How important is the sound a motorcycle makes?

Power, braking, riding position, looks, and handling. These things are discussed nearly every time a motorcycle is mentioned. But what about sound? After watching yesterday’s Dominos video, we saw this new T-Mobile video—it featured a Ducati superbike to spice up their image. The sound at the end alternated between a V-Twin and an inline four. We found it distracting and it ruined the commercial for us. Then again, we’ve made purchase decisions before based on how a bike sounds. Both our 900SS and old Honda Interceptor came into our stable thanks to their great sounds.

Here are some of our favorites (videos chosen for sound quality, please excuse the video quality).

Honda CR500 – Honda doesn’t even make a 2-stroke dirtbike of any size anymore. Used to be that thousands of woodland animals would be deafened every time a man kicked his CR500 over. They came stock with nearly 60 bhp and Robbie Knievel used his to jump five billion dollars cash at an ING bank event. Legend.

Harley Knucklehead – Harley’s pushrod twin of the 30’s and 40’s employed overhead valves, always looks like a pain to start, and emits a great noise.

Honda CBX – In our opinion, the CBX produces the best sound of any street motorcycle in history. Inline sixes always sound good, but the CBX’s shriek is unforgettable.

Ducati 916 – The tambourine dry-clutch sounds morphs into a volcanic growl as these bikes roar away. There’s something very soulful about these motors, and they are more fun to ride leisurely than their inline-four competitors.

Yamaha R6 – The R6 engine was a sensation when it debut. 15.5k rpm and nigh on 200 bhp per liter at the crank. It offers an F1-like wail as its spinning to infinity.

Aprilia RSV4 Factory – This V-four makes a great roar, even with stock pipes.

The answer for us is that a motorcycle’s sound and engine character is incredibly, unassailably important.

Annoying speakers save lives: Dominos “solves” the silent-electric-bike conundrum

Electric vehicles are gloriously quiet, which can let a hooligan get away with far more tomfoolery, and more conservative riders slip past just about unnoticed. Strangely—though understandably—that silence is a point of contention with pedestrian safety advocates, who claim that fast-moving, nearly-silent vehicles can sneak up on pedestrians, especially the blind. The expressed fear hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. Chevy’s Volt, for instance, makes a chirping sound with the headlight flashers.

A branch of Dominos pizza in the Netherlands has employed another technique: active audio engine sounds. It made us laugh, but after going to the trouble of making an electric bike, we’d celebrate its silence.

Says Wikipedia of the topic:

The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010 was approved by the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent on December 9, 2010 and passed by the House of Representatives by 379 to 30 on December 16, 2010.[2][16][17] The act does not stipulate a specific speed for the simulated noise but requires the U.S. Department of Transportation to study and establish a motor vehicle safety standard that would set requirements for an alert sound that allows blind and other pedestrians to reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicle, and the ruling must be finalized within eighteen months.[2][3] The bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011.

A remarkably accurate assessment of what it’s like to own and love a Ducati 916

Yesterday, Reuters reported that VW/Audi has agreed to purchase Ducati from InvestIndustrial—an Italian investment company—for $1.12 billion.  Many are speculating that it might be a trophy purchase for VW chairman / Ducati rider Ferdinand Piech, and we’re inclined to agree.  Piech has in the past expressed regret over not purchasing Ducati back in 1985, and after watching him build the Veyron and buy Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche, it’s no wonder he wants Ducati too.

Today, as we were researching the purchase (which can be read about here, here, and here), we were sent into rapture by a story we read on our favorite Ducati forum.  It’s by a member named JEC, and goes into great detail about what it’s like to be completely smitten with an object you’ve wanted for a decade, the pleasure of aimless rides, and the rewards of using a bike way beyond what it was designed to do.  We read his story from start to finish, and it captures the feeling of owning and using an exotic motorcycle as well as any piece of writing we’ve ever come across.

Here’s are a few passages:

When I began riding Ducatis were the pinnacle for me. They weren’t at the top of the game like they are today. They were still the weird choice, the oddball bikes for riders who craved something distinctive and soulful in a sea of dull cookie-cutter mass-produced sportbikes. They were exotic, beautiful, and always different. Among die-hard Japanese sport bikers, they were idiotic machines that were fragile and expensive to maintain. If you wanted one, like I did, you had something wrong with your priorities. Who would pay so much money for an unreliable, high maintenance, slow bike? That’s what I heard time and time again from my compatriots. When I finally did buy the 916 I was ridiculed and put down for my irrational choice. So I stopped hanging around that crowd.

Today the general attitude has changed a lot. Ducati went from being a boutique brand to a small powerhouse that produces world-beating machines that are far more affordable than they were back in the 90s. Brand awareness is far higher than it used to be, and desire for the product has gone up to match. Their latest superbikes can and will go toe-to-toe with the latest four cylinder rockets. They’ve improved quality and reliability immensely, to the point where a Ducati is no longer any more difficult or expensive to run than anything else on the road.

In other words, they got boring.

