SeekingFire Ducati Blog
First Impressions: The Engine
October 01, 2007
We all love Torque, and some of us have taken it straight over the high side from time to time—and there is always Pain in that... But there is also Fun, the deadly element, and Fun is what you get when you screw this monster on. BOOM! Instant take-off, no screeching or squawking around like a fool with your teeth clamping down on our tongue and your mind completely empty of everything but fear.
No. This bugger digs right in and shoots you straight down the pipe, for good or ill.
On my first take-off, I hit second gear and went through the speed limit on a two-lane blacktop highway full of ranch traffic. By the time I went up to third, I was going 75 and the tach was barely above 4000 rpm....
And that's when it got its second wind. From 4000 to 6000 in third will take you from 75 mph to 95 in two seconds—and after that, Bubba, you still have fourth, fifth, and sixth. Ho, ho.
I never got to sixth gear, and I didn't get deep into fifth. This is a shameful admission for a full-bore Cafe Racer, but let me tell you something, old sport: This motorcycle is simply too goddamn fast to ride at speed in any kind of normal road traffic unless you're ready to go straight down the centerline with your nuts on fire and a silent scream in your throat.
The goal of both the Suzuki and Ducati engine designers was to use fat gobs of torque instead of a top-end rush to provide their adrenaline thrill, prompting the rider to surf the midrange. But... wow, what a difference. The two bikes go about it in entirely different ways: the Ducati has a large fuel-injected water-cooled single-cam 3-valve desmodromic L-twin whereas the Suzuki has a large air/oil-cooled carbureted dual-cam 4-valve inline-4. The basic engine designs are worlds apart. In terms of design commonalities, well... they’re both “liter bikes” and chain driven, that’s about it.
[PIC of the engine]
The sound [link to MP3] is one difference that’s immediately apparent even to non-gearheads. The top-end makes intriguing intake and desmo sounds (without the whir of a cam chain) and the grumbling in the pipes is simply delicious. I have to admit that at first I was nervous about having the Ducati Performance carbon fiber pipes for in-town use. They’re noticeable louder than the Bandit’s stock pipes. I think that the sound is quieter and less “menacing” than the pipes fitted to many cruisers as there’s no bark to it and the cadence is smoother—the balanced 90-degree twin at work, no doubt. People sometimes turn and look when I ride by, but they seem curious rather than startled. After spending about 2500 kilometers with it I’ve become comfortable with the noise level and love the sound that it makes but I’m still careful with the throttle in town.
One thing that I noticed right away is that the Ducati has a stronger engine braking effect. I'm learning to be a bit more smooth when closing the throttle to avoid immediate fork dive. The Ducati also feels like it "digs in" more and I haven't been able to get the rear tire to step out at all, even when riding on cold tires.
In terms of power, the ST3 is rated for slightly more horsepower and about the same amount of torque as the Bandit. It’s true that it's delivered differently, but it’s less different than I expected (if that makes sense). I expected the L-twin mill to feel "lumpy" like a narrow-angle V-twin (it's not) yet feel peaky in power delivery (it's not, effective range is 4000 to 8000 RPM). The Bandit had more solid low-end torque numbers than many 4-inline engines and was geared to take advantage of it. The ST3 has an extra gear but feels like it has tighter spacing. The big air/oil cooled engine in the Suzuki didn't like being held near redline for long as everything would become uncomfortably buzzy starting around 7500 RPM (redline was 10500). Below that it was very smooth, almost electric feeling.[Link to gearing calc spreadsheet on ducati.ms, show screenshot, mention the lower profile tires on my bike]
Tires are Dunlop Battleaxe 020s with the rear being 170mm/55%. These are the same tires I've run several times on my Bandit and based on my experiences there the tires last and stick well enough. I've done some reading on the Ducati.ms forum to see what other riders are using and I think I'll try a set of Pirelli Diablo Stradas next. You could describe the feeling of hard acceleration on the Bandit as "spooling up" where the ST3 feels more like an "unleashing" and has a more earthy and visceral feeling to it. The Ducati throbs instead of buzzs when under load and will bounce off the rev limiter at will (though there’s no real gain in power for the last 1500 RPM). It also feels like the Duck is rev-limited due to constricted flow at high RPM rather than by any need to protect the engine. Aside from the difference in feel, performance is nearly identical with quarter mile times of 11.7 (source) versus 11.5 seconds (source: motorcyclistonline.com performance data), and power-to-weight ratio of 0.5205 HP/kg versus 0.4395 HP/kg (both stats from bikez.com).[Show a dyno chart]
