Ducati 899 Panigale v 1199 Panigale R | Road Test | Motorcyclenews.com - YouTube I guess the full review will feature in tomorrow's hard copy MCN. Interesting comments from AC though.
So there you have it. You can buy 2 899s, have one for the road and one to crash on the track. Or, if you just have to have the biggest todger, you can have a Panigale 1199R which you can't really use. Still, I suppose at least a part of biking is all about having a big todger.
Yeah I only want the R to know I have an R. I know my riding skill is very very limited and ill be faster on a Japanese 600 than either, and faster on an 899 out of the two. The most important thing for me is weight and I wish the 899 was lighter.
It's probably more about balance than overall weight, although it is true that on track, the lighter your bike is, the shorter the braking distances, the easier it is to throw around and I suppose, the faster it will accelerate. Can't say that the 851, the 916 or my current 999 feel or felt very weighty when on the move.
Most of us have a budget when it comes to buying a bike. If your budget is 12.5k then in my opinion you can't do better than the 899 but if you're lucky enough to have a budget of 26k then as good as it is, you're not going to look at the 899 you're going to buy the 1199r for the sake of it and simply because you can.
Yes I get that. It really all comes down to what you can afford. Afford being what the value of money is to you. If you have plenty of it and don't need to count, you probably do just buy the most expensive thing. After all, why not? Most people have to do a bit of counting and would probably be better off not just buying a bike which is very similar but costs twice as much. Having owned two very different Ducatis for a decade or so (only the one now), it is more amusing, it seems to me, to have two bikes giving you different buzzes, than just the one that costs the same as the two put together. But we are all different. I'm not jealous of people owning top notch stuff even if it can't fully be used. I can't say that I often squeeze all the performance out of the 999. There just aren't the conditions to do it in, apart from the track, and there are no tracks near me. Bikes fulfil all sorts of emotional needs rather than simply practical ones. That much is obvious on this forum. An 1199R is doing just that, and that's fine.
That's my point. I'd be very happy to have say 20% less power for 20% less weight. But less power for more weight seems lazy and built-to-a-budget.
the beauty of it all is that from a Monster 600 to the SL , 95% of the Ducati thrill is the same to those who ride them .. isn't it great that the 899 and the R can stand together and be so similar... so that different people with different means can share the same pleasure almost in equal amounts?
there is a limit to weight loss adding value... weight distribution becomes more important .. balance is what you want..
I wonder if the Porsche owners and Ferrari owners go on about this, saying they would not buy that 911 because you can not use it on the road to its full potential. Don't think so some how, who really cares if you are a good enough rider to get the full potential from the bike, to me it all comes down to your budget. Some people have a bigger budget that others and are lucky enough to be able to buy a top end bike, if you can afford a New Ferrari you wont be buying a Porsche, that's for sure.