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Motorcycling Lifestyles
BIKES: Ducati 848 EVO Project Bike Comes To SPEED - Part 1
The day I picked up the 848 EVO from Motorcycles of Charlotte it was not a bright, sunny start to the long-term relationship we were about to embark on.
Ducati 848 EVO Project Bike Comes To SPEED
The day I picked up the 848 EVO from Motorcycles of Charlotte it was not a bright, sunny start to the long-term relationship we were about to embark on. Sure, from ten paces the Dark Stealth bodywork looked wicked, and the huge inverted fork with the massive Brembo mono-block radial calipers had my mouth watering. But once up close, the bike looked pretty badly neglected. The wheels, swing arm, and forks were encrusted in road grime, and the chain was dry, rusty, and filthy. The Pirelli tires had certainly seen better days, and the rubber on the badly tarnished exhaust pipes said either burnouts or hard track miles. A deeply gouged engine cover that someone had hand-painted the scratches black made it clear it had been dropped at speed, and a few other areas from the bar ends to peg tips confirmed this. In contrast, the tank and bodywork were all brand new, which meant it had been crashed badly enough for them to need replacement.
As I flipped on the ignition, pressed the starter button, and fired the engine to life, the healthy roar of the 140-horsepower, 848cc Testastretta V-twin told me all was well with the heart and soul of the beast, though, and got me eager to jump in the saddle. The oil level was fine and everything appeared to be straight and tight. As delivered, the Ducati had no license plate or paperwork, so with a road test out of the question, I loaded up and headed for home to prepare the 848 for its first track outing.
Before I made the trip, I had an appointment with the lovely Laura West to shoot some photos, so I gave the bike a good clean-and-detail so it would be looking its best. It took some scrubbing and various solvents, but with a little elbow grease, it left the garage heading for the studio looking like it had never been off the showroom floor. The shoot went well, and the pictures turned out great, so we were off to a good start. As we were going to run it during a fairly quiet club-track day at Carolina Motorsports Park, I taped and disconnected the lights and mirrors before taking it back to Motorcycles of Charlotte to slip on a set of Pirelli Diablo Rosso II tires. There was no way I was going near a racetrack on the shagged tires the bike came with.
The Rosso IIs made a logical tire for our first track-test, as they are predominantly a street tire, with enough chops to handle a track day if you don’t go mad. Having never ridden the 848 EVO, this seemed like a good chance for me to get to know the bike without feeling as if I needed to push hard enough to exploit a set of race compound tires. With the Pirellis mounted and balanced, and all the Ducati’s important little places checked for safety, it was time to go.
My weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park was a mixed one. I immediately liked the super-strong V-twin engine, and was blown away by how strong the brakes were, but the handling was just plain weird. The bike needed a lot of muscle to turn into the corners and didn’t give me any confidence, which is something that’s needed for a fast lap at CMP. It ran wide out of the turns and made me think something might have been bent when it was crashed. The fueling was spot on, and the rush as the power seemed to keep piling on all the way to the 11,000-rpm redline was seriously addictive though. If you have lived on a diet of inline four-cylinder motorcycles for track work, you are going to be hitting the redline a lot as this rev ceiling is comparatively low. For me, having recently put in some seat time on one of Fast Frank Shockley’s air-cooled Ducatis that doesn’t rev past eight grand, it was bliss. And I was actually surprised how little outright grunt there was at lower rpm for a big twin, but what happens when it gets spinning more than makes up for any disappointment.
Riding position was all race bike, with a very much sit-on, not sit-in feeling. Seat area is roomy, and allowed me to slide forward to feel comfortable with the reach to the bars. Transmission was good. It’s not super slick like a modern 600cc sport bike, but it shifts positively and didn’t find any false neutrals. Clutch is not the lightest I’ve ever pulled, but the throttle action is smooth and precise, and I like the sharp, immediate action from the adjustable front brake lever. And, while all of these things are important, I think it was the roar of the engine through the surprisingly loud stock pipes that was the most addictive part of the Ducati experience. One interesting thing to note was no dry-clutch rattle as the 848 system runs in oil, and it is a slipper clutch: that wonderful device that saves your hide when you downshift too early hammering into a turn.
