| Tour Montreal on a Ducati |
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Page 1 of 2 Grant Davis test-drives the Ducati 848 on the streets of Montreal, Quebec 
“DUCATI! CHAMPION DU MONDE!” said a nattily dressed Quebecois as I parked Ducati’s baby Superbike, the 848, outside my hotel in Vieux-Montreal. He slowed to look at the devilish exhaust pipes shooting out from beneath the taillights, whistled his approval, and smiled knowingly at me.“Très belle,” he said and then continued on down the narrow sidewalk, striped tie flapping in the breeze. I’d been in Montreal, arguably North America’s most Eurocentric city, for only a couple of minutes, and already I had gotten a small taste of the town’s passion for racing. Whether it’s motorcycle racing or Formula One, this city understands mechanized speed. Not only is Montreal the birthplace of Miguel Duhamel, perhaps the most successful motorcycle racer Canada has ever produced, but it has also hosted a Formula One race for 21 consecutive years, something no city in the United States has been able to pull off. The motorcycle gurus from Bologna, Italy, debuted the 848 this year as a more streetwise version of their instant legend, the high-performance 1098 Superbike. The 848 packs 26 fewer horses (134 vs. 160) than the 1098—not that I ever came close to missing them. To do so, I would’ve had to run the 849cc engine to near redline at 11,500 rpm. Were I to do that, the warning lights over the instrument cluster would flash, and I would literally start going deaf from the throb of the exhaust.  What I did experience, though, was the pleasure of handling such an exquisitely balanced and lightweight machine. I would simply think, Turn, and the bike would move. I easily followed Montreal bike messengers as they wove through dense downtown traffic. Out on the autoroute, the Ducati let me excise the “point” in “point and go” as I slipped into minuscule openings between cars that were moving along at 70 miles per hour. Basically, I turned every inch of tarmac into a modified version of a road course. On-ramps and off-ramps, freeway cloverleafs, and twisting parkways—they all became opportunities to experience a couple of seconds of Italian thrills.To pull off this engineering wonder, Ducati put the 848’s engine and clutch on a diet, shaving almost eight pounds off previous incarnations, and removed everything extraneous from the 1098’s already hyperlight frame and suspension. The result is a user-friendly Superbike that tips the scales at a svelte 369 pounds and comes race-ready for the track. It is even equipped with a lap timer and built-in USB port so you can record and then download three and a half hours of power, speed, and gear-shift data for scrutiny after your ride, whether that’s around a track or up a canyon. |
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