996R vs 996SPS Performance Touring Test! and DYNO CHARTS.
 

DISCLAIMER: some of this may be fictional and i reserve the right to tell lies:D and do not wish to encourage irresponsible behaviour.

We were in the mountains and had just crossed into Spain, as i came round a bend i realised that the car we had been rapidly catching was indeed a police car which itself was travelling well above the speed limit. He continued at the same pace and being somewhat unsure i stayed behind him. We carried on for a couple of miles through some really good bends, all with solid white lines; as the road began to open up a little the policemans arm came out of the window and casually waved me through to overtake!!!

Gotta admit i was a bit unsure about overtaking a speeding policecar, i hesitated; this was followed by frantic waving to get past from the police so it was a dream come true, pass a police car at around a 100mph on a long sweeping bend (safely and with good visibility). Welcome to Spain amigo.

This is absolutely true despite the disclaimer, but don't blame me if you try the same and get nicked:devil:

The whole trip was pretty frantic with me on the 996R, Azzy on my old 996SPS and Phil on some Honda thingy. We covered 2600 miles in 7 days riding (though we did have a day off on the beach in the middle to justify the holiday bit).

Performance touring is all about travelling as fast as possible over as long a distance with the minimum of kit. Suits me as i'm crap at track days.

The shortest day, getting to the ferry was 290 miles and the longest day was 470 miles. We swapped bikes several times so in addition to fond memories i had ample opportunity to compare the 2 bikes. Both bikes were kitted out with Ventura luggage and the same Diablo tyres; the only real variable being that i'm a big fat git and Azzy is a small fat git and probably a better rider as well:flame:

It was great to be off on the first proper blast of the year after winter.

The first day in France was typical inso much as the roads became progressively more fun as we got further south away from the Channel. By the time we reached the Massif Central we had already conducted some top speed runs having paid for the use of a private test track :lol: to compare top speeds. To eliminate the the general lies and exageration i had a GPS which recorded maximum speed.

Sceintific testing resulted in a true top speed of only 150mph, but stability was still perfect. We both concluded that the R was slightly quicker but there was remarkably little in it, especially with the size difference between us. The bikes would have gone significantly faster without the Ventura luggage which is just like having a pillion on the back, when you tuck in behind the screen the luggage is stuck up in the airflow. It may be nice to quote higher figures, but thats what the GPS said, and it wasn't for lack of trying.

The GPS also showed that the speedo was only about 7mph out at top speed and 5mph out at 100mph on the speedo which seems more accurate than some rather optimistic Japanese speedo's i've tested. The worst culprit being a tuned Blackbird at Bruntingthorpe that showed 210mph but was only doing 186mph through the radar.

Without the luggage both bikes will show over 160 on the speedo's. Unfortunately during further testing with higher speedo readings, the batteries had gone flat on the GPS. I'll just have to blag another testing day at Bruntingthorpe.

We had used some autoroute to get away from the Channel and every time we pulled away from the toll booths Phil was given the treat of the sound of the 2 Ducati's being hammered away. The SPS sounds louder with a slightly deeper base sound.

Its very hard to accelerate on either bike without the front wheel coming up just on the power, no use of the clutch whatsoever. The childish smile on my face was great as i occasionally got the wheelie right and managed to keep it up for a 100 metres or more instead of the normal 'Oh my god i'm gonna flip it, or, that was an inch of the floor, hope nobody saw that attempt.

Wish i could do them properly like Mav, just have to carry on dreaming.

We decided to try and find some different hotels in the Massif and ended up wasteing at least an hours valuable drinking time. Tip for the day, don't bother witha dump like Ussel, head onto Mauriac. Here we found a good hotel for 55 euros for the 3 of us, then wandered into the main square for a meal and discuss the relative merits of the bikes.

Mauriac was completely barmy, despite its quaint small town appearance. The local kids on mopeds were using the town square as a race track doing their own version on the French MotoGP and nobody batted an eyelid. We troughed a good meal than thought it would be rude not to check out the exceedingly loud music coming out of the bar across the road.

In we walked to the sight of a big party in full swing, shoved upto the bar and ordered 3 beers. This drunken French guy next to me starts ranting away very loudly insisting that as strangers in town he would buy us the drinks:D

Who am i to argue with offers like that. Turns out the bar was changing owners that night so it was a big hello/goodbye party, the local rugby team were in (Rugby is very big in this area) and the was also a fair contingent of bikers in the place as well; as they're also big into dirt bikes.

