Ducati 848 Moves On

Back in late 2015 I bought myself a Christmas present - a 2008 Ducati 848. I'd always wanted to own a Ducati Superbike in all its 4-valve liquid-cooled glory and a chance at one came along, so I grabbed it.

The bike is beautiful, obviously. The 848 and its big-brother 1098 looked like a more modern interpretation of the classic Tamburini 916 and were a revelation after the oddly styled 999.

Riding, of course, was only moderate torture in the city and on straight roads outside town. I have a high tolerance for race-replica riding positions, being a fairly... "compact" person and not very heavy, but it wasn't the riding position that was the worst thing about this bike.

The worst part was definitely the underseat exhaust, or "nut roaster" as I call it. On any day warmer than about 20C/70F your bottom is in for a full heat soak treatment. Leather riding pants are a must but that gets a bit much when you just want to ride a bit around town.

However on the open road and in sweeping curves the bike was awesome. Handling was telepathic, the engine powerful, and the sound from the Termignoni cans... amazing.  

Here's the text of the ad I put on kijiji:

"2008 Ducati 848 in pearl white. This was the first year of production of the 848, and the bike was originally purchased at Wildwood Sports here in Winnipeg – I understand it was the first 848 in the city.

"There are a few mods installed – Ducati Performance/Termignoni slip-on exhaust and ECU, carbon fibre front fender, one-tooth-smaller front sprocket, and Ducati mirror extensions. The stock exhaust, ECU, fender, and sprocket are included, as well as a rear paddock stand, “Ducati Superbike” cover, extra tinted windscreen, scratched stock windscreen, and owners manual. The bike does not include the red key. A new AGM battery was installed last year.

"I purchased the bike locally in January 2016 with 9071 miles and have only added 618 miles during my ownership (current odo reading is 9689). Tires are excellent, the bike was safetied when I bought it in 2016 so should not need anything to pass.

"The bike is beautiful and the single-sided swingarm harkens back to the 916-era of Ducati Superbikes. Its 849cc Testastretta L-twin engine is rated at 134hp and retains the flexibility for which these large twin-cylinder engines are known. Handling is first-rate and the bike is very light, scaling in at a claimed 370lbs dry. This example is lovely and well-kept, and represents a great opportunity to acquire a like-new Ducati Superbike at a reasonable price. I love the bike but am selling it because I have too many motorcycles and not enough time to ride them! No test rides of course but you are welcome to come hear it run.

"**This is not a suitable motorcycle for a novice or beginner motorcyclist**"

I added the last sentence to try and ward off the many beginners who seemed to flock to this bike like moths to a flame. One guy even sat on it and as it rolled forward slightly, pulled in the clutch lever. "Brakes not working?" he asked when the bike didn't stop. "That's the clutch lever" his friend said, shaking his head. The dude had never ridden a motorcycle before and figured a 134hp 400lb superbike would be a reasonable first bike. Believe it or not I had more than one person like that look at the bike. The attitude seems to be "I don't want to buy something I'm going to grow out of" and I get that... but when you unpack the concept, it makes no sense. Everybody who rides remembers low-speed tipovers happening when they first learned to ride (I know it happened to me) - so why would you have as your first bike a machine that would cost you thousands to fix when that happens? The seat is high ("can it be lowered?" I was asked) and steering lock is hand-pinchingly limited, another recipe for tipovers. Never mind that, there's a larger safety issue of learning to control a very powerful, very light machine when you've had no experience of riding on two wheels before. The 848 has the power of a small car at an eighth of the weight. Its performance is explosive, and meant for experienced riders. If you're a beginner, buy a small Honda or Kawasaki (or even a KTM 390!) for a couple grand, learn to ride it well, sell it for a couple grand, and buy something nicer. This is like buying a Ferrari as a first car!

In any event, a reasonable young fellow who works selling luxury cars at a local dealership came to see it, fell in love, and handed me over a stack of cash for the bike and associated bits (stock fender, cans, ECU, front sprocket; paddock stand, two windscreens, cover, and manuals). I got out of the bike exactly what I'd paid for it, so ownership didn't cost me much, and I've had the experience of owning (and going very fast on) a Ducati Superbike. 

