BRUCE’S BLUFF…
I wasn’t initially sold on the Ducati, despite Tim and Johnny’s countless protests. To me, on the road, it felt hard work for too many reasons. Number one on the agenda was the lethargic handling, that required a can of spinach to get the thing hustling about; planted it might have been, but agile? Most certainly not.
And then there was motor that felt nothing short of mental! Now, I like mental, but there’s a fine line between hilarity and insanity and the Ducati felt more akin to the latter than the former, with a throttle pick-up so harsh it could dislodge the fillings in your teeth. You only had to tickle the sound tube and the big twin gave off an unholy amount of torque with both barrels, which took some getting used to. In fairness, that’s a trait of most v-twins, but it’s been so long since I last rode a brute of this nature that inline-fours have clearly made me go soft.
What it lacked in finesse it made up for in beauty. The aesthetics of this bike more than draw the eye. Shiny Öhlins, big Brembos and those stonking twin under seat Termis make you sit up and take note. I’m also a sucker for a single-sided swingarm and I was left drooling over the EVR dry clutch that looked as good as it sounded. In my opinion, Ducatis aren’t meant to sound sweet or muted; they should be loud, brash and jangle like a bag of spanners. That’s the best way to describe the tantalising cacophony that the 1198S emitted at a standstill, and it only got better with the addition of revs.
In fact, everything about this bike got better with revs. On track, the harder I rode it, the better it felt. The chassis seemed to come into its own, offering the best feel and feedback of the three bikes we had on test. It was still an arse to throw around, but it’s predictability and planted front end had me trusting it more than my local vicar. The engine seemed less chaotic too, quite simply because the riding speed was always higher, so the engine was often much higher up the revs when I went to pick up the throttle to power out of bends.
On a negative side, the gearing felt really long, but those tall gears seemed to make a lot of sense around Cadwell, meaning you could hold a selection for longer. I also really rated the bike’s brakes, that were more powerful than most modern sportsbikes of today. The bite they offered was insatiable, which isn’t how I’d describe the engine braking on offer. Going into corners, it felt like someone had whipped the plugs from the cylinders, which felt a little disconcerting. Here I was, riding a bike with pistons the size of dinner plates, only to be greeted with the back torque of a pushbike. That bit definitely didn’t make any sense, and nor did the overkill of the traction system, which I took off after the first lap. Unadulterated, the motor made much more sense, especially after I’d ridden a few laps and had got my head around the bike.
To summarise, the 1198S is a complicated machine. On face value it’s potent, unrefined and hard work to master… but when you put the time in, relax and embrace its idiosyncrasies, the experience on tap is simply phenomenal. So much so that my opinion of the bike was transformed by the end of this test. What a corker.