I LOVE cars. Almost any car, in my book, is worth testing out and giving a good thrashing, in the interest of finding out how it performs under duress. I have my favorites, and I admittedly have a very high and favorable opinion of cars I will never drive, simply because, while being good cars, these aren’t for me.
I’ve been fascinated with motorcycles as well. The first time I heard an old Kawasaki Ninja roar past me while inside a car, still unable to drive, or hearing the distinct tingling of a Ducati dry clutch motorcycle as it came to a standstill, engine still idling, or a KTM’s very coarse growl as it overtook me on a mountain road in Rizal.
The fastest I’ve ever been on two wheels was at 60km/h in a Honda Dio scooter, and that felt scarier than going 280km/h on the Autobahn a few years back. I’m amazed at how some of my acquaintances such as Ducati Philippine’s own Toti Alberto and mad biker/stuntman Joby Tanseco can zoom past at crazy speeds, shrug it off as nothing, then go flat-out again as easily as it is to breathe. I’m afraid I guess, of being so open, unprotected by a cage of some sort offered by cars.
And yet, I am enamored by these two-wheeled beasts. If I ever won the lottery, I’d buy myself a couple of sport bikes for sure, then display them in a rotating pedestal in my imaginary mansion with a spotlight. Yes, even my fantasy with bikes means simply looking at them.
At the recent Ducati Diavel launch held at the M Café of the Ayala Museum, the who’s who of high society that were vaguely involved with motorcycles was present, as where hundreds of enthusiasts and media personalities. If cars and girls go hand in hand, cars and bikes are practically inseparable as scantily clad models where entertaining excited guests.
I was equally excited as well, not because of the food (it was Friday before Holy Week so for the devout Catholic in me it meant fasting and abstinence), nor was it the scantily clad models (maybe I was feeling hungry so women didn’t register in my mind), but it was the Diavel itself. As a European guest at the event said himself, the Diavel looked like sex and sin rolled into together onto two wheels!!!
The Diavel, to the non-motorcycle enthusiast’s point of view, looks awesome, futuristic, and just plain bad. If it were a person, it would be the type your parents will tell you never to hang out with. If you were a girl, you’d know the Diavel just wanted to get into your pants. It looked brutishly handsome, I just wanted to get on it and ride. The problem was, I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle.
The Diavel is a cruiser bike in terms of ease of use and comfort, but retains all the handling characteristics of a proper Ducati sport bike according to Toti Alberto, CEO of Ducati Philippines. It can lean up to as much as 55 degrees on the track, which is very much sport bike territory. The super wide 245-sectoion rear tires ensure good traction and balance as well as predictability on the street so the experience isn’t as hard-wired as that of a traditional bike. Power is from an 11-degree V-twin engine displacing 1,198 cc and generates 162hp and 94lbs-ft of torque through a 6-speed transmission. The Diavel features ride-by-wire technology with traction control, and has the Ducati signature trellis frame, but an admittedly big letdown for me was the loss of the signature dry-clutch chatter, which apparently has been removed long ago from most Ducati bikes to increase comfort and make it appealing to a broader audience.
But the Diavel is significant to me because it is the first bike I’ve seen that made me actually want to ride. I realize that the majority of new vehicle sales in the country is also in motorcycles so I have to keep up with the times and at least learn how to ride a motorcycle, properly and safely. And since I want to learn how to ride motorcycles safely, I’ll be enrolling at the Honda Safety Riding School in Bicutan soon where everyone’s been telling me to go. Ducati Diavel please wait for me!