Hi All Today, I took my 899 into the dealer for a service, and at the same time arranged to have a test of the demo 959 so I could get some form of reasonable back to back comparison. Although it was bloody cold leaving my house at 9am to make the 60 mile trip to the dealer, the roads were pretty dry largely, and it gave me a chance to remember what my 899's really like before going on the new bike. Here's a few token pics of the 959 I had the 959 for a good couple of hours, so got to give it a proper blast, although with temps hovering around 6deg and the roads really cold with still some ice about, I couldn't really get the tyres warm enough to really give it a blast Personally, I'm not a big fan of the exhausts, although I do think the Akra option on the test bike look OK, and they're growing on me, but still a £1.2k option on a bike that's so far not being offered with any discount of free exhausts (yet) The Akra pipes sounds pretty similar to my standard piped 899 at tick over , but when you get going, they don't have the noise of the 899, or certainly not to the rider anyway, and a suspect that all the noise is being directed out the back of the bike. There's less mechanical noise from the engine, and I suspect that's a good thing. The only real riding difference is the slipper clutch, which makes quite a difference when you're barrelling into a corner and need to let the clutch deal with the rev differences if you don't want to blip it yourself, although I don't have a problem with my 899 in that respect, but it'd still be good to have I found the 899 clutch to be less grabby when you're pulling away though, but that might be where the demo bike only had 900 or so miles on it. The bigger cc's appear to have smoothened out the lumpiness of the 899 engine at traffic speeds, and you don't need to worry about slipping the clutch when you're in traffic at say 2k in 2nd. Performance wise, I honestly couldn't tell any difference at all. The only other really noticeable difference is the extra wind protection the wider fairings offer when you get up to proper speeds, but it's not massive, and you have to be at quite silly speeds (sorry officer) to notice The various engine modes feel just like my 899, as do the brakes and all the controls unsurprisingly I have no idea how the lower swing arm effects the handling as that was imperceivable to me Anyway, I left reasonably mediocre about it, and as much as it's a really good bike, it's no better bike than an 899, and I'm not now thinking of chopping my 899 in for one, as for me, the difference just wasn't enough, and I prefer the sound of my 899. Now the good weather's around the corner and most dealers seems to be throwing test rides out, I'd suggest those that are considering the move, go have a ride and see what they think. I did meet another forum member at the dealers today, but I forgot to get their user name, so if they're reading this, good to meet you
Thanks for the write up, so essentially, if you don't have an 899 then definitely go and buy the 959, if you have a 899 it's not worth the hassle and expense to change?
Having watched the youtube video where the guy compares the power graphs of the two bikes, I was expecting it to feel like it needed a couple more k rpm past the line, but it felt really similar to my 899 I didn't notice what the limiter was set at, but it didn't feel any higher than my bike, and I hit it a couple of times where I wasn't watching the lights
Yeah, I tried to literally just dump the clutch into second gear from 3rd, and it wasn't great to be honest. It didn't lock the rear wheel up, but I don't think it was far from it In my very limited experience of slipper clutches though, I've never ridden a bike where you can literally just dump the clutch at whatever down change revs and it just deals with it, unless it's only a couple of thousand RPM. They just seem to smooth it out a bit I'm not sure if any of them are much better ?
I think there is a difference between 'back torque limiter' clutch which is a slipper but fairly basic and crude in design and a pukka race aftermarket slipper like a sigma where all the parts and ramps are ball bearing designed and specifically designed to progressively slip more and more
No, an auto blipper takes pressure off the gear box (by revving the bike) to allow a shift to take place (reverse of a quick shift) but a slipper clutch is specifically designed to cope with the rear wheel trying to rotate at different speeds to the engine, and slip! So if you are using loads of back brake and banging down the gears it will just slip rather than drive he engine and blow it up.
Erm, am I missing the point of the question ? A slipper clutch works on down shifts, 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 not up shifts so you wouldn't see anything changing between 2nd and 3rd. Yes there is a difference in my experience, the 3 ramp 748R/749R slipper is a damn sight easier to set up. I have run both Factory racing 3 ramp, DP racing (titanium post) 6 ball and ramp and after market 6 ball and ramp slipper clutches on a track bike and I found it easier to find the sweet spot with what people describe as the basic clutch. The other major difference appears to be the original design has a steel basket and steel plates and the more modern design uses an aluminium basket and aluminium friction plates. From experience the steel basket set up significantly out lives the aluminium set. Andy
Sorry, these new eyes of mine ain't as good as the crap ones they took out. I seem to be losing the plot of late, think I'll go and hibernate for a while. Andy
No seriously, was diagnosed with cataracts so had replacement lens implant surgery just before Christmas. Sadly I had the last beer in the fridge Sunday night so I can't use that as an excuse. Just got to that age :Arghh:. Andy
Graeme it was me. Had my 899 in for its first service. Took it to dealer in a van. Felt guilty when I saw you ride in on yours, but left the house at 07:30, when it was a bit icy and plenty of salt on my local roads. Interesting write up. Shared the same views as you during our chat. Nice meeting you 2. How did you find the customer service and price at Ducati Aylesbury? Personally Infound it great, with Ian being a top bloke. Now roll on the end of this cold snap. Steve. (JS)
Ok, so you dumped the clutch from 3rd to 2nd and it just smoothed it but you say it wasn't great. I'm interested now. Did you look down at the time? You noticed the red line?
Hey Mate, good to meet you They were super good there, I've no faults in it at all. They were very clear on what was what beforehand, and the work was done in reasonable time and at about the price I've seen for the work at other dealers. The guy in the sales office also said that next time my bike's in for work there, I could try any bike I wanted pretty much, and I didn't have to pay any insurance fee's, which seem to be the norm for test riding bikes now days. It was blimmin cold when I left my house at 9am, and it took a half way stop for coffee and a few moments of riding along with one hand on the exhausts to get my fingers working again, but worth it for the sunshine and a chance to ride my bike in the dry. Like we spoke about before I went out, I wasn't expecting the 959 to be a giant step on from my 899, but I actually preferred my 899 on the way back, and it was nice to get back on it freshened up from the service At least it saves my wallet taking another bashing on a bike again this year, as I've just spent out on an Africa twin, and the wife wouldn't be impressed with two new bikes in one year Warmer sunny days are just around the corner.
It was probably at around 40-50mph in 3rd, so guessing at Revs it was a drop of around 3k, maybe 4 at most. Certainly not near the red line
