I found myself not riding when I had the time and the weather as I couldn't be bothered with the madness. The triple is slower, a little more fun and little more approachable. Essentially the R1 was a mile away from me in terms of what I put in to riding. I have neither the skill nor the desire to Go so fast all of the time
OK I'll throw my hat into the discussion, I now own 9 bikes which is a little stupid I know and 3 of them are Ducati bikes a 998s final edition a 999s and a 1098s . After also buying a MV Agusta F4 312RR which I thought made my super bike collection complete, that was until I bought the original Yamaha R1 4xv with the view to fully restore it back to mint condition and some trick bits like ohlins all round and nice big 320mm brembo brakes. So after buying a very low mileage R1 and leaving it parked in the back off the garage waiting it's rebuild turn in the queue I never used it until this summer when I thought lets add it to the insurance multi-bike policy , tax it and give it some use. Well now every time I open the garage door and decide what to take the R1 wins every time at the moment. What a truly great bike with new modern day tyres I now look forward to adding all the trick bits even more and keep asking myself do I need more R1 bikes if there this good.
i love my 99 r1 (red and white) tuned to 139bhp,its plenty quick enough for the road, but yet i ride my 748 on the track and i cant stop smiling as i go round the outside of zx10s, bmw, rr's and r1,s on corners, and to me riding bikes is all about fun not willy waving down the pub about how much pony power your bike has, ive heard my mates talking about there 180-190 bhp machines and how fast they go down the motorway so i ask them if they want to do a track day and see how they do round the corners and its amazing how many back down with some b*llsh*t excuse why they dont want to. bhp isnt everything!!
Good man! I have had 2, they are absolutely belting bikes. Get the Arrow can on it, wind it on and listen to the howl, its like music!
I had a '98 R1 and t'was a proper bike.I sold it to a good mate of mine and has now done about 36k,Francis Williamson now uses it as his instructors bike at trackdays and is still going strong and still looks good.
I have a brand new 1999 4XV unregistered :Happy: and a 2002 mat black and gunmetal R1 on the road :smile: also a new 2000 R6 with zero miles too to keep the 4XV company...
Just reading this, I think Ducati needs to make a v4 just like the desmo but for the road, look at Aprillia for example there engines are something else that v4r is an awesome engine I would love one!!
I'll bet they are thinking of this - or even doing more than thinking about it. It makes a lot of sense in the current economic climate. The market will be split in two as people get poorer and poorer or richer and richer and the middle gets squeezed. Thus there will be a bigger and bigger consumer base for extremely expensive bikes. It will probably cost Ducati a lot of money to make, so they will price it above the Panigale, but without going to the extremes and marketing complication of the Desmo or Superleggera. It will be a standard bike that anyone can buy (well anyone who is feeling quite wealthy). It will also be competitive in WSBK. Ducati are surely pushing water uphill now by sticking with a twin and they need to get back to racing dominance.