Complete strangers just walked up and bought us drinks, we of course reciprocated so careful analysis of the bikes gave way to heated debates about rugby, football, politics, lack of jobs in the area etc.

As a consequnce the next morning passed us by before anyone felt like riding and we were left with a bit of a mad dash to get our rendezvous with 8 mates who were already down at the caravans near St. Tropez.

The ride down was superb through some of the best roads in the Massif before hitting the Autoroute to bypass Millau. Millau used to have a crazy road going into it that climbed up the side of the mountain but this is now bypassed by a new bridge that is the highest bridge in Europe, designed by a Brit. This stretch of Autoroute also has some amazing high speed bends that really are a test of bottle, i'm sure it must have been designed by a biker:D

We finally arrived in Port Grimaud as it was getting dark to find that thankfully the guys hadn't burnt the caravan down, but the stench was pretty bad:alien:

By this stage we'd covered over 1000 miles and had the next day off lazing around in Port Grimaud. We had a loose plan to meet up with Mav and his mates who were 50 miles down the coast in Cannes but things didn't work out. I also owe him an apology for ringing him about 2am in the morning as we left the bar, when he was fast asleep. Sorry Mav.

Port Grimaud is a great place to chill out, the caravan is 200 metres from the beach, with some really nice bars and restaurants in the Port; and St. Tropez is only 5 miles away. The rest of the lads had been down for a week but Clat was looking very battered and sore after highsiding a mini moto at 10mph the day before we arrived. The end result was his leathers were thrashed and the main zip had been ripped out of his Akito leathers. God knows what state they would have been in if it had been a high speed crash!

The plan was for an early start the next day but yet again we felt sorry for ourselves and considered having another night in town. By 1.30pm it was decision time, start partying again or get off. We suddenly sprang into life, packed in 20 minutes and were off again. Destination Andorra about 400 miles away.

It was great to be back on the road again even though there was no option but to do the first 200 miles on Autoroutes before we hit the good twisties again. The climb up from the coast into the Pyrennes and Andorra via Bourg Madame, into Spain to La Seu D'urgell is another great road and better than going in via the Pas de la Casa. By the time we got up that way it was early evening and the traffic was really light. The road is a mixture of some tight bumpy bends opening out onto long sweeping stuff where you can comfortably hammer through the apex at 120mph and accelerate out with perfect vision of the road ahead. Its this type of stuff the Ducati's thrive upon with great punch out of the slower bends and absolutely unrivalled high speed stability through the quick stuff. Azzy said although the SPS is definately slower than his R1, it feels so much more secure and safe, especially at high speeds.

Andorra was just a nights stop at the Hotel *******os. If you want soft toilet paper then stay in the Hotel Gayboy Engleesh Pig (for any of you that remember 'A Fistfull of Travellers Cheques' classic comedy).

We did a quick tour of the bike shops in Andorra, but miracle of miracles none of us bought anything at all which is a real first. Then it was off back into Spain where we hit some of our favourite roads and passed the ever so obliging policeman.

We zigzaged across the mountains until horror of horrors, rain stopped play :( It was definately time to get out of the mountains to try and avoid the rain, but no luck as it followed most of the way upto Souillac.

Our last day in France was a mere 445 miles upto the ferry at Caen via as many back roads as possible. A word of warning though for travelling in France on Sundays or Bank Holidays (and our last day was Ascension Day, a Bank Holiday in France) its hard to find petrol stations open away from the Autoroutes. The petrol stations that are signed as 24/7 are invariably unmanned and only take chip and pin type credit cards (but our English ones never work in the machines, anyone know why please?).

On 2 occassions we had to sweet talk locals who were filling up their cars and get them to fill our bikes up on their credit cards and bung them the cash with a tip (Don't eat yellow snow:lol:)

Then with about 150 miles to go to the ferry, for the first time
in over a dozen trips abroad on Ducati's we had a mechanical hitch, and it was on my old SPS that i'd sold to Azzy.....oops, how embarrasing:o

We pulled up and i noticed Azzy's visor was wet and couldn't fathom out why he was the only one caught in an isolated shower.

