How cool is my girlfriend? At about 4PM on Monday (my Sunday) afternoon I looked at her from the couch and asked if she would drive the support vehicle while I tested the 2008 Hypermotard 1100S down in Southern Indiana. Without hesitation she said, “Sure, let’s go”.

We got moving right away in the truck over to the shop and loaded up the Hypermotard in the back. I felt like some sort of all-star to be able to just put a bike in the back of the truck and take it off to test session, but the summer is quickly evaporating and I want to make the most of it. Even with the shop keeping us all so busy, everyone has been riding quite a bit this month and getting a chance to enjoy the bikes. That is what it’s all about, right? Someone wake me up if I ever become that guy who is too burnt out to ride. On that note, today’s ride would be a powerful reminder of why one must ride.

We got down to the gas station just north of the not so secret testing facility with plenty of daylight left and I unloaded the Motard from the Silverado. I got into my leathers and then into my boots. It was still rather hot out which reminded me to buy some water. Of course, this would be carried in the support vehicle along with other testing equipment, tools, and supplies. The Hypermotard was getting a lot of looks from the locals. I’m sure they didn’t know exactly how awesome the Marzocchi and Ohlins suspension parts were. They didn’t realize that the Brembos could stop a train, but I am positive that the Hypermotard made an impression. With the route already planned, I put on my helmet and gloves and hit the road.

The tires hadn’t really picked up any heat in the truckbed so I took it relatively easy on the first of a thousand turns that lay ahead. While we had measured the sag last week at the shop, I was still searching for a good baseline. With 165mm of travel up front and 141mm out back, I wasn’t going to plug in the standard superbike numbers. Using the 1/3 rule the front would measure 55mm and the rear 47. The bike was close to this at 53 front and 46 rear. I left the sag where we measured and I set the clickers to what I thought would offer a good platform for spirited sportriding. I had set the tire pressures on the Perelli Diablo 3’s at 32front and 32 rear. After the first set of turns I was getting some good initial feedback and the tires were getting warm and grippy.

The great thing about getting some good initial feedback is that it clears you for the next level of riding. The next level is in part dependent on which level you started at in the first place, and I had already had some seat time on the motard including several laps at Gingerman raceway two weeks prior. On this ride I wasn’t 3 miles down the road before I scrapped the toeslider on my boat in a tight left hander. The motard was now sticking like glue. The thrust of the 1100 motor out of the turns was very impressive. I want to use words like ‘awesome’ and ‘incredible’ to describe the motor, so I am. I’ve ridden almost every Ducati 2 valve motor from the 1970’s on and this 1100 motor delivers the goods. I was pulling power wheelies in fourth gear over the rises in the asphalt. On my first short test earlier in August the bike tried to wheelie over backwards in fifth at the top of a massive hill on route 58. Check the video clip of Monday’s ride and you will see no less than 7 power wheelies in less than 2 minutes of tape. There are a couple of spots on the road where I had to let off before I wheelied right through the turn. In true motard style, I felt like I was riding a fire road on my Husqvarna 610 in Michigan’s UP.

About 10 miles in I stopped and checked the temperature of the tire and caught my breath. When Stacey caught up we chatted for a minute and I had some nice cold water. I had broken a sweat and my blood was flowing. I got back out pretty quick and took some more video. The duct tape camera mounting was working out pretty well but I needed more foam padding underneath to dampen the vibrations. The Hypermotard was having no such problems. It allowed me to go much faster than I had ever expected to go and it wasn’t just the motor. It is so nice when trick looking suspension pieces actually work. I ran the Hypermotard hard and fast into the turns and I could leave it until late on the brakes before using the leverage of the motorcross style bars to slam it into the turns. I think one might only need one of those Brembo radial calipers up front, but I’ll take them both. Seriously, they come on like a ton of bricks and now I understand what the 1098 owners are talking about. I just got used to it and then loved it.

Once I got it slowed and into the corners the Hypermotard just railed. I never slid the front or the rear Pirelli and the bike held its line, a common Ducati strength. Just as much as the suspension and chassis, the fuel injection allowed me to pick up the throttle at full lean angle without upsetting the chassis. From there I could drive it off the corners onto the next straight. Brake, lean, repeat. What still amazes me about the Hypermotard is the ability to push on the bar and get some more lean angle while still staying centered over the bike. This works so well on the radical Ducatil especially when you crack the throttle and leave all the other little motards behind. This truly is the King of SuperMotards. I carved up turn after turn on the bike and ended up at some pretty crazy lean angles in several of the corners. After reviewing the rear mounted video I am stunned by how fast very large objects disappear into the horizon, especially when the bike is leaned over quite far.

Near the end of my ride I found a series of right hand kinks that led up a short but steep hill that went blind into a tunnel of trees. At this time of night with the sun getting low it looked as if I would crest the hill and get swallowed by the darkness. I was rolling through the kinks at good speed and I knew better but I held my speed and approached the crest of the hill at neutral throttle somewhere in the middle of fourth gear. It is moments like these where my good side and bad side get into an argument. My good side, the little guy with white wings on my left shoulder, pleads with me that this is a stupid and foolish move. Yet the little red guy with the pitchfork on my right shoulder almost always wins and I’ve got the scars to prove it. As I crested the sunny side of the hill I saw the darkness coming and I was about to cross into the unknown. I think I went mad as I realized that neither of my tires were still on the ground. I can only attempt to explain the joy and relief that I felt as I was soaring in the air and then realized that I was cleared for landing. Indeed, the runway was dark, but it was farm implement free and straight as an arrow. In all honesty I must have been 2ft up and carried on in the air for about 50 or 60ft. I was so impressed with the hill that I turned around, fired up the camera, and did it two more times. Each of the next two jumps were just as crazy and intense as the first one. Someday I’d like to hit that wonderful crest in the middle of 5^th. Of course, I’d bring a cameraman and some spotters for that one.