Ducati Diavel
DUCATI DIAVEL
CW FIRST RIDE
What is it? What does it do?
PETER JONES
WILL ANYBODY IN AMERICA PLAY with this new toy? If only a few do, it will be sad, very sad. It will be sad because whatever the Diavel is, it rocks.
According to Mario Alvisi, Ducati's Marketing Manager, the design of the Diavel was accomplished by combining the lines of a sportbike with those of a cruiser. But in the U.S., where the religious rift between sportbikes and cruisers is comparable to the distance between badminton and boxing, this melding of machines might be too confusing, making it matter little that the Diavel kills with its performance, its riding ease, its comfort and friendliness, and its hightech rider aids. It might matter little that it's a bike of brutality refined.
Many in the media define the Diavel's marketing position by claiming it's Ducati's version of a Yamaha VMax or Harley-Davidson V-Rod, fitting it into the muscle-cruiser sub-category, whatever that is. But maybe it should be thought of more as competing with the Moto Guzzi Griso 1200 8V, or even the original Kawasaki Z1. Sure, the problem with that description is that only a handful of enthusiasts in America ever bought a Griso, and the Z1 has been out of production for some 30 years. But if you step outside of today's narrow niche rules and expectations of what a bike has to be and remember that Moto Guzzis used to win roadraces, and also pretend that superbikes still have tubular handlebars and reasonable seats for passengers, then maybe the Diavel is just a motorcycle, and one that performs with exceptional talent, ease and friendliness. Is that too much of a stretch?
The temptation is to call the Diavel a naked bike, but it's not very naked. It has a headlight cowl reaching up to the handlebars, air intake cowls on each side, with more cowls below those for the two side-mounted radiators, and a belly pan below that. Little can be seen of the engine other than the lower cases, with the jugs all but hidden from view, especially on the exhaust side. Plus, it comes with a seat cowl.
At the press introduction in southern Spain, the version we rode was the Diavel Carbon. As you might remember from our initial report on the Diavel, the $19,995 Carbon and $20,395 Carbon Red differ from the $ 16,995 standard model in they have carbon-fiber tank panels, front fenders and seat cowls, as well as coated fork tubes and lighterweight Marchesini forged wheels. This results in a claimed dry weight of 456 pounds for the Carbon models, 7 less than the standard version. Weight aside, the beautifully finished look of the rims on the Carbon are worth the price difference, and what's not to like about carbon? Although the bike looks massive, both versions are pretty light by any standard for a bike powered by a big,
1198cc V-Twin. For our first impression of the Diavel, we had a full day of knuckleheaded indiscretion on the bike in the coastal mountains near Marbella. It included a few stints on highways, a bit of urban terrorism and runs up two mountain roads— one smooth, sweeping and fast, the other tight, bumpy and slow. Well, as slow as the laws of physics required, anyway.
The Diavel shares many of the hightech features of the Ducati Multistrada, such as keyless ignition and smart-asheck electronic controls over the engine and braking. As long as the fob is within 6 feet of the bike, the engine will start, and it will stay running even if you leave the fob on the curb. If you never shut the engine off, you can still get home again. For those who do forget or drop their fob, there's a secret backup system for starting the bike really and truly keylessly, but we won't go into detail about it here out of respect for those who might buy the bike.
Like the Multistrada, the Diavel has three riding modes: Sport, Touring and Urban. Within those modes it has two, urn, "moods," let's call them, high and low. High and low moods determine whether or not the throttle does what you think you're asking it to do. For example, if you turn the throttle 20 percent while in the high mood, the ride-by-wire is told to open the throttle 20 percent, but doing the same thing in the low setting will only open the throttle 17 percent. Ducati calls this a "remapping for progressive power delivery." There also is the possibility of eight traction-control settings. Each mode has default settings that can be reprogrammed, and the bike will remember your modified settings until you change them or disconnect the battery.
In Sport mode, the default is for the Diavel's full 162 claimed horsepower, high mood and Ducati Traction Control (DTC) at level 3. In Touring, you get the 162 hp, but the mood is low and DTC at 4. In Urban, you only get 100 hp, mood low and DTC at 5. As you might have guessed, the higher the number, the more the DTC takes over. Level 8 is for riding in the rain, which might be something a few of us really, really need. Or, if you're feeling heroic, you can shut the DTC off. The modes are altered by a series of pushes to the turnsignal cancel button and can be changed on the fly. Scrolling and resetting modes, "moods" and DTC is easy to figure out, unlike the complicated features on many poorly designed smartphones.
Stopping the bike has the added riding control of ABS. In theory, with all these controls, you should be able to ride around with the throttle wide open, banging the engine against the rev limiter, only using the brake to regulate speed without worry about wheelspin or the brakes locking. Not that we tried it.
Generally, 162 hp is no laughing matter, but on the Diavel it is. You can do no wrong on this bike. Well, unless you're a real blockhead. In the default Sport mode, the Diavel goes like stink; it just doesn't do it quite as fast or as nasty as a VMax does. But with cornering clearance the same as that of a Monster, the Diavel rails through the turns more like a sportbike. Steering is only slightly slow, due in part to the 28 degrees of rake and the wide rear tire. Peg positioning, though, results in your toes touching pavement before the pegs do, even if you're up on the balls of your feet.
The rear tire, a Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 240/45ZR17, was designed specifically for the Diavel. A lower, 40-series height is more common at this width, but the taller 45 for the most part gives the Diavel the sporty chassis behavior Ducati wanted. The bike definitely has a neutral steering feel; but when it is leaned radically in low-speed corners, the rear feels as though it skips out, which gets your attention. This repeated itself on numerous occasions, showing that it wasn't caused by paint stripes or dirt on the roadway. One thought is that the bike rolls off the rear tire contact patch to some degree when pushed to an extreme lean. Looking at the tires after our ride, we noticed that the front had about 10mm of profile along its edge that had never touched pavement, while the rear tire tread was frilly used. Conversely, in high-speed corners, with toes clipping the road, the bike was firmly planted.
When we tried Urban setting for comparison, the bike was still a fine ride.
There was a day when 100 hp was considered huge, so the Diavel is no dog, even in its conservative mode. But if you're not a hack, riding in Sport mode in urban settings is accomplished with ease and confidence. The Diavel is rider-friendly no matter what the external conditions or internal mode; there is no surging or burping or surprises in fuel delivery, and the engine revs cleanly and smoothly.
Some of us like bikes to be ill-tempered and unforgiving. But if that's not you, the Diavel takes riding confidence to a new level. Plus, it does so with a platform that's crazy comfortable in riding position and seat quality for all-day trips. Additionally, all the niggling problems that every bike needs to address have all been well addressed, such as heat management, adjustable levers, fully adjustable suspension, impeccable fit and finish, brake feel, chassis feedback, ease of steering, necessary lever pressures and so on. There's little about the Diavel to find fault in or complain about—unless, of course, you just don't like the way it looks and can't figure out what it is. □
