razteo
Special Member
I rented a 2010 Ducati Streetfighter & I rode it 200 miles of all over the Malibu canyons all day on Saturday. Since I’m not too good at writing, I will just throw a bunch of good & bad thoughts about that bike here & you sort them out. (I have pictures somewhere in my phone, but the bike was exactly like the one attached here).
As you can probably guess is a way different bike then our beloved FZ6.
Is more comfortable than I thought, minus the handlebars that killed my wrists.
The high seat made leaning more difficult for me especially in the beginning, and although toward the end of the day I improved quite a bit, I still wished that seat was lower.
The bike is beautiful, but I wasn’t impressed by the fit & finish. The LCD display is easy to read but all the controls (lights, turn signal, engine shut off, etc) are tiny and they have a wired feel & I found them difficult to use.
Vibration from that L twin is not too bad, less than I was expecting, but still, after ½ hour of riding my left hand was almost numbed.
(I rode all day with a guy that rented a 1098 and his hand would get numbed the same way. The “hard to press” clutch level also contributed, I think)
But all this is nothing, the ride is everything!
I was amazed about how light the bike was; it almost felt like a bicycle or a scooter, not like a motorcycle & it gave me a lot of confidence.
The sound of the engine (with stock pipes) was absolutely intoxicating and the dry clutch “grind” was the cherry on the top. Is not a quiet bike.
The engine pulls like a demon. Is hard to describe that brutal torque, but it just pulls from any RPM and I had to be careful because half-way wheelies are something that comes with the bike when launching straight.
In corners I had to watch that throttle and I slipped the rear wheel in the beginning a few times (got cold chills!) and after exiting the turn I had to watch again to stay on 2 wheels, was just amazing!
Is so much power there, that shifting gears is optional. I did Latigo Canyon up (15 minutes from the ocean to the top of the mountain) only in 2nd gear, is no need to shift.
Transmission & shifting is much smoother then the FZ6, but it gave me quite a few false neutrals. The gears are long, and I shifted to 6th only to see how is the RPM at freeway speeds, not that I ever need it.
At 75 mph the nice warm air on Saturday was lifting all the weight from my wrists and was great, but going faster I had to practically hang on the bike, and sometimes the lateral wind surprised me a few times(in an unpleasant way).
I guess is me not used with a naked bike, and with time probably I can get used with it.
Not sure if I like this naked thing in the winter, but this is a completely different topic.
The bike is stupid fast – going between cars is addicting, cars just don’t have time to react, is a blast!
This Streetfighter is just a trouble maker! I think if I’ll own this I will be in Traffic School more way more often that anybody will want!
Although it wasn’t the S model, the suspension was excellent; it didn’t dive under ultra-hard braking, never danced around on not so perfect pavement, and in turns is very stable. At high speed on highway makes the bike feel stable & planted.
Other amazing things are the brakes. It does not compare with anything I ever tried. Let me put it this way: is like a computer game, it will stop at any speed, anywhere. You only use one finger and you stop. You just have to hang on when you do it, otherwise you fly off!
Not so good at parking lot speeds, but that’s why the rear brake is for.
BTW, is pretty hard to maneuver at slow speeds, the turn radius is ½ from my FZ6, and to modulate that throttle is not easy, I even stalled the engine few times.
The dry clutch is grabby and I needed some time to adjust to it, but still kind of hate it.
Is not a bike for commute or slow speed or very tight turns. Get it up over 50mph, get it over 5K RPM, and take it to a windy (bun not tight) road and you will smile inside that stupid looking helmet of yours. I know I did this Saturday!
The only downside is that after that I had to return the Streetfighter to the rental place and get back my FZ6.
My bike felt like an appliance after that…
As you can probably guess is a way different bike then our beloved FZ6.
Is more comfortable than I thought, minus the handlebars that killed my wrists.
The high seat made leaning more difficult for me especially in the beginning, and although toward the end of the day I improved quite a bit, I still wished that seat was lower.
The bike is beautiful, but I wasn’t impressed by the fit & finish. The LCD display is easy to read but all the controls (lights, turn signal, engine shut off, etc) are tiny and they have a wired feel & I found them difficult to use.
Vibration from that L twin is not too bad, less than I was expecting, but still, after ½ hour of riding my left hand was almost numbed.
(I rode all day with a guy that rented a 1098 and his hand would get numbed the same way. The “hard to press” clutch level also contributed, I think)
But all this is nothing, the ride is everything!
I was amazed about how light the bike was; it almost felt like a bicycle or a scooter, not like a motorcycle & it gave me a lot of confidence.
The sound of the engine (with stock pipes) was absolutely intoxicating and the dry clutch “grind” was the cherry on the top. Is not a quiet bike.
The engine pulls like a demon. Is hard to describe that brutal torque, but it just pulls from any RPM and I had to be careful because half-way wheelies are something that comes with the bike when launching straight.
In corners I had to watch that throttle and I slipped the rear wheel in the beginning a few times (got cold chills!) and after exiting the turn I had to watch again to stay on 2 wheels, was just amazing!
Is so much power there, that shifting gears is optional. I did Latigo Canyon up (15 minutes from the ocean to the top of the mountain) only in 2nd gear, is no need to shift.
Transmission & shifting is much smoother then the FZ6, but it gave me quite a few false neutrals. The gears are long, and I shifted to 6th only to see how is the RPM at freeway speeds, not that I ever need it.
At 75 mph the nice warm air on Saturday was lifting all the weight from my wrists and was great, but going faster I had to practically hang on the bike, and sometimes the lateral wind surprised me a few times(in an unpleasant way).
I guess is me not used with a naked bike, and with time probably I can get used with it.
Not sure if I like this naked thing in the winter, but this is a completely different topic.
The bike is stupid fast – going between cars is addicting, cars just don’t have time to react, is a blast!
This Streetfighter is just a trouble maker! I think if I’ll own this I will be in Traffic School more way more often that anybody will want!
Although it wasn’t the S model, the suspension was excellent; it didn’t dive under ultra-hard braking, never danced around on not so perfect pavement, and in turns is very stable. At high speed on highway makes the bike feel stable & planted.
Other amazing things are the brakes. It does not compare with anything I ever tried. Let me put it this way: is like a computer game, it will stop at any speed, anywhere. You only use one finger and you stop. You just have to hang on when you do it, otherwise you fly off!
Not so good at parking lot speeds, but that’s why the rear brake is for.
BTW, is pretty hard to maneuver at slow speeds, the turn radius is ½ from my FZ6, and to modulate that throttle is not easy, I even stalled the engine few times.
The dry clutch is grabby and I needed some time to adjust to it, but still kind of hate it.
Is not a bike for commute or slow speed or very tight turns. Get it up over 50mph, get it over 5K RPM, and take it to a windy (bun not tight) road and you will smile inside that stupid looking helmet of yours. I know I did this Saturday!
The only downside is that after that I had to return the Streetfighter to the rental place and get back my FZ6.
My bike felt like an appliance after that…
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