Leaving CMP at the end of the weekend I called Fast Frank to discuss my findings, and he said the first thing he would do before we added any performance parts was to take a look at the suspension and perform a more detailed inspection of the bike. Beside we needed to get rid of the radiator fluid and the brakes looked like they could benefit from a cleaning. So I marked the date in my calendar and took the 848 home to await my appointment with Frank.
Click the images below to see more pictures of the Ducati 848 EVO - Part 1:
As I flipped on the ignition, pressed the starter button, and fired the engine to life, the healthy roar of the 140-horsepower, 848cc Testastretta V-twin told me all was well with the heart and soul of the beast, though, and got me eager to jump in the saddle. The oil level was fine and everything appeared to be straight and tight. As delivered, the Ducati had no license plate or paperwork, so with a road test out of the question, I loaded up and headed for home to prepare the 848 for its first track outing.
Before I made the trip, I had an appointment with the lovely Laura West to shoot some photos, so I gave the bike a good clean-and-detail so it would be looking its best. It took some scrubbing and various solvents, but with a little elbow grease, it left the garage heading for the studio looking like it had never been off the showroom floor. The shoot went well, and the pictures turned out great, so we were off to a good start. As we were going to run it during a fairly quiet club-track day at Carolina Motorsports Park, I taped and disconnected the lights and mirrors before taking it back to Motorcycles of Charlotte to slip on a set of Pirelli Diablo Rosso II tires. There was no way I was going near a racetrack on the shagged tires the bike came with.
The Rosso IIs made a logical tire for our first track-test, as they are predominantly a street tire, with enough chops to handle a track day if you don’t go mad. Having never ridden the 848 EVO, this seemed like a good chance for me to get to know the bike without feeling as if I needed to push hard enough to exploit a set of race compound tires. With the Pirellis mounted and balanced, and all the Ducati’s important little places checked for safety, it was time to go.
My weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park was a mixed one. I immediately liked the super-strong V-twin engine, and was blown away by how strong the brakes were, but the handling was just plain weird. The bike needed a lot of muscle to turn into the corners and didn’t give me any confidence, which is something that’s needed for a fast lap at CMP. It ran wide out of the turns and made me think something might have been bent when it was crashed. The fueling was spot on, and the rush as the power seemed to keep piling on all the way to the 11,000-rpm redline was seriously addictive though. If you have lived on a diet of inline four-cylinder motorcycles for track work, you are going to be hitting the redline a lot as this rev ceiling is comparatively low. For me, having recently put in some seat time on one of Fast Frank Shockley’s air-cooled Ducatis that doesn’t rev past eight grand, it was bliss. And I was actually surprised how little outright grunt there was at lower rpm for a big twin, but what happens when it gets spinning more than makes up for any disappointment.
Riding position was all race bike, with a very much sit-on, not sit-in feeling. Seat area is roomy, and allowed me to slide forward to feel comfortable with the reach to the bars. Transmission was good. It’s not super slick like a modern 600cc sport bike, but it shifts positively and didn’t find any false neutrals. Clutch is not the lightest I’ve ever pulled, but the throttle action is smooth and precise, and I like the sharp, immediate action from the adjustable front brake lever. And, while all of these things are important, I think it was the roar of the engine through the surprisingly loud stock pipes that was the most addictive part of the Ducati experience. One interesting thing to note was no dry-clutch rattle as the 848 system runs in oil, and it is a slipper clutch: that wonderful device that saves your hide when you downshift too early hammering into a turn.
Leaving CMP at the end of the weekend I called Fast Frank to discuss my findings, and he said the first thing he would do before we added any performance parts was to take a look at the suspension and perform a more detailed inspection of the bike. Beside we needed to get rid of the radiator fluid and the brakes looked like they could benefit from a cleaning. So I marked the date in my calendar and took the 848 home to await my appointment with Frank.
Click the images below to see more pictures of the Ducati 848 EVO - Part 1:
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