NorCalRSVR
09-08-2007, 06:10 PM
So, I went to Santa Rosa today as I got an invitation to do a test ride at MotoMeccanica. The ride there pretty well sucked. So much traffic through all the good twisty stuff. It didn't matter if you got past one, there were 10 or 20 more to deal with afterwards. I think we got about 5 miles clear of traffic out of the over 100 that we did today.
So, about the test ride. We got to MotoMeccanica and took out a Sport 1000 and a GT. I took the GT first and it was a neat little bike. Nothing about it really stood out to me other than it was quite comfortable. It turned in nice and easy but seemed to respond better to a slight shift of weight at the seat and a push on the bars rather than a push on the bars alone. Still it handled well, both on the country road we had as a test route, and in traffic going back into Santa Rosa. The clutch was nice and light, while the brakes were quite good.
My buddy Roy and I swapped bikes after we returned to Motomeccanica. I was on the Sport 1000 the second time out and to be honest, as much as I liked the way it looked, it's a lot of work to ride. It's like a full on sportbike without having all the pluses of a full on sportbike yet retaining all of the down sides. The riding position was horrible. It was like the Aprilia but without the tank to rest your upper body on. Because of this, all your weight is on your wrists with no relief available. The clutch was quite stiff and not easy to modulate in traffic. The brakes were pretty much the same as on the GT.
Overall, I'd rather ride the GT if I had to choose between them. The engine on both bikes was very, very smooth in the way the power comes on. The Sport 1000 is much taller geared (or so it seemed) and needed to be kept in the upper end of the tach to make things happen at the same speed they happen on the Mille R. The GT was much more friendly in the real world....the one filled with traffic. The Sport, I guess would have been good on the twisty stuff, I don't know though, it's not like we got to find out.
If I had to choose a Ducati, I'd want one powered by the 1000DS engine. At the moment though, the only bike Ducati is producing that makes me go oohhh and ahhh is the 1098.......sean
So, about the test ride. We got to MotoMeccanica and took out a Sport 1000 and a GT. I took the GT first and it was a neat little bike. Nothing about it really stood out to me other than it was quite comfortable. It turned in nice and easy but seemed to respond better to a slight shift of weight at the seat and a push on the bars rather than a push on the bars alone. Still it handled well, both on the country road we had as a test route, and in traffic going back into Santa Rosa. The clutch was nice and light, while the brakes were quite good.
My buddy Roy and I swapped bikes after we returned to Motomeccanica. I was on the Sport 1000 the second time out and to be honest, as much as I liked the way it looked, it's a lot of work to ride. It's like a full on sportbike without having all the pluses of a full on sportbike yet retaining all of the down sides. The riding position was horrible. It was like the Aprilia but without the tank to rest your upper body on. Because of this, all your weight is on your wrists with no relief available. The clutch was quite stiff and not easy to modulate in traffic. The brakes were pretty much the same as on the GT.
Overall, I'd rather ride the GT if I had to choose between them. The engine on both bikes was very, very smooth in the way the power comes on. The Sport 1000 is much taller geared (or so it seemed) and needed to be kept in the upper end of the tach to make things happen at the same speed they happen on the Mille R. The GT was much more friendly in the real world....the one filled with traffic. The Sport, I guess would have been good on the twisty stuff, I don't know though, it's not like we got to find out.
If I had to choose a Ducati, I'd want one powered by the 1000DS engine. At the moment though, the only bike Ducati is producing that makes me go oohhh and ahhh is the 1098.......sean