DUCATI’S BITE WILL SCARE THE BEARS

I have tragic news for KTM: your reputation as the world’s leading manufacturer of bikes for hooligans is dead. For I’ve just ridden the Ducati Hypermotard 950, and I got off it ready to wrestle bears with my teeth.

Not that you get many bears in Northern Ireland at the minute. They’re all staying away because of Brexit.

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the Hypermotard. Never has a machine been more aptly named, for everything about it is instantaneous, twitchy and aggressive. Climb aboard and you’re perched high on a narrow seat looking down at a splayed tank, feeling as if you’re in charge of a giant insect.

Start up and the engine leaps into life with an angry bark. Click into first and the clutch bites as instantly as the one on my first car, a Triumph Spitfire, in which the clutch was like an on-off switch.

Twist the happy grip and the bike surges forward like a greyhound who’s just spotted a rabbit. The fuelling’s a bit snatchy at low revs, but then a bike which hits max power at 9,000rpm won’t see much time at the bottom of the tacho.

Brake and the Brembos and big twin discs at the front haul you in so aggressively that for a moment you fear you’re going to be flung over the handlebars and end up embedded in the Nissan Micra driven by the old bat in front of you.

For the first few miles, the combination of zero wind protection and a tall bike weighing only 200kg had me blown around so much that I actually stopped to check if the tyres were soft. You know, by kicking them.

Not that I needed to worry about losing control, since a clever Bosch gizmo looks after traction control, wheelies and even cornering ABS, as well as giving you three rider modes: Sport, Touring and Urban, the last of which reduces the power to 74bhp.

I’d just come off the smooth and stable Ducati Scrambler 1100 and found the handling on the Hypermotard not quite as precise at first, but the reason was that while the Scrambler needed a whisper of weight shift for carving through bends, the Hyper needed a shout.

It also suits being ridden supermoto style, with the rider upright and the bike leaned into the corner rather than the usual other way around.

Problem solved. Ducati Hypermotard 950

Price: £10,995 or (SP) £14,295

Engine: 937cc liquid-cooled V-twin

Power: 114bhp @ 9,000prm

Torque: 71 lb ft @ 7,250rpm

Colours: Red, or (SP) red/white

Test bike supplied by Millsport Motors, millsportmotorcycles. com. Geoff Hill @ghillster Fraser Addecott @Mirrorbiker

MUSCLE Ride it Supermoto style