Why did I sell it? Well, I hardly rode it, and couldn't see that changing really. I wouldn't tour on it (far too uncomfortable and no room for luggage anyway) and if I have to take a bike somewhere in town, I'd be far more likely to take the R1, GSX-R1100 or even 900SS/SP. If I'm going to show something off at a cruise night or show, likewise. The 848 has no space to carry anything and the tank is plastic, so my magnetic tank bag is useless, and it's uncomfortable around town anyway. No, its sole purpose would be the run down south of the city, and I don't get to do that often enough to make sense having this bike. So I let it go. That's good for now, and in theory it frees up a spot in the garage for something different.

Sounds of Things That Go

So, I've uploaded some videos (with sound) of my Things That Go (well, the ones that make cool sounds, anyway).

Here they are:

'85 Porsche 911 with M&K exhaust

'86 Suzuki GSX-R1100 with D&D exhaust

'95 Ducati 900SS/SP with D&D exhaust

'08 Ducati 848 with Termignoni exhaust

So that's the current stable. I'm not going to bother with clips of the GTI or the R1 as they both still run stock exhausts and honestly, while they can be exciting to drive and ride, they're not that exciting to listen to :-)

Sportbike Evolution - Styling, Cockpit and Controls

So with the near-completion of the almost-decade-long (!) GSX-R1100 restoration project, I now have an opportunity to do some direct comparisons of the bikes in the stable, and look at the evolution of the sportbike (selected examples) over three decades - the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

The machines in the picture - '08 Ducati 848, '98 Yamaha YZF-R1, and '86 Suzuki GSX-R1100 - each represent the hardest-core of sportbike development for their respective decades. While the wild Ducati 1098 was the ultimate open-classer from the Italian manufacturer, the 848 Superbike shared much of its design and chassis development so we'll consider it to be an adequate stand-in :-)

In this post I'll try to delve a little into the differences and similarities of these three machines, made by three different manufacturers, over a 20-year span. Today I'm going to focus on the cockpits, controls and styling.

First off, check out the difference in windscreen height on these three bikes...

The GSX-R definitely looks like it has the most protective windscreen, and it's true. It dwarfs the R1 screen by a good half-a-foot and it keeps that much more wind off on the highway.

Check this out - the top of the R1 screen barely comes up to the bottom of the GSX-R's, and the 848 screen is even lower than the Yamaha's. Reduction in overall frontal area has obviously become a bigger deal over the years and the Yamaha and Ducati are noticeably lower and pointier than the square-jawed Suzuki. For all the press talk of the GSX-R being the hardest of the hard core back in the '80s, it's clear that there was some way to go before we got to the R1 and 848. The Yamaha and Ducati also share 17" rolling stock in common as opposed to the Suzuki's 18" hoops, and this will be the subject of a future post...

Here's the cockpit of the '86 GSX-R1100. Everything's in the same place as universal Japanese standard - turnsignals, high-low beam, horn and clutch on the left bar, starter button, killswitch, throttle and front brake on the right. Clip-ons are set low relative to the seat and as you can see, steeply angled.

Speedo and tach are white-faced analog gauges. Remarkably the speedometer is calibrated to 280kph (that's 174mph in old money) and the tachometer doesn't register until the engine's turning over 3,000rpm. Makes it a smidge difficult to set the engine idle speed!

Warning lights for turnsignals, high beam, sidestand, neutral, and oil pressure complete the Spartan dashboard. Trip odometer is reset by turning the wheel on the left hand side of the speedo.

Fast forward ten years and things are a bit different. Clip-ons on the R1 are somewhat less angled and the bars house the same controls as the Suzuki's in the same places, with the exception of the choke control which has moved from the carbs to the left bar. Brake master cylinder now has a remote reservoir and the clutch is activated by cable. Real carbon triple cover is from SKUR and covers some scuffs put there by the PO.

Analog tach and digital speedo dominate the display. Warning lights only for neutral, turnsignal, high beam and low fuel, but digital coolant temp gauge nestles into the tach. The LCD dash also displays the time as well as two trip odometers. Big Ohlins damper reminds you you're astride some quality kit.

By 2008 the world of superbikes had turned digital. Bar angle is similar to the R1 and same controls appear, with the addition of a multifunction button on the left bar and the deletion of the choke, as the 848 has electronic fuel injection. The key is cleverly placed out of the way on the headstock, there's no way an errant fob will scratch that lovely top triple clamp. Remote reservoirs for both brake and clutch complete the cockpit.

Lots of information on the LCD display. Time, ambient temp, coolant temp, odometer and speed readout (where it says "848" in the pic) plus bar-style tach across the top.

