| There is a massive pre-occupation in the motorcycle press with bhp - a completely pointless pre-ocupation which has successfully been passed on to some owners, potential buyers.
Since there are but a handful of people in the known universe for whom the maximum performance is attainable on a track, it is a complete irrelevance to how the bike will perform in our hands. The biggest hindrance to me going any quicker now on my wee 749R is me - nothing else. My pal rides an R1 - no matter how often its pointed out to him that he can't use the power available, he still pours over reports spelling out that the latest sukiwaka is just up on power versus last year. Yet I'm still waiting on him coming past...All I know is the 1098 will be a whole lot more powerful than what I have - but could I use it, do I need it, if I'm honest ? I just hope as a Ducati lover that the bike is a huge commercial success with reliability to finally shut up the British motorcycle press who still can't stop throwing in lines like , '... if you can live with the possible unreliability factor'  |