Hypermotardevolution
CW RIDING IMPRESSION
HYPERMOTARDEVOLUTION
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but just barely
JOHN BURNS
SOMEBODY AT DUCATI REALLY DROPPED THE BALL BIG-TIME: ARIZONA Highway 88, a dyspeptic duodenum of a two-lane that coils its way through the Superstition Mountains, had not been swept, prepped or cleared of civilians when we rode Ducati's pair of 2010 Hypermotard 1100s—EVO and EVO SP—one fine cool day in late January with a small posse of fellow motojournalists and an entire flotilla of seniors on their way to Tortilla Flats for the Early Bird Special. Luckily they were allowing themselves plenty of time to get there. How do they test Buicks anyway? Is there a low-speed handling simulator where suspensions are subjected to oscillations occurring at frequencies of up to 35 times per decade by specially trained sedated sloths in Bermuda shorts? Is there a Kleenex-box handling course, where if the box moves more than an inch on the package shelf it's back to the drawing board? Sorry, we'll all be old someday, God willing... And when it's my time, I want to go gently in my sleep like my Granddad—not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car (rim shot!).
Say, is this shiny new EVO SP slithering around because it's impos sible to get its Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas up to temperature on such a cool day? Apparently not; the vanilla EVO on its street-compound Diablos is up to the same skittery antics... There's gravel in these curves, boys, and sand and the flotsam and jetsam of a thousand slow moving land yachts making the voyage to Tortilla Flats. Keep your eyes peeled for Preparation H slicks... (I apologize for that last crack; hem orrhoids are not funny.)
Both new 1100 EVOs are powered by the same heavily revised 1079cc Evoluzione V-Twin, now 11.5 pounds lighter and 5 horsepower stronger, says Ducati. Using the Vacural vacuum-casting technology employed in its Superbike engines, a crank assembly with an 848-style flywheel and rare-earth alterna tor magnets saves most of that weight. New cylinder heads with improved lubrication and cooling also get revised intake ports, higher compression (11.3:1) and a single sparkplug; improved burn efficiency is the result. A big ger airbox opening and higher-lift cams let the good air in; Siemens electronics replace Magneti Marelli and now work with an 02 sen sor in each header for finer control and spring time-fresh Euro 3-compliant emissions.
After flogging the poor thing like a rented stepchild all day, I broke mine; the bike dropped a cylinder and the check-engine light came on. Ducati says the problem turned out to be a loose battery terminal. None of the other six bikes had any problems. (And the Hyper 796 we've been riding around lately is fine so far, too.)
In any case, the beauty of the two-valve Ducati remains the same: lots of immediate power. The new engine cranks out 95 horses at 7500 rpm, with 76 foot-pounds of torque peaking at just 5750 rpm, Ducati says. To keep it cool, you get a big oil radiator with 85 per cent more cooling area, but you still need your valvoles looked at every 7500 miles. Another beauty of the air-cooled two-valver is there's no reason you shouldn't be able to figure out how to do that yourself.
Changes to the steel trellis frame in the engine mounting area-i.e., doing away with the heavier, forged sections-saves another five or so pounds, with no handling penalty or other issues, according to Ducati.
Elsewhere, the Hypers get the cool new switchgear from the Streetfighter, as well as the same sort of LCD instrument panel. In addition to providing the usual info, the instru ment panel doubles as a control interface for the Ducati Data Analyzer system; DDA comes standard on the 1100 EVO SP and is available as an accessory on the 1100 EVO and 796. DDA is useful for the racer/track-day-type crowd, as it can record such things as throttle opening, vehicle speed, engine rpm and lap times-all so the computer-literate can figure out how to go faster. All the Hypers have an underseat DDA USB connection port that dou bles as a charging point for a battery charger.
You can flip the Hypers' bar-end mirrors out when you're curious what's behind you (usually nothing unless you're at a press launch) or fold them in when you need to squeeze through a tight spot; LED turnsignals are integrated into the handguards. The headlight's new, while the taillight uses a strip of LEDs (behind a highdiffusion lens) that glows brighter when you grab the brakes. Sturdy pillion grab handles are molded into the bottom of the tailsection, and the passenger pegs are designed for quick removal. I still don't like the cartoon beak. You?