Styling has also evolved over 20 years and that's a matter of personal taste as well. Me, I find aesthetic appeal in all three of these machines - which is why I own them :-)

The seating positions have evolved as well. You sit "in" the GSX-R, not on it, and the seat is low to the ground - I can flat-foot it at only 5'7". The reach over the humped tank to the low-set clipons is a long-ish one. Then you have the joy of folding your knees back almost double to reach the very high footrests. At least the huge bubble keeps the wind off - with footrests a shade lower this would be a great tourer.

As for styling, the ur-GSX-R1100 is just brutish, but the endurance-racer twin-headlight look combined with traditional Suzuki colours really make it a sportbike icon. It is really the prototype for all repli-racers that came after, with its full fairing, exposed frame, and even solo seat cowl. Its twin headlights have even won out with the industry, even if today's GSX-Rs have to make do with a single unit. The one thing that made it so unique also never caught on - the full-coverage plastic side-panels that gave it the nickname "slabbie".

The R1's styling has some '90s in it with the splashy "YZF" graphic but keeps it subtle, unlike competitors like the '90s GSX-Rs and their "shell-suit" styling. The shape of the bike is timeless. Unlike the GSX-R that looks very "vintage", I think the R1 could reasonably be mistaken for a much newer bike with its tautly drawn lines and restrained graphics.

The R1's seating position is paradoxical. The bike itself is lower than the Suzuki, but the seat is higher - I'm on my tiptoes. Footrests are somewhat lower relative to the seat than on Suzuki, but the very low windscreen doesn't block the wind as well as the older bike's. The foot controls are all knurled metal, without even the rubber inserts of the GSX-R's as a concession to comfort. Clearly this is a bike designed for pure speed, but it's civilized enough to use every day or even tour on! The one thing you can't do is carry a pillion in comfort - although the press complained about this in '86, the Suzuki's passenger accommodations are much better than the R1's. The footrests are way too high.

The 848 for me combines the best elements of the 916 series while updating them for a modern eye. The bike looks contemporary but still retains an Italian flair, and looks great in traditional red or pearl white as my example. Twin projector-beam headlights look menacing as well. The under-seat exhaust system carries on a familiar Ducati theme that dated back to the early '90s 916, and was later aped by the Japanese, including on the R1. A great look but a terrible idea - on a warm day your nethers get a good roasting and that's not fun at all. Leathers are certainly recommended for this reason.

And while the 848 got a reputation as being a torture rack to ride, I personally find it OK - but coming from a person that tours on an R1, I may be in the minority. However, being a person of smaller stature (5'7") helps - shorter legs have to bend less to reach the high footrests. I didn't find the clip-ons objectionably low either. I haven't toured on the bike (see: under-seat exhaust) but I find it comparable to the R1 in general ergonomics. Pillion seat, as on the R1, is just for show. 

Being that we're in the dead of winter here now with all of the machines asleep under their covers, it's nice to reminisce about riding...

Ducati 848 Windscreen Change

When I got my '08 Ducati 848 Superbike at Christmas 2015, it wore the tinted screen shown in the pic above. Now, I am not a fan of tinted screens, no not one bit - but it seems that almost every bike I have bought has had one, installed by a previous owner. This includes not only this 848, but my '95 Ducati 900SS/SP and our '86 GSX-R1100.

Despite their undoubted utility in helping keep sun off the instruments, I've always thought that tinted screens were pretty tacky, and I replaced them immediately with clear ones.

In the case of the 848, the stock clear screen was included in the sale, but it was scratched and I didn't want to remount it on the bike. I also wasn't enthusiastic about $pending hundred$ on a new stock screen from Ducati... so I had a look on eBay and found a brand-new double bubble screen from a Chinese vendor for less than $30 including shipping. It had to be worth a try at that price!

The screen took quite awhile to arrive but when it did it looked good, quite thick and substantial. Then I went to mount it and discovered that I needed a Torx screwdriver for the windscreen screws. No problem right? WRONG... nobody in town had a T7 Torx driver for a sensible price. So back to eBay again and a set of T5-T8 Torx drivers were on the way from China to my house, for less than $5 all in.
 

So last weekend I unbolted the stock screen and had a go at installing the new one. The Chinese replica fit well, the only flaw was a partially drilled mounting hole that was easy to drill out myself. Installation was a bit of a pain though...

