MY VIEWS BY A CBR600 RIDER RIDING A 748
I own a 1999 Honda CBR600F4. My friend owns a Ducati 748. The
last time we went to Buttonwillow, he let me ride it around the
track for a couple of laps. Here are my impressions:
* The 748 is well nigh impossible to turn! The F4 flicks back
and forth with ease, the Ducati does not. I absolutely HATED
this aspect of the Duc! If you buy a 748, you'll have to learn
how to ride all over again; it's that different.
* The riding position of the 748 is Hell, in more ways that one.
To start, the clip-ons are so low that it's almost impossible
to avoid putting weight on your wrists. Everybody knows about
this. The other problem is that the riding position limits how
far you can see. On the F4, I was used to being able to turn my
head and look all the way through Buttonwillow's Turn 2/2a. On
the Duc, I couldn't lift my head up enough to see through the
turn. This was a bit unnerving coming off the F4, but I suppose
you'd get used to it if the Duc was your only bike.
* The Ducati clutch wasn't as bad as I'd heard, but that's not to
say that it was good. The neutral light and the transmission didn't
seem to be connected; I stalled the bike once when the light said
it was in neutral, but it wasn't. My friend says that it's also
easy to find false neutrals between the gears. You have to exert
a LOT of force to pull the clutch lever in on the Duc. This would
become a real problem in city traffic, I think.
* The Ducati's brakes have better initial bite than the F4. They
might be a tad more wooden than the F4, but they did give me the
feeling that they could stop the bike quicker. I really liked the
brakes on the Duc, but I wasn't trying to trail-brake or get
absolute stopping power out of them.
* The Duc has much better ground clearance than the F4. In fact the
F4 has pretty bad ground clearance (I'm just saying that because I
managed to drag the pipe and low-side at Buttonwillow last week).
* As everyone says, the Ducati has loads of torque available at
just about any RPM as opposed to the F4, which doesn't start to
pull hard until you hit 7000+ RPM. The Ducati's torque curve felt
much flatter than the F4's. I really like the way the F4 gives you
a big hit of power at 7-8K RPM, so this wasn't a plus for me.
* The range on the Ducati is pretty bad. I can usually get through
most of a track day without needing fuel. My friend usually has
to fill the 748's tank once or twice during the day.
My friend loves his 748, but after riding it around the track for
20 minutes, there's no way I'd ever trade my F4 for one. Even if
I was looking for a track-only bike, I wouldn't purchase a Ducati!
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