Two things biggest on my mind every ride - bike is immediate. Accelerates immediate. Turns immediate.
We all know by now it's fast. What we all don't know is how fast. Wanna know how fast it is? First gear, 3k on the tach, idle throttle, big straight ahead. You roll slowly forward, waiting, anticipating what's about to happen when you snap the throttle to the stop. You know it'll be fast, you could feel it the last few miles going through each gear. But what's it gonna be like up top when the revs get insane, you just don't know but the road is clear ahead and there's no cops for miles so you go for it. Wham, you twist the throttle to the stop. Instantly the following things happen ALL AT THE SAME TIME:
The launch
1 - the ass of the bike squats down,
2 - a deep muffled piston smashing vibrato of pulses echoes out from somewhere under the tank - not the exhaust
3 - your lower torso rolls backward. You were just sitting on your ass, now suddenly you're sitting on your lower spine
4 - your hands clench at the grips
5 - your wrists stretch
6 - your feet rotate lowering your heels on the pegs
7 - the front wheel gets light
Right then panic sets in - because your body understands physics better than your mind at this moment. Everything in your anatomy tells you roll back out of it. But then something interesting happens:
The spin
1 - you "feel" the rear tyre start to spin
2 - the throttle stays pinned but that spine twisting acceleration eases ever so slightly. That sharp acceleration now turns blurry
3 - what was about to be a backwards cart-wheel suddenly morphs into the most ideal 1" high wheel stand you've ever launched yourself into.
4 - all the weight that shifted the bike, and you on your heels, now starts to recover. Let me stress now I mean "starts" to recover
Next up on the agenda, and mind you this all happens every time you try it, the bike comes back into itself:
The Recovery
1 - the rear tyre "gains traction again"
2 - the rear spring presses back up at you and the ass of the bike
3 - the front wheel somehow let's you know it's lifted as high as it's going to
4 - the motor now starts it's second surge forward, now more composed, and this time it's not backing down until you do
The final stage of your new experience of arm stretching acceleration is the realization that you are the weakest link in this chain:
The rocket
on the second surge of power your ass rolled under itself again. With your flattened ass came your stretched fingers and your dislocated wrists - which are all to be expected, this is not the first fast bike you've launched. But this is the first fast Superduke you've launched so you're not prepared for second gear - because your left toe is jammed up under the shifter so hard with your heels rolled back over the pegs that you can't release the shifter back to level so you can click the next gear. Somehow now it's already redline. how this happened so quick nobody knows, especially not you. So the bike tops out, your weight rolls forward, you click second gear and smack the throttle back to the stop. This starts the entire world of hurt all over again. Second gear, doesn't matter, the front wheel lofts just like it did in first and you're hanging on for your life again.
...need I go over what happens in third?
It's ironic, here I am being asked to write about a bike I haven't read one word about. Not, one. Talk about an unbiased opinion - I don't even know the specs on this bike. I just know what I feel. As for how it turns I'll share an observation I've explored many times over the past few days. Cars understeer and cars oversteer. You turn the wheel on some and they slide straight, or you turn the wheel on others and the ass comes around. I guess the best cars steer neutral. I don't know I drive a van. If you think of these traits and stretch the meanings a bit I guess bikes do this too. At low speeds a bike that understeers would feel heavy to initiate a turn. On the other hand a bike that oversteers would feel amazingly light at low speeds. This bike feels light at low speeds, but not amazingly so. At highway speeds it's very steady. One arm on the tank, 90mph going diagonal over grooves and seams and bumps - this bike is steady as a rock. I wouldn't expect that from a quick steering bike. So it's quick, it's nimble, but not at a price of instability. The bike is tall, it carries a lot of weight up high - especially with a full tank of fuel. For the most part it's unnoticeable until you approach a turn too hot let's say, where you're dragging the front brake hard as you struggle to keep your place between the lines. At moments like this you can feel the weight, it wants to stand up and go straight. Maybe don't top-off if you plan to be an idiot. Or, don't be an idiot just after you top off.
Probably the most interesting trait I can share with you happens at full lean. Imagine you're leaned over in a consistent arc of a turn. even a circle if you will, theoretically. You go round and round, you feel better and more comfortable, your weight leans more and more. You do this until you can think about just what is going on beneath you. Now not only can you think about it, but you can start to feel it. If you were doing this on a new Superduke what you would soon enough feel is the bars gently rolling "into" the turn more. Like, the bike actually wants to turn more. If you let go of the bars and maintained throttle input somehow, the bike would turn tighter. I call this oversteer. And I don't mind it really, it's not a problem. In fact my guess is it's more a characteristic of the front tyre than of the Superduke. Mind you, it's not when the bike is turning that you feel it. Not an average turn anyway. It's when the bike is at maximum lean angle. If you look at the front tyre I bet you'll see it too. It's an odd shape, there's not edge to it. It rolls right around the crown of the peak of the tyre, and continues on in all the way to the rim. No edge at all. I think this lack of an edge is what gives that max-lean turn in feeling. But who knows, I am most likely wrong. Like I said I haven't read a word about this bike, or it's tyres.
There's so much more about this bike I could write for days. Very special machine. It will win many best bike awards this year
...and it's comfortable as hell you can ride it forever.
