slickwill

Test rode an 848 today. Full review when I get my computer back and don't have to post from my PDA.

Cliff's Notes- Wow! What an engine, what a sadistic torture device.

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Shenders1

Details. I need details.

NorthernRR

Red right

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slickwill

Well I rode my bike two hours to Ducati Omaha and then two hours back. I'm pretty sure the same four hours on the Duc would kill me and maybe anyone else who tried.

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slickwill

They had both colors but the demo bike was white (and for sale for $1350 off of retail).

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NorthernRR

See I told you that white would be the one to have...

I know which one I would be buying, wouldn't even have to think about it. well other than the how am I going to pay for it factor.

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SheepOfBlue

4 hours does it have spikes on the seat or something?

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slickwill

It's like being on your 1000rr, except raise the seat, remove all padding, slope it way down toward the tank, raise the rearsets, lower the clip-ons (A LOT). I felt like I was almost upside down. I went straight to the honda dealership and sat on a 600rr, NO comparison. It made the 600rr feel like a couch.

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NorthernRR

The 600RR is one of the more comfy super sport bikes for sure. I find the K6 gixxer thou fits me VERY well too.

I've only ever sat on a 999R and as cool as it was, unless it was a dedicated track bike or a bar hopper I'd NEVER buy one.

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CBRVFR

You can change the ergos of your bike. Helibars or angle adjustable clip-ons, multi-position rearsets, gel seat inserts, or full custom seats that keep the family jewels out of the crease of that Ducati tank... I have done this to some degree with every bike I have owned. Last year I couldn't do 2 laps on the TZ without cramping my neck.

Don't give up on it, Will.

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bwhip

No way I'd want a 1098/848 for some kind of commuter, local street ride. They do slope forward and push your package into the tank, and your lower extremeties will get roasted in the summer. Great pose value at Starbucks, but that's about it. At speed, however, there is nothing - nothing like them.

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CBRVFR

Shouldn't you be in the garage trying to fix those clutches?

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bwhip

Look who's talking, Mr. Funny-Sounding Bike that smokes....

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Shenders1

Coincidentally, the latest Sport Rider arrived in the mail yesterday, and their take was almost identical to Will and Brian's: Tortuous ergos, great motor. Fantastic track bike, horrible commuter.

They even said the 848 was 'easier to go fast on' than it's larger displacement brother.

They did say a few disparaging things about the 'bargain' 848 suspension, though. Methinks they've become spoiled by too much track time on their loaner 1098R.

CBRVFR

Oh, you just wait until I learn how to ride that thing...

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slickwill

Okay, so here goes. First off, I was at Ducati Omaha the day of the National launch for the 848. I was that excited about the new 848. A while back (March) they emailed me letting me know that they had a demo bike that I could come ride. Due to school and weather restraints yesterday was the first day that it all "came together." I leathered up and headed for Omaha at about 8:50 am. I took a couple wrong turns, got some gas, and rolled in to DucOm at 11:00. The sales guy was busy so the parts manager and I sat around and talked bikes for a bit. The sales guy (Jarel) came out, I signed one little form, showed my license and they said I was good to go. They rolled the bike out and started it up so that it could warm up a bit. Then last minute he says, "Since you aren't from the area I'll ride too and you can follow." Just then one of the owners of DucOm (a doctor) pulled in so the salesman had him take me out. The test ride itself was rather lame, about 10 min, never on a road with a speed limit above 45mph, and way too many stop signs. I managed one "blast" up to about 55mph. Not the best way to convince me to buy a Ducati.

Initial Impression: The bike is beautiful but we knew that.

Start-Up: Sounded like it wasn't quite going to make it, but it did. They say it's a Ducati thing. I've heard rumors of 1098's not starting.

Display: Flipping through all the different info that you can get on that dash is really cool, way techie, and probably a good way to die since a lot of it is hard to read. I felt like I was trying to read a blackberry. You can get info on the battery, oil, speed, temp, lap times, and a bunch of other stuff just by flipping a switch that's by the turn signal switch. The tach is a bar of lights that go horizontal across the top. The numbers are impossible to read so you just have to learn where 10K is at. I'd probably put a little red stripe there myself. In all reality it is super cool and really appeals to the data junkie in me (I also would buy the Ducati Data Analyzer immediately if I got an 848) but real world doesn't work quite as well as having an analog tach (we all knew that though).

Seating position: As discussed, NOT comfortable. However, on a track or a great road, I'd probably never notice. Not overly cramped from the pegs to the seat. The bars feel really low though, it put a lot of weight on my wrists and I don't have a lot of weight. The biggest thing that really was disconcerting was how slanted the seat is. JH41 was complaining about sliding forward on his seat at Grattan, no issue here because you wouldn't even make it out of the pits before your package is crammed against the tank. Hard braking into turn one would probably put a permanent imprint in the tank (if you have balls of steel) otherwise, ouch.

