THE LAST RIDE
Waving goodbye to our long term test Ducati Supersport 950.
By 8.30pm the UK’S car drivers are safely plonked on their sofas for the night, munching through Love Island and chocolate digestives. Time for me and the Supersport S to trickle quietly out of the village to catch the last hour of sunlight for our last ride. Tomorrow the bike’s going back to Ducati and I’m going to miss the sensible yet saucy Italian. After 1500 miles I still haven’t tired of the way it manages to be racey enough to let me recapture my sportsbike youth without cricking my neck, back or driving licence. Every evening sortie is a mixture of exhilaration and relief.
The first part of my route isn’t the Ducati’s favourite though – it’s a rattly B-road with a toxic mixture of sketchy surface, bumps and undulations. It’s the sort of nonsense a decent adventure bike makes mincemeat of but the S’s fancy Öhlins – back to stock settings after much experimentation – struggles to keep all the unpleasantness away from arse and wrists. It’s still approximately 1000 times more comfortable than a full-on sportsbike, mind.
The fun really starts as I turn onto a twisty A-road that’s usually polluted with Honda Jazzes full of kids or old ladies, and fleets of tradesmen in Us-style pick-ups. Now though it’s empty, bar the odd HGV heading for a night on the road. From here on in it’s Supersport territory – fast, flowing and with the occasional surface deterioration to make you glad you’re not on an S1000RR. You appreciate the Ducati’s engine too – it’s easily powerful enough to go very fast, but not so powerful that you leave the top-end unmolested and return home wondering why you paid a lot of money for an engine you never make the most of. The 950S is a motor you thrash rather than nervously ignite. On a road like this it’s hard to imagine a better bike, and the way it pops and crackles heroically as you downshift into corners just adds to the joy.
I’m only out for an hour tonight because our local deer usually decide to commit suicide at dusk, but the Supersport has been civilised company on longer trips. The new saddle is comfortable despite shoving you up against the tank, the screen on its lower of two settings is quiet while giving decent protection, the fuel range from the 16 litre tank is adequate and the hooks under the saddle make it easy to strap on luggage.
‘The 950S is a motor you thrash rather than nervously ignite’
There are a couple of gripes though, the first of which is famous among Supersport owners: the fricking mirrors. Holy mother of all things reflective they’re awful. From 3500rpm (ie where the fun begins) they vibrate so much that they’re all-but useless. Did Ducati not test it with them on? Or do all Ducati’s test riders pull the clutch in to look in the mirror? Like the view behind, it’s a mystery.
My other niggle is the dual purpose indicator cancel button. Because the indicators self cancel, but not 100% reliably, I can’t help pressing the cancel button to be on the safe side. But if the indicators have already cancelled, that means I reset the trip. OK, it’s not a deal breaker, but please can we just have another button instead? With the cloud cover making it dark enough for the TFT screen to switch to white on black, I’m nearly home, cruising down an A-road wondering why there’s no cruise control on such a tourable bike. The Supersport isn’t perfect, but it’s so much fun on twisty roads and so comfortable on straight ones that, as I have on the last few trips, I pull into the drive wishing I didn’t have to give it back. Which is the mark of a really good bike.