There are two screws at the very front of the screen that you have to be really careful with, as the rubber nutserts can easily fall down into the nether regions at the front of the bike. I held onto them with long visegrips as I undid them, but it was impossible to hold them from behind when installing the new screen. I ended up supergluing the nutserts to the screen itself. This worked a treat and allowed me to thread in the Torx bolts with no problems. I figure if I need to change screens again I'll just carefully peel them off, or failing that, buy new nutserts.

I can't see wanting to go back to a tinted screen though. To my eyes the clear stock item looks so much better. Not sure it'll block as much breeze though as it's a lot lower than the tinted job. I haven't licensed the bike to go for a ride yet so maybe I'll update this post once I do.

Nice, eh?

 

Oh yeah... while we're on the topic of mods, I added a nice carbon fibre front fender as well. I love carbon and I think it looks pretty sharp :-)

UPDATE: I had the bike out for a ride a couple weeks ago, with the new clear screen. I didn't notice a real significant difference from the old one. Still a torturous riding position, but an amazing ride :-)

PCA Newsletter and Editorial Musings

What a great photo! Taken by Dan Torbiak, this photo graces the cover of the latest edition (January/February 2017) of Red River Ramblings. Plenty to look at in this issue, including reports on the Holiday party and the Porsche Driving Experience at Barber Motorsports Park, and plenty more.

I write an editorial piece for each issue of Ramblings, and I think that just for fun I'll also reprint my editorial here on the blog. So here goes with Jan/Feb's deep thoughts:

Service above self
That’s the motto of a well-known international service club but it’s something we should remember when thinking about our cars as well. To wit: when is the last time your Porsche was treated to a full comprehensive service?

When we drive our cars only seasonally (as many owners of sports or vintage Porsches do) it’s easy to let regular maintenance slip. After all, we have a limited amount of time to drive in the summer, who wants to waste it with the car idle in a repair shop or sitting in the garage?

The issue was brought into sharp focus for me over the Christmas break. I’d wanted to get a whiteboard for the garage to keep track of oil and filter changes on our vehicles, and finally got out to Walmart to pick one up. Then came the fun part - going back through my records to write up the date, mileage of the latest service for each of the machines.

The GTI was easy - the massive engine repair bill incurred in October was still fresh in mind, and oil and filter were changed at the time as well. Recorded.

The Ducati 848 had benefited from a service (including oil and filter change) at the dealership in early 2016, just after purchase at Christmas 2015. Recorded.

The Yamaha R1's oil and filter had been changed by me in the summer of 2015 and it had done only a couple thousand kilometers since then. Recorded.   

Then things started to get a bit sketchy...

The Ducati 900SS/SP hadn’t been ridden regularly since 2014 or so, but the last oil and filter change I’d recorded was in 2013. Time to put that right in the Spring, even if I’m not going to be putting many miles on - the idea being that if I wanted to ride it on a weekend, I could do so without feeling I was compromising mechanical wear on a sumpfull of elderly oil.

When I went through the Porsche’s records I was in for a bit of a shock. The last I’d changed the oil and filter was in [date redacted] in Andy’s garage! Granted, the car’s not done too much mileage in the interim but it will definitely be due in the Spring. A major service and some repairs will be in order as well, since the blowers are now all completely non-functional after the regular use the car received in October and November.  

So with that resolved I’ll eagerly await springtime (and save my shekels for the inevitable expense of the upcoming oil changes and service). However, I guess I needn’t be too hard on myself given the relatively low mileage elapsed between services and the fact I only use top-brand full synthetic oil - ELF suggests that full-synthetic oil should go 7,500 to 10,000 miles (!) between changes and that’s far far in excess of my current interval - in fact the R1 and 848 only have about 10,000 miles total on their clocks since new!

However, I do heartily recommend the whiteboard method for those with multiple vehicles to maintain. It does help focus one on maintenance needs and I have to imagine it will be extremely satisfying to finally write up Spring maintenance on the board!

Fall Time, 848 in Review and New PCA Newsletter

Wanted to post a couple pics from autumn. We don't get too much in the way of variety of Fall colours, but if you like "red" you're in luck. Here are a couple shots of the 848 and R1 on Red River Drive south of the city.

I suppose I should probably post some thoughts on the 848 as it's been nearly a year since it joined the stable. I did ride it some this summer and I have a few thoughts...

