Brands Hatch - 8th August, Ducati Day!

http://londonbikers.com/news/4d25963b-97c1-479c-a886-a666fe06618c

Who’s going on this?!

I’m about to book. I want to have a spin on something red, and throw out the cobwebs.

I’d like to try a 1098 as well, I hoped to be able to do that at the WDW but it was the only bike (apart from the desmosedici) it was not possible to test ride. I did try the Hipermotard 1100s which is very good fun to ride.

I probably won’t be able to make it on 8th August, but I was thinking of doing the two days at Cadwell Park with the Ducati Sporting Club on 21st and 22nd of August @ £180+£5 membership fee. Apparently 22nd of August is open to all bikes and it is £95+£5 membership fee.

Some details on Ducati UK site:

http://www.ducati.com/od/ducatiuk/events/detail.jhtml;jsessionid=Z0A3RYA4I30TSCRNCB2SFEYKFUIHUIV3?eventId=16881

You’ll love the 1098 Jay…Those brakes are awesome.

Francesco, I rode the 1098 at Cadwell and I must say that is a superb track to test the bike. Very flowing so you get to experience how agile the bike is.

Go for it.

i took the 1098 around Mallory a couple of weeks ago…bloody hell

I wish i knew earlier about the 8th august, i would def have gone!

It looks like for some odd reasons at work I won’t be able to make the two days at Cadwell Park.

I need to fund another day where I can try the 1098…

Hope the day went well Jay! I’m taking bets on you keeping the newly kitted gixxer over the Duke…any takers?

FAB day out, loved every minute of it, despite a really hard time actually leading up to getting out on track. I had a nightmare in that because I have absolutely no spare time what with developing LB, I had the Ohlins forks fitted during Tuesday daytime only to find out my pads were shot (my mistake) and the shop had no replacements in and it was end-of-day, then I was lucky enough to have B donate a pair of Supercorsa Pro tyres and a quick fork setup, get them fitted at 11pm by my good friend Smokey, then no pads could be found, I thought I had a set in my garage but couldn’t find them! All this at now 1am. I got three hours sleep in the end, urgh.

So with no shops open, I went to the circuit, did my sighting laps and then went to Giant Motorcycles at Brands who didn’t have any gixxer pads in (Yamaha dealership), but were super helpful and actually took some out of a customers bike for me (I paid for replacements), which got me out on track. I missed a session but it was better than missing all of them!

The Ohlins forks were a real dream, I am astounded at how much better they make the bike handle compared to the dialled-in originals. The bike runs on rails around Brands and all of the unsureness through Clearways and into Paddock Hill are gone. They soak it all up!

The forks were fitted too low in the yokes though so the bike was on it’s nose. No problem for the road and gave nice and fast turn-in, but under hard braking the bike would just pitch forward and have the back wheel in the air. Caused a few little twitches I didn’t like, so will get a full setup from BN Race Science soon to rectify this!

New pads, which weren’t new were mated to other discs so ran horrible on my bike, I was getting bad judding when under hard braking. This meant I had to back right off and make up time on the exit of corners. No big deal though, I’m not trying to break any lap records

1098… Took it out at 4pm, last session of the day. Mixed feelings, still digesting the experience. I think at the mo, it’s 50/50 between brill and sucks. The brakes were naff, they would just grab and caused a few moments for me down graham hill, getting the bike all out of shape on the front. Amazing strength in them though, but very hard to control. The torque is really, really nice, and the low tones of the exhaust were really addictive. The suspension was utter trash though and honestly, worse than my stock K5 suspension. It would wallow and bounce so much, like I was riding on diesel. I found it impossible to hold a line and would understeer badly. I used twice as many gears as on my gixxer, which was involving, no real opinion on that. The bike is much taller than I am used to, so took some time getting my head into leaning over so far.

MotoGP dash was sexy, but I came in early to give it back as it was just nothing on my sorted gixxer.

Top day in all, MSV did a great job of managing the day, giving a quality briefing, really engaging with the punters, and giving the novices/intermediates tuition/feedback after each session. Very few incidents, but those that did happen were quite bad. I came across a Ducati in a hundred pieces at Clearways and the rider on the ground and in pain, then an R1 drove at warp speed into the gravel-trap at Druids, creating the biggest mushroom cloud of sand I’ve ever seen. No spares or tyre services was a huge pain in the ass though, a real let-down I think. Not a huge number of people there either, which was really nice, made it much friendlier. Leathers are being sanitised as we speak, looking forward to Donington Park on the 14th B

Wow…sounds like you had a bit of fun there Jay…shame about the bike and the hassle you had with your pads etc. All part of the fun!

That was full of drama off track for you Jay…much better than on track dramas though! At least your efforts paid off and you got out on track in the end

I’m keen to try your gixxer out at Donington now …well we do need a second opinion and of course a few more tweaks of the suspension

I wonder what the general opinion of the 1098 was on the day. When you buy a bike of that calibre you expect it to make you feel confident when you ride it, maybe it was just poorly set up.

Nice write up and hope you’ve blown the trackday cobwebs out, Donington will now be a breeze

Yep, I’m ready for Donington

There was at least two very fast riders on 1098’s out there. There were quite a few Ducati owners there with their own you see, not just Ducati’s test bikes. The bike I had was completly standard, but it was just so dissapointing in the handling department. The engine and drive was phenominal though, I could imagine owning one, but only after spending the money on the S model and the required suspension setup/rebuild, after-market exhaust and perhaps a look a the grabby brakes. Not really worth it IMO. I’ve got one sorted bike already.

Pictures:
http://londonbikers.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=43&MessageID=238891