The Diavel Carbon makes summer a little bit hotter
IT MAY BE pushing 50 degrees outside, but when a chance to test a Ducati Diavel, no less a Carbon edition, arises you simply have to take the hit. There are very few bikes for which we’d happily embrace these temperatures, but just look at these pics. Wouldn’t you? Merely uttering its name: Ducati. Diavel. Carbon, without even having to see it, you know it is going to be one of the coolest, most gorgeous things you can see on the road. And we got to take it around! If that’s not the motoring equivalent of a date with Rihanna or a Hemsworth (depending on what floats your boat) we don’t know what is. At the risk of giving away spoilers, even in the midday sun, riding the Diavel Carbon didn’t disappoint. Read on to find out why.
You become more Italian and that can only be a good thing, right?
Like sitting behind the wheel of a Ferrari, or even passing by a parked Fiat 500C, you can’t help but become seduced by the ‘dolce vita’ fine Italian engineering evokes. Ducati is no different, arguably representing the pinnacle of European sports bikes and doing it with a unique panache. The noise, the thrill, the speed: all elements the marque represents are expertly illustrated in the Diavel Carbon. It’s delicious to look at, blisteringly quick and will have you thinking you’re a Giuseppe Verdi and espresso aficiondo within a couple of days. We were Googling ‘motorbike holidays around Bologna’ an hour after picking it up.
It also looks good outside Café Rider
Dubai’s mixed-use coffee house and motorcycle garage in Al Quoz continues to maintain its ‘five man buns out of five’ rating on the hipster scale, but we felt this somewhat more mainstream model held its head high when taking position alongside the custom bikes outside. Being a Carbon edition, it’s sleek and, until closer inspected, understated. So, your Royal Enfield weekenders may not be completely convinced, but we felt there isn’t really a situation where this Ducati would feel out of place.
Can you tell we’re in love yet?
So we’re sat behind a truck at a set of lights on Hessa Street. It’s 3pm on a June afternoon and there’s a 1200cc engine idling right beneath us. It feels like we’ve decided to take a quick rest in a pizza oven. Yet, like a dopey teenager with a crush, we can’t stop smiling. The signs were obvious. We were head over heels. It didn’t matter that we were losing five pounds in sweat every hour, nobody could have dragged us away a second before we were ready. 152hp and a weight of 205kg makes for a zip off the line you will crave. Stick it in Sport mode, which lowers the traction control, and its even better.
It’s not just a speed machine
We lived with the Diavel Carbon for the best part of a week. This meant journeys encompassed the work commute, heading down the shops and getting to social engagements. Aside from arriving at the cinema a little flushed from the weather outside, the bike slotted into our schedule like it had always been there. Flipping the riding mode to Urban meant a reduction in horsepower to 100hp and higher traction control making the everyday rides easier by controlling the power to the back wheel. Stop-start riding was therefore easier. When out on the highway and wanting to take it easy: Touring Riding Mode released the full complement of horsepower, but kept the traction control high, allowing a user-friendly power delivery curve further tamed by the ABS brakes when required. In short, it just worked. We want one.