:puzzled:

Turns out it was coolant coming from the header tank. When i had stopped taking the mikey out of him for buying duff bikes from dodgy blokes i got on the Nellyphone to good old Neil at Cornerspeed for a bit of advice. He said get your prayer mats out, look to the South East, bow down in the direction of Bologna and wish for the best. Only joking, turns out its not unheard of for the coolant expansion tank round the headstock to fracture after lots of repeated heat cycles, as its a bit of a complex moulding and tends to give way on the seam.

Helpful as ever and with great concern as i had sold it to Azzy, suggested that he should just keep it going and if it seizes than its ran out of coolant and has got a bit too hot!:lol::lol:

In reality, when it had cooled down the leak stopped and only reoccurred twice. We kept a close eye on the coolant level as it hadn't lost that much and made it to the ferry without actually needing to top it up.

The overnight crossing on the ferry gave us a chance to sit down and compare notes on both bikes over the course of quite a long trip.

HOW THE BIKES COMPARED.

Since returning from the trip the R has been on the same dyno i put the SPS beforehand. Both the power and torque curves are remarkably similar all the way through the rev range except at 2 points. Between 6500 and 7500 rpm the SPS holds a clear advantage over the R, but when the R reaches 8750 rpm it clears off and leaves the SPS climbing to a peak of 132 bhp whereas the SPS reaches a max of 120 bhp.

The R produces a peak torque figure of 72 ft lbs against 71 ft lbs for the SPS, but the R continues with a pretty flat torque curve higher up in the rev range whereas the SPS torque curve drops off a lot sharper after its peak.

The SPS feels raw and more brutal in its power delivery which certain people think gives it more character. The 'stretta' engine feels smoother, more refined and seems to rev a little quicker, which is what you would expect from a shorter stroke engine. For some reason the clutch on the R is so much lighter, the lightest Ducati clutch i've ever had.

The R feels slightly quicker off the line and marginally quicker on top speed. Azzy said the only way he could stay with me on ultimate top speed was to play silly buggers and draught me taking advantage of the rather large hole I punch in the air.

Slight differnces in performance and feel may be attributable to the gearing changes. The SPS runs standard 15 tooth on the gearbox, but 2 extra teeth on the rear; whereas the R has 1 tooth less on the gearbox, which equates to 3 up on the rear. Fairly common mods on lots of 916/996's as common concensus is they are overgeared as standard.

One very definate improvement on the R is the front brakes with the P4 calipers and lighter disc's. Simply awesome

A not very interesting fact is that the stretta engine in the R was a little more economical at each fuel stop and if you cruise at a relaxed 100mph you can get not far short of 50mpg. Not that we did that much cruising. Don't think it would be a good excuse for getting away with speeding. 'Sorry Officer, i'm just trying to conserve fuel'. Oil consumption on both bikes was minimal over the course of a good 2600 mile thrashing.

Handling wise, the R was a bit of a let down! When i bought it the Ohlins fork seals were leaking, now there's a real surprise!

Instead of just getting just the seals replaced i decided to get both the forks and shock resprung and revlaved to suit my fat pig sponsored by Stella, physique. The result was rather disappointing, and i actually preferred the standard SPS suspension.

When i've had this done on my ST4s the results were superb, and the bike just glided over bumps rather than bounced off them. I did experiment with the settings during the course of the trip but things still didn't feel as good as the SPS:flame:

Further investigation on returning home revealed that the wrong rear spring had been fitted. The correct spring for my weight has now been fitted so time for more testing. The shop were very apologetic and it seems to have been a genuine mistake.

Azzy used to be an R1-ophile (not quite as bad as a paedophile) and the SPS is his first Ducati. His comments are interesting. Common sense dictates that a Year 2000 R1 is a better buy at half the price of the SPS, in performance/value for money terms, and he did miss the extra power of the R1 at times.

BUT he had lusted after a 996 for years so finally succumbed to the dream/madness. Did he regret it?

Not in the slightest, he loves the Ducati despite the fact the R1 is lighter, quicker and more powerful. The sound, feel, power delivery make up for it, and he said on certain roads the R1 could get a bit too lively. Whereas the Ducati just inspired total confidence, but then i suppose i'm preaching to the converted here.

Back to the R vs SPS. I'm definately glad i bought the R but being completely honest the difference between the 2 bikes is a little less than i expected. The R is a definate step forward but not a quantum leap.

