I have never been a big fan of the looks of a MHR.
I always loved 900ss in black and gold but this was nice. She was really very
Beautiful with all the green and red colors. Maybe I think that she is beautiful just
because she is mine but I liked the look. I dont know why! Who cares! She is mine!
Should be nice to go for a ride. It is just a shame that she is not registrated yet. Shit!!!
But hold it a minute. HHHMMMMM. What about if I take the plates from my monster 916 and put on. The police will not see any difference. Or will they? The monster and the MHR looks very similar. Dont they? At least it says DUCATI 900 on the sides on both.
One hour later I started here up for a first test ride. She sounds like
little mouse as she still has the Silensium on here. She need Contis and she needs them now!
Sitting on here. Giving here a few quick ones the throttle. Well. She sort of
responds. The Dellortos tells me that I have opened the throttles by saying "ssssscchmhooouer" and the RPM increases. I realize that she must have at least 10kg more rotating mass in the engine then my nervous 916 monster with lightened internals.
I was looking at the gear glaze that I just installed. Cool!!!! It is rotating a lot in there. It is also a lot of oil so I guess the lubrication system works and I can see that the oil is cold so better take it cool.
This is a brilliant oil control instrument. Why dont they have that at new bikes?
Clutch in (surprisingly light and smooth) and first gear with a very quiet tick. Nice!!! Clutch out and of we go. She is a little grumpy at low throttles and low RPM but I guess that is because I did not receive the sync tool so I did not sync the carbs correctly yet. Of we go. Second gear, tick. Tries the brakes. Works okay. Trying turn left to the right.
Well she is turning. Stops at the petrol station to fill here up. Checking for leaks. Nothing. Perfect. Of we go again. Leaving the town to be alone a bit. The engine is very smooth and make almost no mechanical noise at all. She is sneezing a bit in the front carb at low throttles and low rpm but not to
bad. The gearbox is perfect. Gears goes in with a small tick, no fauls neutral. Very short lever movement and very distinct. I would say that it is like a very nice Suzuki gearbox (sorry for the expression) if you know what I
mean. Why dont they make this nice gearboxes on the new Ducatis? Looking at the gear glaze again. It is still rotating a lot in there. It is still oil in there and now the oil is very fluid and warm.
Open up a bit more and the Dellortos says sssssscchhmhooouer to tells my that the throttles are opened a bit more.
I am not sure if the throttle has anything to do with engine power or if it only controls
the inlet noise. I dont feel a lot of acceleration.
Something must be wrong I thinking until I look down at the speedo that reads 160 km/h. ooops.
Better slow down a bit. I dont want to be stopped for speeding on a
un registrated bike with no insurance. I realize that the fairings does a very good job and I can not compare the feeling with my monster at all. She feels so slow with no noise (silensium) or wind hitting me. She is much faster then she feels.
She is heavy.
This thing feels like it has the double weight to the monster before it gets going, then it is loosing about 50 kg but it still feels 50 kg heavier and it feels like the engine has no power at all. The fact is that she is 30 kg heavier and
60 hp down to my monster so it is not so strange. I guess that 25 years of development has something to do with it. The road is getting more and more twisty and a little bumpy. She is very nice in long bends. So smooth and stable. Nothing upsets here but the more twisty it gets the harder work it gets. It really needs the strength of 3 tigers to flick here throw my favorite left, right, left, right there I normally very easy have the knee down on my monster. Have to lower the front a bit I think. She is stable like a train and I am sure I can safely lower the front 20 mm. I also noticed that the
fork has almost no damping at all. Needs thicker oil for sure. After about 1
hour I realized that this ride was planned for just around the house
turned out to be longer then planned. Better heading home before to police gets me.
Sitting thinking and riding. The longer it goes the more I like it. This is so fun and so
different but still so similar to my monster 916. Both are after all a
Ducatis. I am coming home with a big smile and a list of updates to do
before next test ride. Lower forks, change oil in the forks, set up the
carbs properly, sort out the charging system that did not want to work. I
can not wait until the next ride and until she is properly registrated.
I want to bed last night with a big smile and had red and green dreams that night.