After waiting what seems like forever for the 2008 Ducati Hypermotard 1100S to show up, mine finally arrived two weeks ago. When it came in I began plotting the break in knowing the first track day was coming up. I’m really not much of a street rider or a distance rider so 600 miles was not super easy… especially since I only had about 4 days to do it as I was leaving for California for a week the day after I received the bike. Anyhow, once I returned from California I rode 150 miles or so each day and by Friday had 603 miles on the bike. I changed the oil, checked the torque on the bolts as suggested and loaded the bike to head for the track.

Hannah and I went down a day early so we could stop by Barber Motorsports Park and check out the museum again as well as the WERA regional racing that was going on. I must say, every time I visit the museum I see more that the time before. I really love that place! Between the Supermono, the Britten, the Suertes Ferrari, all the vintage GP bikes, the board track racers, etc… there is so much to look at and enjoy.

The next day we headed over to Talladega GP for the last QT Track Club event of the season. Only about half the club was able to attend so there were only 7 people on the track all day. Obviously we didn’t run sessions as we didn’t need to. I had 100 track miles in by lunch time! Okay, now on to the Hypermotard.

Up to this point I hadn’t really had a chance to ride my hyper hard. I did have a hyper out at Laguna Seca for a session the week before, but one session on an unfamiliar track didn’t really teach me much about the bike. Let’s start off with the good. The bike is just a blast to ride. As everyone knows the brakes are outstanding. They are very powerful and they have a great initial bite which I personally like. Even thought the HM is a heavy bike (claimed 390lbs. dry) it feels quite light and is very flickable. It is very easy to transition from side to side on this bike without much effort. The handlebars do offer a great leverage point compared to clip-ons though. Talladega is a fairly tight track without any high speed areas. The highest speed I saw was 118-119mph on the back straight.

Okay, let’s get on with the negative. First and foremost, the foot pegs are way too low! I’m not a fan of hanging more than one butt check off the seat at a time, but it is almost necessary to do so in order to make a corner with any kind of speed. I was dragging knee and foot peg at the same time. I also ground a good portion of the brake lever off, but the shifter faired okay. There is an easy cure for this and desmoworks is working on it right now. We hope to have the solution within the next couple of months.

The next annoyance was the throttle. You really have to twist it far to open it all the way. A quarter turn throttle is definitely in order for this bike. My wrist was sore after the first couple of sessions due to the amount of twist involved. Down the straights I’d have to re-grip to get the throttle fully open. This is an easy fix though as many people sell quick turn throttles, so no big deal.

That’s about it really - just those complaints. I do think that power is going to be an issue at larger tracks. The top speed of my HM is only 127mph. I have some things planned for the HM this winter though including: porting heads, cams, ECU, full exhaust, HC piston, setting squish, etc… We should be able to get in the 110hp range rather than the 85hp range that it currently is at.

You can see all the images from this photo set here.