Ducati Sport Classic demo ride

[Tom M]

 

I spotted the Ducati demo van at my local dealer this morning when I was in their neighborhood running errands in my car, so I went back later on the Guzzi and I was just in time for their last demo ride of the day. They were booked solid but had a no-show for a Sport Classic 1000 mono and a 800 Monster. I chose to take the Classic out for about a half an hour with a group. Here are my impressions...

 

Ergos: Not bad at all! I think this one had taller risers than stock because the bars felt about the same height as my LeMans, but they were closer to me which I liked and angled down more which I didn't really care for. I sat on the same model a while back at the dealer and I believe the bars were lower.

 

Pegs were lower the my LM which was very comfortable, but I dragged my boot on turn that I've taken many times on my bike without ever touching down on. I guess that's the pitfall of more leg room. The seat pushed me into the tank a bit and wasn't real easy to move around on which might get uncomfortable after a while. All in all it felt quite a bit smaller than the Guzzi.

 

Suspension: The rear end felt OK but front end was definitely undersprung for my weight (lots of fork dive under braking). Hard to say much else about it given the format and the short ride time

 

Handling: I liked it! It felt a lot like a Monster which I like. The short wheelbase and relatively steep fork made it easier to throw into a turn than my LM. I got a few little wheelies out of it too which I'm sure were a byproduct of the short wheelbase.

 

Engine: Very smooth at idle. I wasn't even sure it was running when I first started it because some of the bikes around me had aftermarket exhaust that completely drowned out what little noise the stock system on the Classic made. I had to check the tach to make sure it was running. Blipping the throttle didn't move the bike at all like I'm used to on the guzzi either.

 

It putted along OK at lower revs but definitely didn't have the torque of the Guzzi below 5k rpm. Above 5k it pulled pretty well, but I didn't get to wring it much because of the group ride format. I probably only hit 7k once and I don't know how close that is to redline since there was no redline on the tach. All in all I think my LM pulls harder, but mine is modified and the Duc was stock so it's not a real fair comparison.

 

Overall I thought it was a really little nice bike. Not nice enough to make me give up the LeMans, but I certainly wouldn't mind owning one.

[antonio carroccio]

 

I really like ths one...

[Tom M]

 

I really like ths one...

 

Me too Antonio. It bears more than a passing resemblance to our LeMans, doesn't it?

 

http://www.cycleworld.com/article.asp?sect...;article_id=454

 

http://www.onewheeldrive.net/index.php?opt...&Itemid=126