—

There is something particular about these early desmoquattros that makes them incredibly endearing. It’s not polish – it’s the exact opposite. They are rough. Raw. Visceral. They feel like a barely contained fury that requires – demands – your full attention at all times. They are not easy bikes to ride. I find most modern sportbikes are point-and-squirt machines. They insulate the rider from the road, doing most of the work for him or her. They handle, accelerate and brake effortlessly. When they bite back, they do it suddenly and violently, usually after you have unwittingly exceeded a certain threshold. The 916 is not like that. It speaks to you and progressively communicates the limits. But you have to work with the bike to get the best out of it.

Most riders probably won’t appreciate this. In fact it can be tiring, if you start to get lazy and stop focussing on the precision of your inputs it tends to punish you with rough response. The handling is slow and stable, which means it is absolutely planted but if you don’t make firm inputs it tends to under steer and run wide. The power band is not as broad as you would expect and you have to keep it on the boil to keep the motor happy – she does not like being lugged in a high gear. The brakes are wooden at the front, nonexistent at the rear, and you need to be firm with the lever to get them to work properly. All of this translates to a rather old-fashioned experience. This is not a modern machine. It requires effort to ride properly, and if you aren’t committed you won’t have fun.

To the uninitiated this all probably sounds like damning stuff. How did such a machine become so legendary? Well, it’s only part of the story. All of those rough qualities are what makes the 916 so entertaining to ride. You feel connected to the machine in a way that is becoming less common in this age of electronic doohickery, with ABS, traction control, and stability programs getting integrated into our ever-faster machines. The 916 is a pure experience, one that isn’t dulled by any assistance. It also give remarkable feedback to the rider, something that is hard to describe and even harder to find in other machines. There is some perfect combination of chassis flex and suspension function that translates the grip and action of the wheels directly to the rider. You just know what the bike is doing at all time. You can feel what is happening under the wheels, with gentle sensations being channelled up into the palms of your hands and the seat of your pants. If I were to summarize the uniqueness of the 916 in one quality, it would be that sensation of feedback. Everything else feels numb in comparison.

Read the rest on ducati.ms

2012 Victory Cross Country Tour: First impressions

The white Cross Country Tour will be our loyal companion over the next few months. We picked it up last weekend from the folks at Rollin’ Fast in Lebanon NJ, and immediately packed it up and were on our way.

The Cross Country Tour is an updated Cross Country with a topcase, taller windshield, and better passenger accommodations. It also has a creative new wind-management system with movable air deflectors on the upper fairing and a new, wide lower fairing with panels that swivel open. On the highway, you can move them around to vary the airflow to the rider—from nearly still to windy as heck. It really does make a dramatic difference, and along with the heated grips and seat makes the Tour a great companion in all temperatures. The riding position is the same as the Cross Country, with a comfy, low seat and forward-controls at the front of long footboards.

Compared to the Ducati we rode to Rollin’ Fast, the Tour is seriously imposing. It weighs twice as much as the Duc, but is immeasurably more comfortable for passenger and a good deal more comfortable for the rider. Two people could go on a very long trip on this bike in total comfort, and bring everything they need in the stock storage compartments.

The saddlebags and topcase easily swallowed all our bags. It certainly has a lot more storage than the Goldwing GL1800 we rode in December. The trunk can take two XL full-face helmets, and we love that the saddlebag lids cover the top rather than the side of the bags. It gets better. The topcase has a 12V outlet and the bike comes with custom soft bags that fit perfectly inside each case—no more guessing how much you can pack. The only thing we missed was central locking—locking the three main storage compartments can get tiresome after a while. The two triangular-subfairings that make up part of Victory’s new wind-management system are little storage compartments too.

In a freak event, the visor had ripped of our helmet on the way to pick up the Victory, and so the wind protection afforded by the fairing and screen made the ride north to New Paltz a pleasure rather than a nightmare. The 106 Freedom 50-degree V-Twin is tame at idle with the stock pipes, transitions to a vintage biplane roar under acceleration, and is unobtrusive at speed.

Normally, we tolerate highways since they take us to nicer roads, but the Tour made the highway to New Paltz quite enjoyable. We rode waves of torque through bunches of cars, played with the radio, and enjoyed the heated grips and seat.

People both in the country and in New York City love this bike—every time we park it, someone else comes up to comment on the cool combination of it’s mix of classic and futuristic lines. It’s been a blast to ride so far and we can’t wait to take it on some longer rides.

Victory Cross Country Tour

The results are in! Our Used Oil Analysis

Blackstone labs sent us an email earlier this week with the results of our used oil analysis.   Last week we’d sent them a little pot of used Shell Rotella T6 5w40 that we’d drained from our Ducati 900SS.

Here are the results:

What does that all mean?  In our case,  the iron, copper, and tin values might be slightly high.  The website details the engine parts which bits are made of what, to give you an idea of what engine parts might be wearing at a rapid rate.

Iron: Cylinders, rotating shafts, valve train, any steel parts

Copper: Brass or bronze parts, copper bushings, bearings, oil coolers, and an additive in some oils

Tin: Bearings, bronze parts, piston casings.

Click here and then click Gas / Diesel Report for an explanation of what each of the different contaminants mean.

Are we worried?  Not especially.  We’re going with a thicker oil for the summer, and will do another analysis after a few thousand miles.  It is sure interesting to have an idea of what might be going wrong with an engine before it shows any symptoms, and is definitely worth the $25 it takes to get one for your bike.

Learn lots more about Used Oil Analysis at the motorcycle forums of Bob is the Oil Guy