This may well sound strange in view of the top end power advantage and better brakes, but this only comes into play when you're chasing the last 10%. I suppose it demonstrates the effectiveness of Ducati's evolution from 916 to 996 to 998 engines in their various guises Bip to S to SPS to R.

They are both superb bikes which i'm very lucky to have owned. To sum it up i would give the SPS 9.96 points and the R 9.98 points out of 10.

Now who will let me borrow a 998R please?





[Edited on 13-6-2005 by BDG]

[Edited on 4-7-2005 by BDG]

woo hoo .. i'm off to the Masif Central on Wednesday, thanks for re-wetting my appetite .,.....

I personally love your travel write ups ....

Tell us more about the trip, exactly where did you get to this time? Just about to set off on a day trip up to Kielder, pales into insignificance compared to a good week down through France! Still be doing nearly 400 miles today though, just wish it was on French/spanish tarmac.

Martin

Sod the trip, tell us about the comparison between the 2 bikes.

- performance
- power
- power delivery
- feel
- issues?


Oh yeh - the trip sounds great too !!!
Tim

Yes, the Police thing is a little confusing isn't it?
Three years ago, I was in France with three mates travelling along the main road from Cherbourg to Bayeux.
I'd had to stop for fuel so I pulled out to start to catch up with the rest.
As I entered the road I noticed a single headlight closing on me at a fair old lick, so decided to take it steady till I knew what it was.
Sure enough, it closed on me to reveal itself to be a Gendarme BMW.
I sat crusing at the limit when the BM pulls along side me & the rider gives me a blast on the horn.
I turn & look & he nods at me.
I nod back.
He makes a throttle twisting motion with his left wrist & nods again, this time with a daft grin on his face.
I hesistate so he just waves forward as if to say go for it!
So I did......
As we're approaching Bayeux where I'm stopping for the night, I pass my 3 mates at about 130- 135 mph with a Gendarme BMW about 20m behind me & left them all for dead.
I pulled off a few miles further on to wait for the rest, all of whom thought I'd be shipped back to the UK in irons as my "companion" carried on towards Caen flat out.
:burn:

Carefull Dibble, thats the first nice thing you've ever said about a Northerner:lol::lol:

Actually i'm really jealous you're off there, i wanna go back, have a great time.

Martin..i'll try and elaborate a bit more.

Rattler, the plan is to dyno both bikes to see what the differences are, and as for the other points i will be addressing them, but unfortunately they'll be hidden amognst the holiday waffle:D

Nice writeup BDG (as was your one in the mag for the land end to john O'groats day trip)

The massif is excellent, isn't it. We did a week there last year. Have a look at the map east of Clermont Ferrand and try to find the - wait for it - D996 & D999 :lol:
Absolutely blinding roads around there, right the way across to Mauriac.

We've also had the same with coppers in Italy. A few years back a group of us were tearing up the cortina pass & caught a cop car up. Cop car goes for it, doing overtakes whenever he could, and when there wasn't enough room for him he waved the bikes through !!
He caught us up again in Cortina itself having a coffeee. Gave us a toot and a thumbs up :cool:

We're off to the Alps in 2 weeks for 10 days, so hoping any coppers we come across are just as laid back this time :burn:

John, haven't tried the D999 but i found the part of the D996 (had to try it) too bumpy and nadgery to be real fun on a Ducati, better suited to a supermoto in places, although we haven't done the full length of it.

Massif Central
 

Some other roads in this part of the world worth finding:

D920 from Espalion to Aurillac
D3 to Piom-es-Magnes
D5 to le Mont-Dore

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-7/773773/Ft28.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-7/773773/Ft18.jpg

Went down that way last May and it was truly excellent! Ended up all the way down near Beziers. Then went across east to Orange and Mont Ventoux and across for the F1 grand prix in Monaco. I was supposed to be setting of again down through the Alps in 9 days for the GP again but have had to sell my ticket as personal circumstances have prevented my annual France trip this year. Saying that I am going to try and get down there later this summer.

Have a good trip BDG and don't forget to do a write up on it! I love hearing about any trips to France especially any that mention routes and road numbers. So many roads so little time!

