I think character is the feeling that the bike is alive and has a personality of its own rather than being an inert piece of machinery. It doesn't necessarily have to be flawed. Triumph Daytonas and Street Triples (and the Speed Triple) have bags of character but very few flaws. A CZ 250 has bags of flaws but no character whatsoever. The SR is a bit robotic. And the one I rode was a demonstrator. The finish wasn't looking great considering how few miles it had on it. The paint was dull, the black plastic parts looked faded and the engine lacquer was starting to look patchy. I also found it quite buzzy through the bars.
Kind of agree on that. I wouldn't say these things are flaws and imperfections, I would say these are purposeful design decisions that push a bike in a certain direction rather than trying to have a balanced compromise for all types of riding. Thing that fall apart such as the old Ducati electrics are not 'soul' or 'character', they are just poor design or poor quality components and you put up with this because it's worth it overall. In my humble opinion the soul and character of a bike comes from the way the bike looks, feels, rides and sounds. I dont think Ducati are turning into a mainstream lifestyle brand just because a few of the bikes are more balanced than in the past (and very popular because of it). The 1199 is still a bat shit crazy race bike, and the Hypermotard looks to be just as crazy a hooligan bike. Admittedly it's a shame there's no current Street Fighter but as long as the more balanced bikes are selling like hotcakes then Ducati will continue to be able to release the crazy machines.
.. Agree with G and RWC - its the total package and how the bike makes you feel. The Tuono has character with no flaws (putting aside their customer service ) where as my old Monster 600 had some piss poor issues with fit but was laden with soul.
Yeah, it's not "character" that dumps you on the side of a foreign motorway in pissing rain and it's not "soul" that costs you an extra 5K in maintenance during the life of a bike! Both of those are just f*ckin' annoying!
+10 on the cjs work. Had my hyper done last year which transformed it. Once the paint peeps off of the engine which it will invariably. I'll be getting it stripped blue printed and coated...as for aprilia spares....well the Necessity of a rocker cover replacement kept my rsv4 off the road well into other summer....still wouldn't get rid of it though...scares the shit out of me...