First off, as you can see from above, it's beautiful. I think Ducati took the best of the 916 and modernized it for the 1098/848 generation. It's not only great looking, it's unmistakably a Ducati. Somehow, even though it's modern, it avoids looking samey.

Second, it's great to ride. Even though torturous to most, I don't seem to mind the riding position, although I only tend to ride for an hour or so at a time :-)  Power is ample and accessible (especially after the front sprocket swap to lower the gearing a smidge), handling is well up to whatever I throw at it in my sedate rides, and as you can imagine, it sounds fantastic with the Termignoni cans.

Downsides? Well... it's uncomfortable on hot days. Very uncomfortable. With the twin exhausts snaking below the seat, the old crotchal area becomes roasty-toasty in short order. Preferred attire definitely includes my leather Dainese sport pants. It's also somewhat impractical for daily use - pillion riding is nigh-impossible with the high tiny seat, and my magnetic tank bag won't stick on the plastic tank. Certainly if I had to run multiple errands on two wheels I'd be likely to grab the keys to the Yamaha before the 848's. Also, the 848 had a strange starting issue that I think I've just cracked. It has been hard starting this summer - I mean extremely hard nearly-drain-the-battery-cranking-it hard starting. It would catch for a couple of revs, then die. Eventually it would finally catch and run fine. Once it started it restarted easily.

One day for some reason I decided to try to start it with the fuel cap open. Voila, started first try, no problem. Wha? I guess that maybe there's an issue with tank ventilation and a vacuum of some kind may be restricting or preventing fuel flow. I resolve to have it looked at next Spring, but for the rest of the riding year this year I just opened the cap, started the bike, then stopped it, closed the cap and rode off. Worked fine that way.

What else... well, the new issue of Red River Ramblings has been out for nearly a month. Here's a link: http://www.redriverpca.org/newsletters/

Now the Porsche is put away after being driven a ton this Fall (GTI broke down and was in shop for a month, but that's another story) and everybody else is tucked up tight. Can't wait till Spring...

Christmas Present

Sooo... I like Ducatis. I like superbikes. I've always wanted to own a Ducati superbike. There has always been a low-intensity program running in my background looking for a reasonably-priced 851/888, 916/996/998, or more recent superbike for sale, preferably locally.

One of the things I did was to regularly peruse local kijiji looking for likely candidates. Let me tell you they were few and far between! However, back in November, I came across an ad for a "2008 848 EVO" (sic) with only 9,071 miles, at a tempting price.

I tried to contact the seller but was ultimately unsuccessful in pursuing the deal, because at the time I didn't have a mobile phone and the seller was only interested in texting (!). So that fell by the wayside.

A couple weeks later I saw the same bike pop up on eBay! I contacted the eBay seller and found that he had bought the bike off the kijiji guy, but shortly after found out that he'd be losing his driver's licence for two years, and needed to sell. His eBay buy-it-now was quite aggressive, well over the price asked by the previous seller, and upon my asking he said he was sure he'd sell it for that. I wrote it off as I wasn't interested in paying that much for the bike.

About two weeks later, though, he got in touch again and indicated he was open to negotiations near the kijiji price. And it was on...

After seeing and hearing the bike a couple times we arrived at a deal. I ended up paying somewhat less than the kijiji price but the seller was quite happy to make the deal.

The package included a Ducati Performance/Termignoni exhaust and ECU, tinted windscreen, mirror extenders (all installed), a nice Ducati Performance bike cover, and a battery tender. Stock parts included too of course.

Funds were duly withdrawn from chequing account and the bike was delivered a few days after Christmas. It came in a Sprinter van and rolled off into my drive down a plywood ramp (!). The only problem with the bike was a broken internal part in the left handlebar switch - the fault of overzealous tying-down. I've repaired the broken internal bit with two-part epoxy and a new spring pin is waiting at Wildwood Sports for me - cost, $0.21. Yes, twenty-one cents. If only all Ducati parts were that cheap!

Right now the bike is slotted behind the Porsche and slumbering on its battery tender. Can't say that I haven't succumbed to the temptation to fire it up a few times though! It sounds fantastic through those booming Termis...

It may just be my bias but I find this bike to be absolutely gorgeous. If it rides half as well as it looks I'll be pretty pleased. I know that 848's are renowned as torture racks but I'm confident it'll suit me. After all, I did do a 2,100km long weekend trip last year on an R1 without lasting negative effects. Some sacrifices must be made for beauty!