2016 Ducati 1299 (base) Review

JT · Oct 1, 2015

Just out of interest has the 1299 got the same electronics on the throttle etc, same as your 899 that caused the issues. Just wondering if this restricted the way you rode at all.
Also your review has made me what to go test ride one, like now....
My 675 is at home I'm at work so the beast can't hear me swear... Sshhh

Burndownthediscos · Oct 2, 2015

JT said: ↑

Just out of interest has the 1299 got the same electronics on the throttle etc, same as your 899 that caused the issues. Just wondering if this restricted the way you rode at all.
Also your review has made me what to go test ride one, like now....
My 675 is at home I'm at work so the beast can't hear me swear... Sshhh
Click to expand...

It has more electronics than the 899. My 899 is apparently fixed according to Ducati just waiting to find out what the exact cause was and what parts were changed. It was all electric stuff i know that!

Burndownthediscos · Oct 2, 2015

Rode to work this morning. Misty, 5 degrees on the dash. 1299 felt great. Solid and smooth. Engine heat was a nice little fire to keep me toasty. Other than the price the only thing i don't like is the mirrors, they are useless. No damping in them at all so they vibrate like mad.

Sadly it's going back to the dealers today and then i have some deciding to do. I don't need that power, nobody does! But just prowling around on that thing makes you feel like you won't mind the money leaving your account each month. Any decision will be made as soon as i hear my 899 fired up again. I think I'll know straight away if i'll ever trust it again enough to keep it.

I also ride all year so the thought of treating the 1299 to a winter of salt and shit actually makes me understand completely why you would have a scooter or scrambler if you could afford both!

volant · Oct 2, 2015

You can afford both! My scooter cost me £1000, costs £40 a year to insure (in London!) and £13 a year road tax.

65mph more than enough for the commute. And a tucano urbano leg cover and bar mitts, plus heated grips makes it a pleasant place to be.

Well over 100mpg made sure of its financial worth...

I laughed a scooters for so many years, now (I'm sure you've all noticed!) I can't sing their praises enough.

Keep the duke for the nice days!

mhuh85 · Oct 27, 2015

Burndownthediscos said: ↑

It's the next chapter in my review the entire Ducati range whilst my 899 is in for major surgery!

Reviews will be forthcoming for most of the newer bikes i try just to give you guys some thoughts. So far i have tried Monster 1200S Stripe, Monster 696, 1299s and 1299, Scrambler Icon (with panniers), 2016 Multistrada.

To say i am gutted about the fate that has befallen my 899 is an understatement. However a deep down feeling (and family request) that we never dance again is quite hard to ignore even with Ducati's finest looking after my 899. Every cloud has a silver lining and the dealers are doing their part by letting me use loan bikes.

I digress.

I was handed the keys to a 65 plate 1299 base with 7 miles on it. Between riding away from dealers at 2:30pm yesterday and now, i've stuck 88 miles on it. Slowly at first to scrub in the Supercorsa SPs it's shod with.

Let's sort the bad out quickly:

1) Price. No getting around the fact that near £17k for a bike is obscene, and too much for any sensible person to invest in a vehicle that can't carry any other members of your family in standard trim. But, i guess that's why PCP exists. So us youngsters can carry on saving for obscene house deposits whilst still being able to swing a leg over a machine like this. My Dad hates PCP, but then his 4 bedroom house cost him £15k.

2) Heat. It's less than the 1199 equal to the 899. Lovely in late autumn and winter. It's fine when you are moving but if you sit still a lot in traffic you will sweat.

Ok so the good! For me bikes are an emotional thing. Yes i can rationalise aspects of their performance and put them into words, but for me bikes have always conjured up feelings and possibly bizarrely music in my head. Whilst i'm riding i genuinely hear music in my head. Maybe that makes me a dick and it's a bit wanky, i don't know, but before you read any further this is what the 1299 conjured up in my head and to me it encapsulates that moment when you and a bike just click.