Clutch: A lot stiffer than my F4i but smooth. After pulling away, never noticed it so that's probably a good thing.

Gearing: First gear is really tall. Would make stop and go traffic a real chore. Seems like a couple extra teeth in the rear or -1 in the front would be good except the bike already runs out of revs too soon so unless you are just posing and want to run circles around the mall skip the gearing change and deal with it. A quick check of Gearing Commander reveals that the shift to 2nd would be at 66mph, on my F4i it's 71mph, so the extra 4700 revs on the F4i don't gain you much speed. After first everything seems really good. The transmission is much more positive than my F4i, or any other bike I've ridden. A little more effort required at the lever but I really liked the better feel. My F4i sometimes just "mushes" into gear. No sign of that on the 848. You know when it shifts.

Brakes: The 848 doesn't have the monoblocs like the 1098, yet they were WAY more powerful than the brakes on my F4i. I didn't get a chance to get a good feel for feedback or progressiveness but they were definitely more powerful than what I've got and I never use more than two fingers on mine. I liked the brakes a lot. The MC-USA shootout said that the brakes on the GSX-R and 600RR were even better than the Duc brakes. Hard for me to imagine but they know more than I do.

Suspension: Stiff, that's about all I can comment on. Way too stiff for me. They promised that if I bought a bike they would get a lighter spring for me and give a free suspension set-up, it would need it. I want the Ohlins stuff though and would probably upgrade eventually, not because I'm a good enough rider to notice the difference but at some point I plan on owning my "dream" bike and that dream includes Ohlins, front and rear. Again, as shenders pointed out SportRider bashed the bargain suspension, MC-USA did as well. The DucOm guys were giving me a spiel about how the Showa stuff on the Duc is higher spec than the stuff on the Japanese bikes, the real world reviews don't seem to agree.

Chassis: Something here is way different than what I'm used to. Maybe longer wheelbase, I'll have to check the numbers. Either way I kept running really wide in corners and would have to force myself to lean the bike more to get around the corner. The moment I got on my F4i I felt comfortable going "fast" in corners and felt like the bike was right where I wanted it to be. It would take me a little time to get used to the Duc. Some suspension set-up could possibly help. I felt like taking the rear up a few mm would be what it needed to go where I wanted it. Interestingly, when I got back to DucOm the parts guy said that if you put in the adjustable ride height link and then lower it 5mm that "it rails." I don't know enough about chassis geometry to really know but instinctively it seems like up would be the way to go to get it to not run wide. I'm going to read up on that. The bike did feel super stable though, can't describe it any other way. Even though it was feeling really awkward to me I felt like it would be right at home on a track. The initial turn in was quicker than my F4i and took less effort. I think this was due to the lower overall weight, less gyroscopic force from the lighter rims, and lower balance of the weight.

Engine: This is what it's all about. The 848 makes more torque while idleing than my bike makes at full thrust. The engine delivers the torque and power so smoothly that it doesn't even seem like you are going fast. The 848 runs the 1/4 mile faster than any of the 600's and yet compared to my F4i almost feels "slow" because there is never any rush of power. It's just there. Brrraaapp, shift, repeat. On my F4i it starts picking up at 6K, has a good rush at 8K, then really comes on at 10K. On the Duc there is none of that. Almost impossible to tell where you are at in the revs because it feels the same all the way up. It makes beautiful noise just sitting idling, even with the stock cans. Then powering down the road you definitely get some looks. It was awesome to be able to make that noise with a twist of the wrist. The engine is really addicting. I know that all of the reviews also say it but it definitely would take some getting used too to go fast around a track. An extra 1000rpm of overrev would really help. Oh well, it's still awesome. Around town though you'd never have to shift. Just pick a gear and use it, there's enough torque.

Other: The kickstand is impossible to get ahold of with a boot. It needs some sort of a little rod sticking out like the F4i has. I about dropped the bike while fiddling around with the stupid thing. I'd have to buy a Baxley and then never get off of the bike anywhere but my garage. The trunk is absolutely miniscule. Just enough room for your insurance papers and maybe half of a small sandwich. Oh, well, not an issue if you seriously want a Ducati. Also in the trunk is the plug for the Ducati Data Analyzer. I'd have to get one, at $299 I think I'd have a blast with it.

Time to go but I'll give a "wrap-up" later.

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If it has wheels, I've crashed it, and some things that don't skis, snowmobile, card board box, giant tube, sentra, dirtbike, lawn tractor, grandmas bread tray, kayak, canoe, raft, bicycle, waterskis, tobaggan, horse, ATV, Now my CBR (women)

bwhip

Nice write-up.

