AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDER | 51doing a yoga class. Well, a er two weeks
of riding it at every opportunity (and by
every I mean ge ing up pre-dawn on a
number of occasions just to take it for a
thrash unfe ered by bicycles, plod and
the school-run), I found that my legs had
actually got more stretchy and reaching
the ground confi dently had pre y much
ceased to be an issue. Free chiropractic
courtesy of Ducati, anyone? However,
if all this sounds a bit daunting, bear
in mind that if you’re an Umpa Lumpa
there’s an option of a 20mm lower seat
— although how they do this without
making the seat as thin as a fag-paper I
don’t know.
The good news is the bike carries its
wet weight of 194 kilos low down, and
trickling along at almost zero speed is
pre y easy, making frantic dabs for the
ground few and far between. Given the
amount of fork travel (185mm), it’s a good
idea to use the back brake only under
these circumstance to avoid constantly
changing the geometry, but it’s so well
balanced that you can happily do a feet-
up U-turn with the bars hard against
the lock-stops. Threading it through
the traffi c is also easier than you might
expect. From the saddle, the bars appear
to be wider than they are, primarily due
to the optical illusion created by the
handguards looking so bulky. In fact,
the bike fi ts through some surprisingly
narrow gaps and at least the quirky
and impractical, bar-end-mounted,
fl ip-out mirrors have gone, replaced by
conventional ones which, in a radical new
move by motorcycle designers, refl ect
more than just your elbows.
Ergonomically, the Hypermotard has
moved on in all the right ways too. The
bars are further forward and higher
up, giving more road feel than an out-
and-out dirtbike, and you no longer feel
like the headstock is up your jacksy.
The metal and rubber footpegs are also
further forward, making that crucial
rider-triangle feel just about spot on. In
fact, I especially noticed that on a long
freeway run I didn’t fi nd myself falling
into that round-backed nakedbike slouch
which is all too common and fatiguing.
The fuel tank has also been totally
redesigned, increasing its capacity by 4.6L
to a really useful 16L. The SP’s average
fuel consumption over two weeks of
5.9L/100km gives a range of about 275km
to bone dry, although you could expect
r Ohlins shock is top notch be er than that if you stuck strictly tor Not much room for anything here! is how far off the ground it is or, more to
the point, you are. I’m no short-arse, at
just under six foot, but even in a perfectly
fl at car park I could just barely get my
tiptoes on the ground. At 890mm, this is
a full 20mm taller in the saddle than the
standard version, thanks primarily to the
longer suspension. And at 2in longer than
my inside leg measurement, it is probably
at the limit of what I would want to ride
on the road. In fact, I managed to drop a
Dorsoduro a while back simply because I
stalled it doing a U-turn and couldn’t get
a foot to the fl oor — and that’s the same
height as the standard Hyper.
But here’s the thing: I was going to joke
that ge ing on and off the SP was likeMORE FOR THE ROAD
If touring is your bag but you still
want a bike that doesn’t handle
like a wheelbarrow full of water in
the twisties, take a good look at
the Hyperstrada. This is essentially
the same bike as the standard
Hypermotard but decked out in
touring gear. This includes a wider,
more comfortable seat, a windshield
and the options of hard luggage, sat-
nav and even heated grips. It also
features revised ergonomics such as
a seat height of 850mm (that’s 20mm
lower than the standard motard) and
20mm higher bars to make it even
more comfortable.►cey-
ing
ARR112_048-053_Ducati Hypermotard.indd 51ARR112_048-053_Ducati Hypermotard.indd 51 2/3/2015 9:50:10 AM2/3/2015 9:50:10 AM