Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyborg Great man, all the best!
Could you elaborate on the test ride? How comfortable was she? Did you try out all the rider modes?
I would interested in knowing the deal Ducati offered. Please PM me if you would not like to post it on the forum.
Cheers |
I was given quite an elaborate test ride with detailed explanation on how to ride the bike in the two conditions available on the route. (image of the route is attached. Red circle is the showroom, blue circle is the farthest point on the route. I took about 7 loops on the carter road stretch).
From the showroom till the start of carter road, I rode with urban mode. If one is careful with the accelerator, the bike behaves extremely docile and friendly.
All the internal roads were filled with Saturday afternoon traffic of millions of autos and cars and bikes. There was a small crossing every 50 meters or so. One has to inch the front wheel 6 inch at a time to first block the traffic coming across. Then one has to lean and twist and somehow insert the whole bike in front of across traffic to block them. Then one has to move the front wheel left right left right and find a way to insert the bike inside the opposite side traffic, which of course blocks the whole road leaving no space of any kind.
The Ducati monster on urban mode does this better than Bajaj V15 and discover.
One has to note that it must be brought down to 1st gear for this. 2nd gear knocks. Fine clutch accelerator balance and control is needed. Carelessness on this part (happened couple of times to me) makes the bike roar like a wounded T-Rex and makes everyone within half mile pee in their pants. Had the traffic not been so extremely dense, people would give way. Every driver rider I made eye contact with, nodded in submission. (I like that
)
It heats up a lot in this kind of first gear riding though. The exhaust guard touches the right leg and heats it up. But it does not burn. I wore a torn (near the knee) jeans to look cool and not 38. Still I did not get any boils or burns. (In my opinion that's good enough). But it gets hot, no doubt about that.
The good part is, as soon as one gets to ride for 50 meters on 2nd gear, it cools pretty much instantly. Yesterday ambient temperature was around 33-34 C. So I guess heating while very much present, is not an issue.
I tried out the Touring mode on carter road. traffic was pretty dense here too, but was flowing at 30kmph+. That and the speed breakers every 200 meters does not allow the rider to accelerate much. But I could see 115 on the speedo once. Mostly I kept it under 80. The acceleration pattern changes quite dramatically on touring mode and even a minimum clutch slip or careless throttle twist will cause it to kind of jump forward. They said that due to DSP it will not wheelie, however stupid the rider is.
The sound is audible from far. Every car/bike/auto coming from opposite side and crossing my side to get into a side lane stopped, bowed and saluted till I passed. This was the case even when there was a speed breaker right before the cut and I had to slow down to 10-12kmph. People waited patiently till the monster passes. People waited a bit more till they couldn't see it any more.
I am exaggerating on this, I didn't bother to check who was looking. My wife was riding pillion with Niharika (Showroom Person) on a scrambler tailing me. She noted this and hence approved the purchase.
The most remarkable thing was the brakes. At low speed, one has to be careful. I had to brake a lot while pushing thru the internal roads. The softest and most delicate squeeze makes one feel that the bike has hit a wall. At speeds above 70-80, the brakes bite like there's no tomorrow and brings it down to 10-12 range instantly. Probably due to the DTC and ABS, I never felt any instability whatsoever. I always braked with the softest possible squeeze and I think one would be better off without grabbing onto the front brake. Showroom people told me that due to the Ducati Safety Pack, one can brake under whatever conditions (including heavy rain) with whatever force and the bike will stop and stay upright. I think I believe them.
The Suspension was set at default and it is pretty comfortable. Large part of internal roads were cobbled. (Mumbai people know what this is and what does it do to a bike rider). I did not feel any discomfort. I ride an old bullet which also is remarkably poised on cobbled roads. This was another level altogether.
The horn is a joke and I could never tell if it was blowing above the noise of the bike. The headlight remains on and makes people do that gesture. I was getting annoyed as they were doing this to the scrambler too with the showroom girl and my wife on it. Decided to forgive as this would be pretty much an everyday thing.
I am about 5 Ft 9 Inches. There are two seat height possible on this bike. They kept it at the lower setting. I could put my feet firmly on the ground, lean the stationary bike on either side with ease.
The petrol tank is kind of HUGE. So while seated, one feels like being in the bike and not on it. My pot belly gave me a nice cushion against the tank during the braking. as far as I could tell, there is not much load on the wrists and shoulders also remain fairly free and light.
I took my wife on pillion during the last loop on carter road. I fell back to urban mode during this loop. My wife complaints all the time about bullet pillion seat (!!!!). She only feels comfortable on the thunderbird due to its high back rest.
But she did not find this pillion seat uncomfortable or unsafe even though this seat is much smaller and has no back rest. I told her to grab the grab rails but instead she grabbed my tummy with both her hands and transferred all her weight on my back whenever I braked.
On our way back from carter road to showroom, I put the bike back in urban mode. My wife was scared and shrieked whenever I twisted the throttle a little more than absolutely minimum. Or whenever I braked, even at 10 kmph. She later said that she was afraid of the sound.
There is one more thing. There is this pride thing among bullet riders about maintaining balance and never putting a foot down even at 5 kmph speed. One can do that on this bike. It is very well balanced and due to whatever gyroscopic advantage it offers, I could take U turns on carter road without putting my feet down 4 times out of 7. This probably is nothing important for most riders, but does hold a great deal of swag value for me.
So that is my test ride experience.
The pricing for me is as following -
· Ex-showroom Thane Rs. 10,15,050/- (No Octroi)
· Registration Rs. 2,32,070/-
· Insurance Rs. 25,000/-
· Depot Charges Rs. 10,000/-
· CRTM Rs. 2,000/-
· Tcs@1% Rs. 10,658/-
· Total Rs. 12,94,778/- (Gross)
· Support Rs. -1,01,505/-
· Total Rs. 11,93,273/- (After Discount)
Showroom guys are getting a finance scheme worked out with about 1.5 Lacs down payment and 22K EMI for 5 Years. I will post details about this after a few days once the loan is sanctioned.
They did ask me to maintain confidentiality for this pricing, but they allowed sharing with team-bhp community. They also said that the VIP treatment for me was because I was a senior member of team-bhp (I lied).