Best wishes

Martin

D996 - D999 sounds a whole lot better than the A50 - A46 to Cadwell:)

another top write up Judith;)

True, bits of the 996 can be a bit tight, but that means you get more opportunity to leave the others behind blasting out the corners :bouncy:

Henners, not done the D3 (infact can't even see it on my map !!) but we stayed just outside Le Mont Dore last year, so did bits of the D5 every day. Would have been good if it wasn't for the resurfacing crew working on it :rodent:

another favourite of ours is the D538 east of Orange and the D94/D994 across to Gap. I can picture some of it now... :D
Also, if you like hairpins, try the Petit StBernard, up through LaRosiere. This time in 2 weeks we should be very close to it and I can't wait !
:sing::sing::sing:

The whole area is crammed with good roads but Henners has got it spot on with his choice.

the D5/D983 loop from the top, (bit like the Devils Beeftub on steriods in Scotland) is spectacular, old volcanic area with some great views but the D3 a better ride IMHO.

There is one road in Northern Spain i found that starts with a sign, bends for 50km!!!!!! and there doesn't seem to be a straight longer than 1/2 mile anywhere.

Wish i'd taken a photo at the start when i saw the sign, but did get one part the way along...bends for 25Km.

You must have taken the same route we did through the pyrenees then (south of Pau through Laruns?) :roll:

Don't suppose you did the pass de tossers too ?? :lol:

Out of interest where did you head for in Spain ?

The road of a million bends in Spain is indeed the Pass of Tossers which sounds a bit better than the N152, but we didn't do it this time, that was a couple of years ago.

I'll carry on with the rest in the main story, gotta do a bit more work now.

bdg write up . you should work for a bike mag. always wanted to go abroad on my bike. what was tyre ware like. what time off year is best to go, lovely write up, cheers bdg

Thanks, glad you like it.

Tyre wear and grip was fine with standard Pirelli Diablos, did a trip once with the stickier Corsa's and they were dead by the time i finished.

Best time of year is NOW, sat in the office, depressed and want to go back, roll on July.

Being serious, best time depends on where in Europe you want to go, but anytime from May to Sept is normally fine, but of course August and the further south you go the hotter it gets.

When we do Morocco we only go in Spring or Autumn, you'd be mad to go down to the Sahara in summer IMHO.

As for riding abroad its great fun, don't worry the worlds a small place, you can either do it on your own, with a group of mates or there some good tour companys i know that will organise everything for you.

France still remains my favourite destination, easy to get to, great roads and even better food.

If you need any advice i'd be glad to help.

cheers bdh ill be in touch. just sorting 996 out. a few little things, .

Just for Rattler i've finished the actual bike comparison rather than the holiday bit.

Just posted Dyno charts for both bikes.

Excuse the handrawn lines on one of the graphs, i did this because

a) the colours of the individual lines did not show up very well

or

b) i wanted to produce a dyno chart with the results i wanted to see:D

where :puzzled:

Go to the bottom of BDG's first post in this thread.......

Ta Rushjob

Forget all that touring twaddle and get to the comparison!!!!

Nice write up!! I suppose I felt the R was a lot stronger on the track and your findings echo that. With the SPS it was more of an animal and less refined, whereas the R was smoother and pulled for a lot longer - neither necessarily better, but different.

The reason I prefered the R on the track was because it had the longer legs and could keep up with the big Jap thous' wherreas the SPS was foud a bit wanting.

As for touring - what the hell would you want to do that on either anyway!!!! ;)

Tim

I must try and R - my sps feels refined to me, so either I have it wrong, something is wrong with the bike or the R feels sooo much better???

great write up - I now know who must be the happiest person in the world....996R in garage (git!), just toured Euopre in a week (git!), tried others while on route, and Sunderland in the Prem (my team alreadyt there)...does it get any better??

Nice writeup Shaun.

Interesting that you found the R smoother. I find exactly the same when comparing the 998 to the 996 (or the ST4S for that matter - 996 engine). Must be down to the stretta engine I suppose.

Tim, the answer is - because you can :D
Well, you can if your ar$e & wrists can stand it anyway :lol:

:DI'm a very happy man on all counts, and off again in July for some more 'touring';)

Tim, in answer to why would i wanna tour on either of those bikes? I must be right wierdo!
Lets rephrase it then, its not touring as in load up the kitchen sink and gently potter around, its fast and hard for as long as we want, and rather than circulating the same 3 miles a multitude of times, its the variety of ever changing roads (good ones through years of doing it) ridden at a fair old pace.