I've got the Data Analyzer (which comes stock with the 1098S), and was eager to use it. However, I must admit that I've never actually done so. I wish it would activate automatically off a beacon, like a lap timer, but instead it requires you to tick off each lap using a button on the controls. When I'm putting down hot laps, I've got too much other stuff going on to be bothered with that. One of these days at a trackday I'll mess with it, but haven't yet.

To your point about it barely starting, Ducatis do often sound that way. I've never really had problems starting them, it just sounds like it's really straining sometime and barely turning over that big compression until it fires. The problems I've seen with others' 1098s have been with stalling, not starting. Mine with the full Termi system and ECU has never stalled.

I've heard of people lowering the rear to make it turn better, but in my case I actually raised the rear ride height by 7mm before I got it to turn the way I like.

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slickwill

Yeah, definitely a downside, I'd probably never remember to push the button but since the appropriate sensors are there maybe in the future they'll come up with a revised version that does automatically trigger.

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ND4SPD

You have to click off your own laps? How can you get accurate times that way?

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slickwill

You can't. I think it's more about seeing the other data like throttle position and speed.

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If it has wheels, I've crashed it, and some things that don't skis, snowmobile, card board box, giant tube, sentra, dirtbike, lawn tractor, grandmas bread tray, kayak, canoe, raft, bicycle, waterskis, tobaggan, horse, ATV, Now my CBR (women)

slickwill

So overall feelings. I want one.


However, I think that if I had one I'd also have to have a SuMo or something else for my every day running around. In the two years that I've had my bike I've only put 8000 miles on it so I don't ride a lot, mostly due to schedule and Iowa weather, not desire. Most of those miles are from afternoon trips through the country side, the Ducati would be fine for that stuff. However, a decent portion of the miles also come from me riding to school, running to Wal-Mart, etc. The Ducati would absolutely suck for stuff like that. I don't drink coffee so I don't need to pose at the local coffee shops so I don't need a Duc for that. If I was back home in Idaho, no question, instant Ducati, but here in the flatlands I'm not so sure. I'll be moving back to Idaho in a year. Maybe I'll celebrate the occasion with a new toy?

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gt702

Slick, thanks for the write-up. Very thorough for the limited ride you were able to get.

It does sound a lot like my RC51 (the street one, not the track one you saw) when I got it. The bars seemed very low, the seat sloped too much, and it would go an indicated 80 mph in first gear (with an 11% speedo error, that equates more to an actual 71mph). I swapped seats for a Sargent with a little dish, and went to adjustable clipons (SATO's from Dan Kyle), and down 2 teeth in the rear. The bike went from miserable to ride (on our straight, bumpy streets) to fairly comfortable. The clip-ons raised the ends of the bars almost 1.5" through angle change, and I pushed them forward a bit to put my wrists in a better position. I would think the same could be done on the 848, so it might be worth putting on your "congratulations to me" list

Oh, and with a modification to mount a plate on a spare rear seat base, I now have a place to carry stuff, and in my case mount up a Givi top back for the commute to work.

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slickwill

I forgot one thing in my review. At one point we stopped for approximately 27 seconds at a light. During that 27 seconds my right leg got REALLY warm, even through full leathers.

Hmm, not helping.

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If it has wheels, I've crashed it, and some things that don't skis, snowmobile, card board box, giant tube, sentra, dirtbike, lawn tractor, grandmas bread tray, kayak, canoe, raft, bicycle, waterskis, tobaggan, horse, ATV, Now my CBR (women)

ScottieDucati

My assumption is you haven't ridden too many older Ducati superbikes.... Compared to my 851, or 748's I've had in the past, the 848 is a lay-z-boy lounger! The 851 folds your legs like pretzels and lays you across the tank to what seems like impossibly narrow clip ons. The 748 perches you even higher than the 848, with a seat that starts to feel errily like a 2"x4" after about 150 miles. I've found (and mind, I'm 6', 225 lbs) the 848 is definitely a small bike, but the rider triangle is surprisingly roomy. The seat may be thin, but it's wide and flat where it needs to be and shaped nicely where it meets the tank. I'm sure a sargent seat would be a HUGE improvement in this department. Also, like all Ducatis it puts a lot of pressure on your wrists, as front-end feedback is at a premium. I find the 848 much more comfortable than the similarly styled 748, and a totally different animal to an 851 or 888. The 749/999 may have a slight edge in terms of comfort.

I definitely concur on the suspension being pretty stiff, I only managed about 20mm of sag in the rear, so I dialed out some preload (or rather, hammered it out), and turned all the adjusters to 1 click in from full soft... the bike feels better doing the bounce test, but I'll find out more this afternoon.

Otherwise, the engine steals the show, hands down. This has got to be the livliest Ducati engine I've ever ridden, with an appetite for revs that far eclipses my 748/853 racebike. I was astonished how quickly the revs go from 6k to redline, it's truly breathtaking. Rev-matching on down