enhancing rigidity by 14 percent and at the same time shaving Ikg off the frame's weight.

The gorgeously crafted single-sided swingarm on the 1098 is nothing less than a rare piece of art. Single sided swingarms have always been one of the most drool worthy bits on bikes, but they usually add to the weight. Ducati has cleverly used separate small castings for the pivot point, wheel hub and suspension links and welded them together immaculately with a sheet aluminium structure. The result? The 1098's swingarm weighs almost SO percent less than a similar arrangement on some of the rival bikes.

The 1098 also is the first street bike in the world to feature Brembo's all new monobloc radial callipers. Machined from a single piece of alloy rather than bolting two parts together, these braking units provide more stopping power and better feel as more lever force is applied to the discs, without getting wasted in twisting the callipers. Suspension up front is a 43mm fully adjustable USD Showa unit. The Showa monoshock, fully adjustable for preload, rebound, compression and ride height does duty at the rear.

Ultra light Marchesini wheels, saving 0.25kg at the front and a hefty Ikg at the rear make sure that the unsprung weight is kept as low as possible helping the bike change directions more quickly owing to less gyroscopic inertia. The Ducati 1098 is a mystic machine. It definitely is not the most practical bike around, nor is it very economical. Neither is it utterly reliable, and arguably, not the absolutely fastest too. It's not the masterpiece the 916 was. Unbelievably more complicated in its assembly, the bike is likely to be a mechanic's worst nightmare. Generally speaking, the 1098 will keep reminding you every moment why it's special, and if that means resorting to hurtful ways, so be it.

Yet, it's the most desirable of all those machines on two wheels. It requires you to have that passion, that willingness to disregard the agony and inconvenience, that incredibly uncompromising desire to go faster if you were to own and ride it. It questions your credentials as a rider before you take it out for a long haul, and makes you get down halfway with a rattled body if you don't qualify. But if you do, there won't be a more lovable thing for you in the whole wide world. If you still doubt my words, close your eyes and try replacing that blood red Ducati 1098 parked in your garage with anything else.