Certainly not as mental as a track day in the fast group, but still pretty demanding, ask DIbble his opinion as he loves his track days, but also gets off on the buzz of the Central Massif.

Its a personal thing which i really get off on, and i prefer the 996 to the ST4s. I know you're not being crictical, just bemused i think:puzzled:

Funny that, I prefer the 4S to the 996 for touring.

I think it is simply down to riding position as performance & brakes are the same. The 996 feels a bit too committed for some of the roads we do, whereas the 4S is a bit more forgiving (probably no difference in reality but it seems it).

Agreed about the roads compared to a track too.
One of these days we'll have to see if we can't get our trips to cross paths, eh ;)

Northern France in late June perhaps ?? :roll:
Or Black Forest / Alps in September ?? :bouncy:

John,

I loved the ST4 and the ST4s, both great bikes and more comfortable, especially on a motorway. I suppose i've just got to live upto the D part of the BDG:lol:

I'd love to join one of your runs but this years pretty well mapped out in between the massive inconvienience of having to do some work to pay for it all:)

Sean - I was just joking - it takes all sorts and you "touring" boys and acceptable in the club as long as you sit quietly at the back and don't disturb anyone!!!! ;)

Motorway? what's one of them then... :lol:

Maybe I need to change my sig to JohnDW too.

Work. Ahh yes, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. Thanks for the reminder ;)

Bloody good write up, Ive done lots of the roads talked about, on japs tho. I couldnt put my SPS through that more to the point my back wouldnt take it. It brings back why i want to end up in france theve got the lot lucky buggers.
Wosser

Wosser, a few simple changes, i.e. Helibars, Technosel seat and a Ducati Performance higher screen delivers almost Goldwing levels of comfort for all day riding:D Well if you're a wierdo like me they do, but don't detract from the riding sensation.

Total cost of changes (although the screen and seat were not new) less than £300 for the fun of riding a 996 on those roads. I have the option of taking the Multistrada, but don't which says it all.

Hmmmm - a comfortable 996 for £300, I think I need to sit on your bike and put thoughts of an ST4 on hold for a moment.:eureka:

Rick
 

Here is the post with the comparison between the R and the SPS with dyno charts. Hope this helps.

Sorry i gave you the wrong title to search under.

Ahhhh, The Mont Dore. I've been there at least three times and never seen a view. Always managed to hiss down and/or been foggy as a a very foggy place.


Still, there's a few great places to stay and dry out though.


Rgds, Rob

BDG - just had a look at the charts, funny how different either dyno's or bikes can be. My early sps is almost identical to the R, nice and smooth and linera, but peaks at 10450rpm and 126bhp, but trque 77lb

must try an R someday to compare with mine....

Very true. A man with a million times more knowledge that me (not difficult i admit before either JPM or TP comment:lol:)
told me that comparisons between different dynos are a little pointless. These charts are from the same dyno, but at different times, though seat of the pants does agree with the differences in the midrange and topend.

I've heard people get higher figures for other SPS's but the one consistency is that Ducati say the SPS produces 123bhp and it did 120 on the dyno.

Ducati qoute 135bhp for the R and that produced 132.

Both bikes are within 3 bhp of Ducati's claim.

At the time i believe Ducati qouted real world rear world figures rather than what they do now, and do the same as the Japanese and measure the figures at the crank, which allowing for drive train losses to the rear wheel can make upto 10% difference.

Of course dyno operators can use a variety of measuring methods, and this in itself can make 2 or 3% difference.

Excellent! I was so entertained by your tale i had to re-fill my coffee half way through and rush back for the next bits !!!

reminds me of our trip from Ayr to Catalunya via St Malo when i was on the zx7r and my mate on the RSV1000 a while back. amazing roads, particularly in spain and Andorra's such a charming place.

Nice to hear y'all had a good time and the bikes were abused in the nicest possible way. Good on ya mate and thanks for the report !

Loved the write up. Me and a mate (996 and 916) did afair bit of eastern Europe (3000 miles or so in 8days) Only took magnetic tank bags so as not to spoil the aesthetic of the bikes. However, both bikes did get nicked out of the hotal car park in Delft on the last night.

i am now paranoid about where i leave my bike (now got 998R as a replacement) on any trip but particularly when i stay in European hotels. What did you do? Did you book ahead for hotels with secure garages or take your chance (whcih is what we used to do)?