Letter From Europe

LETTER FROM Europe

First ride: Ducati 750 Sport

Lined up in front of the pits at Italy’s Misano race-track was a row of glistening new Ducatis. But while the selection of hardware included high-tech 851 8-valve Strada and Superbike models, the international group of journalists attending the press launch weren't fighting to ride those machines. The bike we all most wanted to take on the track was a surprise, a straightforward, older-fashioned, air-cooled Duke sharing its name with a model first seen in 1973: the 750 Sport.

Ducati chief engineer Massimo Bordi has concoted this new machine by the simplest of marriages. Basically, his development team slotted a Paso engine and exhaust system into a 750F1 chassis fitted with Paso 16inch wheels and low-profile Michelin radial

tires. The result is a 396pound bike that has the advantages of both and the drawbacks of neither. The clever parts-book engineering is also intended to offer excellent value; in Italy it is priced 15 percent lower than its sister Paso. If that relationship holds in the U.S., the 750 Sport, when it arrives in your country, should sell for around $6000.

You don’t have to believe what I say about the excellence of the 750 Sport—I’m an admitted Ducati freak. Instead, listen to some of my fellow journalists who remain unsmitten: “It’s really a nice bike to ride, so small and fast-handling you feel you can do almost anything you like with it,”

said one. “The suspension is so good, you feel you’re almost floating into turns,” said the Italian who knew all about rockhard Ducati suspensions. “It may be a sports bike, but it’s so civilized you wouldn’t be afraid to ride it every day—or through a a city street at night,” said the noise-conscious Swiss journalist. As for me, I thought it was simply loads of fun.

The minimal modifications that have been made to the Paso’s 750cc engine amount to using a slightly hotter desmo cam, along with a small increase in compression ratio, to boost horsepower to 81. More important, however, are the improvements made in the two-barrel 44DCNF Weber carburetor to eliminate the Paso’s annoying tendency to occasionally stutter and stumble upon opening the throttle. The 750 Sport showed no evidence of any such glitch. Instead, it exhibited tractor-like torque; other than a flat spot at about 3000 rpm, it pulled hard all the way through its rev range to its 9000-rpm redline and beyond. The five-speed gearbox is more than adequate.

My Italian friend was right about the ride, which—like the improved, more-upright seating position-is light years away from that of the 750F1, which subjected you to bone-crunching jars when riding over the tiniest ripple.

In total, the sensation gained after a spin on the Sport is exhilaration. It has a taut, precise, together feel that encourages you to ride it hard, yet always in control. It’s an alluring mixture of traditional and modern qualities: You can see enough of the frame and engine, hear enough of the exhaust, and feel enough of the spirit of the Sport when you ride it to recapture the essence of 1970’s motorcycling. Yet it’s a civilized, reasonably comfortable and sociable machine (with a rear seat hidden under the detachable cover) that you could also imagine riding every day to work. There haven't been many Ducati sportbikes in the past you can honestly say that about.

This is a Ducati that doesn’t force you to compromise. Unlike some early Ducatis with the Pantah engine, the Sport doesn’t have throttle and clutch controls designed for the sons of Schwarzeneggers. Yet the slightly modified space frame gives the same precise steering (if slightly quicker) and good handling that made it just about worthwhile putting up with these and other faults to be found on its predecessor. While the 851 8-valve may be the Ducati to dream about, the Sport may well be the Ducati to own.

Alan Cathcart