Not even sure if Virginroadrider still reads his post?
"You want the truth. You can't handle the truth?"-Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men
Okay, in '02 I was you. Just finished MSF and couldn't wait to go and take my written test and have that M license in hand. I was so excited and felt ready to ride anything my heart desired. I rationalized a 2k ZX-6R was the same bike selling in '02, why not save some cash and get a 2K and a 600 supersport bike would be ideal to learn on since I just learned on 125cc training bike.
Here's the reality. I took my money n got on ZX-6R and thought it would be just like that training bike experience. Uh.........NOT. I went for that POF and it started to buck like a horse, I gave it throttle and it shot forward faster than I could say sh...grabbed clutch and she disengaged and started to coast straight towards a garage door. So I grabbed a handful of front brake and slammed forward onto the tank all the while I tried to put my feet down and ended looking like a dork trying to foot stop a 400lb angry bucking motorcycle. After that event, I was like what a huge mistake.
I then resolved myself to riding around the neighborhood for about a month, going under 40 mph to get acclimated to the amount power available at the smallest increment of throttle. Learned how throttle can push you wide or how pulling clutch can make slow manuevers smoother, etc.
Now that was a 600...a 1098 is 1100 cc with just about twice the torque, will stall with too little throttle, will lift the front end with the amount of twist you gave that 125-250cc in MSF, and will brake harder than anything you have ridden or drove (caged) in.
The reality is the 1098 is whole lot of bike with 150 hp and race-ready/track style brakes. You will fall in love with the bike, but only after you can fully appreciate what it can do and do oh so gosh darn well.
Bro, to SAVE you from hurting yourself and your pocket, I suggest you get:
1. a preowned sportbike (beater six or early SV650) so you can drop it and learn from it instead of trippin that your gonna have spend a ISH load of cash on ducati plastics, levers, rearsets,etc
2. with your beater six, spend as little as $1500 if you can on a FULLY functional bike. translated to not having the captions of: needs some minor engine work, brakes are ok, ISH like that. You will find a ton of responsible riders selling their previous pride and joy now that they just bought a 848/1098 LOL.
3. Ride safe and get used the flow of riding. Then get yourself riding with some experienced responsible riders and ride in a group situation to build your confidence.
4. After all this, once you can HONESTLY say you can ride a sportbike down to the edges of the tire (chicken strips) Run with all that cash you saved over a couple of months and buy that 1098s. You then will fully and completely realize and appreciate what a 1098, what a Ducati does so well.
A 1098 is bike that really comes into its own when you ride it aggressively. The harder you ride it the more rewarding it is. You TRULY will not be ready to step up to this amount of torque right off the bat and 100hp of the 150 is available at under 5000rpm in a short first and second gear. I am not saying you cannot adapt over time, but for sure...for sure within that timeframe you will drop the bike, 1098 or not, either doing a u-turn, or some slow speed manuever, or some car in front of you brakes suddenly and you grab your front binders too hard and pull clutch, and come to an abrupt stop faster than you expected....and there you go. It's now time to pick up the bike and do your damage assessment walkaround of the bike and checking of your limbs.
I want you to own a 1098 and know what we all love about this extraordinary bike and the ownership experience that is so enjoyable.
But you should learn on that beginner bike, beater, smaller cc, etc bike so that you can truly enjoy a 1098 and enjoy yourself not having a learning curve higher than your head.
When you ready for the 1098, everyone here will congratulate you to 9th degree and you can take pride that you learned to ride and now ride the best big liter bike to own.
-DJ
