THE FEEL – WHY DOES IT HANDLE SO DAMN WELL?
This is all about defiance. The Diavel is not a
small bike. And it’s long – the front half is all
monumental engine-darkness, and the back
is all kicked-up hot-rod and fat rubber.
Despite this, it’s so easy to ride and
manoeuvre; its balance and feel utterly bely
its significant size. This is never more evident
than when you chuck it hard into a corner.
Normally, pitching anything this big with
that fat a rear-tyre into a bend is an exercise
in teeth-and-bike-grinding alarm.
But Ducati is clever, and Ducati will not build
a bike that does not handle really well.
It’s in the rules.
All the Diavel’s weight (and most of it is in the
engine) and thus its centre of gravity is very low.
Look where the front-cylinder of the
L-shaped donk is sitting. Anything weighty
sitting along the imaginary line running
from the front axle to the rear axle, is being
made less-weighty by being located there.
So when you’re levering it from side to side
in corners, or tootling along at low speed,
it feels almost effortless. Why? Because
you’re not levering it. You’re just rolling
it around that wheel-to-wheel axis.
Clever, huh?
No, it’s not a sportsbike, and it doesn’t
handle or steer as fast as one. But you know
what? It’s defiantly not all that far off.
LET’S TALK NUMBERS FOR A SECOND...
I was teasing VROD owners on
Social Media the other day.
I said to them if they were serious about riding
stonkingly powerful V-twins – and I know
they like to think they are – then they might
consider there’s more to genuine power than
just making lots of noise. And maybe getting
your fat-tyred Milwaukee train around a corner
in good order would also be a needful thing.
Toys were thrown out of prams and I was
called names. Tsk, tsk, tsk… you’d think
men with tattoos on their necks would
have more sense, huh? I was forced to beat
them shamelessly with numbers. Because
KIWI RIDER 39