Your base model 1100 EVO is a pretty sport ing piece, all right, with pretty dang good adjustable suspension comprising an inverted Showa fork and Sachs shock, good Brembo brakes and everything you need to hold your head up in Ducati society. For an additional $2500, though, the EVO SP is a more serious tool for people considering lots of track days or racing (the Italian Hypermoto series has been a big hit, we're told). To that end, the SP gets
Monobloc Brembo calipers that will stand you right on your nose if you just hopped off the regular EVO and apply the same lever pressure, and they're attached to a 1.2-inch lon ger, 50mm anti-friction-coated Marzocchi fork full of stiffer springs. An öhlins shock controls the rear through a link that's adjustable for ride height (instead of the EVO's solid link). "Significantly lighter" Marchesini wheels carry racy Pirelli Supercorsa rubber, and there are a few more carbon-fiber items, including cam-belt covers and the front fender/fork-tube guards.
What you wind up with is a 2-pound-light er, stiffer, less pitch-prone 1100 EVO with a 34.4-inch-high seat (1.2 inches up on the standard bike) and therefore more cornering clearance-a good deal if you plan to ride on the track or like a lunatic on the roadd, less so if you're shorter than about 5-foot-6.
Truly, though, on the kind of kinky, dirty, slippery roadd where you nearly have to be a lunatic to lead with your chin on a crotch rocket with clip-on handlebars, a bike like the Hypermotard is definitely the way to go: Stick that inside foot out Dick Mann (or Val Rossi!) style goin' in, then levitate the front wheel gracefully goin' out in second gear with a slight dip of the light-action (dry) clutch-with that wide handlebar, what could go wrong? It's like motocross without all the dirt and bruised kidneys and compound fractures. . .Traction shmaction. Sadly, our Ducati hosts didn't think it would be a good idea for us to keep going on the dirt section of 88 past Tortilla Flats. Whadda we look, irresponsible?
EVO or EVO SP? If the route is bumpy as well as gnarly, my 140-pound self would have to give the nod to the standard EVO 1100. At street speeds, the SP is just too stiff for little old me, causing it to catapult over big bumps and threatening to hop sideways through the whoop sections and pole vault me into the chollas. If you're taller and heavier and faster than I (who isn't?), the SP no doubt works great. The obnoxiously
loud Termignoni on the SPs pictured is a Ducati accessory; the SP in fact comes with the same excellent underseat duals as the regular EVO, and that's a good thing for everybody. Nol only is the Termi pipe loud, its carbon fiber clashes with the carbon fiber on the bike's tailsection like brown shoes and a black suit. It also makes the bike backfire on decel with the stock map; you don't want Granddad's coronary on your conscience on top of all the rest of it, do you?
;:;i~';~i; s~Ü~y~e a'rI~ seat was superb for riders who stand on the pegs 90 percent of the time, the new bikes actually get a seat that's been designed for humans to sit upon: squishier, wider and way more comfort able than before (also pungenter, says Cernicky, who's ridden the new Hyper 796). The 30-mile freeway ride to the fun part of Arizona was per fectly pleasant, if slightly chilly. When summer hits Arizona, though, the Hyper and its sit-up, flow-through ventilation will be the only way to fly. We suggest, however, you fly elsewhere: Arizona is the first state in the union to deploy speed cameras, 60 fixed and 40 mobile so far, to send people speeding tickets via post. I know a guy who got three tickets in one drive-through of the state, the motto of which is "God Enriches." And how.
If you get hold of one of these machines, it might be a good idea to just glue your license and registration to your helmet to save time. If you're Cernicky, who the Costa Mesa PD now tracks by helicopter when he's riding his bicycle (he got pulled over for wheelying it last week), well, the witness relocation plan might be the only answer. Have you got any thing in Italy? As for me, I just got my AARP card a couple weeks ago, but on the Hypermotard I don't feel a day over 40, and that's the new 30.
Like all the finer things, Hyper activity does not come cheap: $11,995 for the 1100 EVO, $14,495 for the EVO SR For the amount of entertainment delivered, it's a bargain, really.
