bwhip

Had a great weekend at Thunderhill in northern California, testing out the Ducatis on the track. Gorgeous weather - I actually was wearing shorts today! The weekend certainly hasn't been without its share of adventures, though. Instead of being partially through the 10 hour ride home right about now, I'm stuck in farm country not too far from the track, with a presumably shot wheel bearing on my pickup.

On top of that, I couldn't get the new 749R (848) started on Saturday morning at all. I'm just going to call it the 849 from now on. It's a 749R built to an 848, so it's the 849. Anyway, the 849 would not start, period. When I first got it home the other night, the battery was pretty dead, so I charged it for a while with my trickle charger, then it fired right up, and did the next day as well. So I figured it would be fine for the track. Apparently not. We went through some extremely cold temps on the way to the track (5 degrees!), and then it was pretty cool starting out on Saturday morning here (high 30's), and with such a high compression motor, the battery was having nothing of it. So, for the morning sessions I kept the 849 on the charger while I rode the 1098 (which also needed some charging on the cold morning to turn over).

I was having a great time on the 1098, but I really wanted to test out the new middleweight! So, after lunch I tried to start it, and...

NOTHING.

So, I decided to just try jump starting it with my truck. Fired right up then! Unfortunately, the battery wouldn't hold a charge all weekend, so every time I wanted to start it I'd have to loosen bodywork to get to the battery so I could jump it. Time for a new battery!

Finally it was time to get it out on the track. The bike came with brand new Dunlop slicks, which I'd never used before. They really looked slippery, so even with tire warmers, I took it very easy the first lap. It was ridiculous! Whenever I'd start to turn the bike even just a little bit, the tires were sliding like I was on a sheet of ice! I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever be able to turn the thing! After a couple of laps, they started to grip better once I got them scrubbed in. Still, not very confidence inspiring.

So, how did the 849 feel? Throttle response is incredibly smooth - the smoothest I've ever experienced. It seems that no matter where you are in the rev range, the bike just has a ton of very linear power and torque, with no sudden spikes or surprises. Very nice. Gearbox was equally buttery, especially with the slipper clutch. My "blipping" technique has gotten much better, but with that slipper corner entry is just silky. Brakes were excellent, too. Not quite as touchy as the 1098's, but very predictable.

I struggled with the setup on the 1098S all day Saturday. The track is really bumpy - due for a resurfacing this summer, in fact. The 1098 never felt planted. I always felt like I was just hanging on for the ride, never really in control. Later on Saturday I sped up rebound by a couple of clicks in the forks, and stiffened the compression by a couple of clicks as well. Big improvement, but still not great. I'm planning some upgrades to the suspension anyway, so I left it for now.

The 849, by contrast, felt very planted on Saturday. Really stiff, but I wasn't feeling like I was bouncing around all over the place. Still, with the setup and the slicks, I wasn't feeling really confident about upping the pace. Especially when I figured out that they were "hard" compound slicks, on a track that favors soft tires.

Sunday AM I decided to just go ahead and switch to the tires I'll be racing with this year, to build my confidence with the new bike - Michelin Power Race DOT's. I swapped them out first thing, and then went and saw the suspension guru that was there providing setup service. He found that the rear end was too squishy for me, despite the very stiff spring on the Ohlins. He set up sag and made several adjustments to preload (adding a ton in the rear), compression and rebound. Now the bike seemed very well balanced between front and rear.

Time to test it out on the track! After another jump-start from my truck, out I went for a mid-morning session. Holy crap, what a bike! Suddenly, it was effortless. I actually wound up with faster lap times on the 849 than the 1098S, by about a second (although most of that had to do with the suspension - the 1098 still clearly has more power). Still, the 849 just flat-out ripped. Very impressive! With more saddle time and some minor tweaking, this is going to be quite the middleweight weapon.

Here's a vid of a couple of laps from the early afternoon "A" group session on Sunday. It should give you a feel for how nice that Leo Vince system sounds at full song, not to mention that the bike has some really impressive power. Me likey.

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f1_hurricane

holy hot damn thats a mean sounding bike mr whip.

jose_jimenez

The twin = teh sex!

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RedRider

Those were "A" group riders?

Bike sounds sweet...

bwhip

Yeah, I got passed by a few that session, too. But I edited those out.

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Jetbdude

Glad you like the new bike Bwhip can't wait to try mine!!!! Next week!

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ND4SPD

Nice writeup 'whip. Spring is most definitely in the air - in some places anyway. The 849 sounds amazing...can't wait to hear it in person!

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Hammer

Sounds like a V8 under there.

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DrHall

that thing sounds SWEET!!!

on the bike and the vid, whipper! Always enjoy riding along with you!


EDIT: Hope you make it home OK, man! Road break downs suck, though they seem to come along with the racer adventure.

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CBR929RE

that thing sounds like its never trying the whole time. I can't wait to see it but who knows, by the time June/July comes you might have something else

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f1_hurricane

well shit the next step for him has got to be a full blown motogp bike he's had everything else

evl_twn

I think that's a "feature" of an ex-Pegram bike

Awesome vid, that bike sounds good

And yes, you suck, but it's because you're out on the track while a lot of us are still freezing

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ONEvcs

Wow!!! Very nice twins. I hope you solve the road problems soon.

CBR929RE

nah you're forgetting he needs that full Factory Superbike/Supersport bike first then he can step up to that NSR500 that Rockwall Honda is still sitting on.

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luvtolean

Yeah man, we've been having some great weather out here. It was 70 in SF last weekend.

Looks (and sounds) like fun!

T-hill wasn't too bad last fall, but it'd definitely ready for the repave.

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JimmyNeutral

A couple of nice photos of you here bwhip:
Few from the two - 02.19.08 - South Bay Riders

Looking good

bwhip

Cool! Thanks for sharing the link to the larger photos. I'd just seen the smaller ones here (Sunday): 4theriders.com - AFM, AMA, FIM, Supermoto USA, & Trackday photography. and here (Saturday): 4theriders.com - AFM, AMA, FIM, Supermoto USA, & Trackday photography.

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Hammer

Whip.......when are you going to be in a magazine article ?

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Heavy-Dee

It takes a special kind of man to plaster his name all over his leathers and bike.

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bwhip

That's my sponsor.

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bwhip

I submitted shots with my shirt off to Playgirl, but they never called back.

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