Play the song when prompted at point 9.

1) The bike looks incredible, the finish is a step above the 899/1199. Little touches like the shiny decals under lacquer, thicker paint and the little rubber cable holders instead of cable ties. It smells incredible when brand new and when you start it up the noise is unreal. I would even go as far to say offensive. But, offensive in that way you are drawn in by it. There's some of the old Ducati rattle back in there at tick over. It's really fucking loud with oem cans, really loud! Not sure how it will get on trackdays to be honest.

2) When you sit on it, it feels taught, solid, poised. The bars are narrower than the 899 and the grips feel like they have more girth to them. It all adds to the feeling that you are sitting on a actual live, musclebound, snarling beast. Not Raa Raa the Lion, more like those Lions a Roman Emperor would have. Just like on the chocolate bar.

3) The dash is great. Bright and colourful with loads of info. In race mode (why bother with any other mode?) you get a lap timer and lean angle indicator as default. Settings are displayed for traction control, engine braking control, wheelie control, quickshifter up AND DOWN, ABS etc. All easy to adjust.

4) The ride is solid, firm but somehow compliant. I imagine it's on standard settings which you can relax them a bit to comfort setting if you wish. So far i do not wish to do this. I've ridden the S last week for about an hour and it doesn't perform any better than the base. Maybe on track when really turned up a notch it comes into its own but the base is fine.

5) Fuelling - its monumental. Better than my 899, better than any bike i have ever ridden. Each mode it's smooth from the off and easy to filter through traffic. When you are getting a lick on and roll off the throttle there's nothing but buttery smooth motion keeping the bike completely composed. The WET mode is akin to riding an 899 in Sport I would say. The fuelling withstood the multi-storey car park climb and descent test without any chugging or hunting. The clutch is also lighter than on the 899 and 1199. I think the 1299 may be easier to commute on than the 899!

6) Engine - what can i say other than wow. It's completely unnecessary for any public road on any given day but at that same time it's an absolute joy to experience. The torque in the lower gears, the explosion of speed could probably rip the lacquer off your helmet. It's something you need to experience at least once.

7) Gearbox, Slipper, Quickshifter/ Auto Blipper - This needs it's own section. I used to be in awe of my 899 gearbox. The gearbox on the 1299 is a class above and beyond. Simply put, beautiful. How they have made it so smooth when it’s housed in that snarling engine is beyond me. Shifting up through the gears in race mode with the throttle pinned and letting wheelie control just hover the front, is probably one of the biggest thrills I’ve had on a sportsbike. Ever!
You literally then can’t believe the joy when you then just shut the throttle and stamp down through the gears. How good are you at blipping and changing down? Not as good as the auto blipper I bet. I could practice for years and never get this smooth, this composed. If you ride one, go seek out a string of roundabouts and feel for yourself. The slipper clutch adds to the composure and within about 40 miles of riding familiar roads I was braking way later, changing down smoothly and quickly before carving round the corners. People will bemoan the advance of electronics, hell they even nearly undid me on the 899. But being able to ride, brake hard, change down in an instant without the bike twitching or protesting means you can pick a good line, concentrate on braking and ride through corners smoothly, before thundering to the next one. In essence it gives you more time to concentrate on going around the corner.

8) A quick word on tyres. Supercorsa SPs. Brand new on a £17k bike, twisty roads, damp patches. Normally sphincter tightening. I think Pirelli have done some work on these bad boys as the feedback even when new is stunning, just stunning. Better grip everywhere. Over damp patches with no twitches, no protests. Just that beautiful glued to the ground feeling. That was even this morning coming over misty roads with dew on the ground. And that leads me onto-

9) Chassis – It was somewhere around the 56th mile and a few laps of 3 connected roundabouts before heading off into the twisty moor roads where I live. I accelerated off up the road.

You can start the song now.

You are now probably listening to The Legend of Ashitaka, thinking what is this bellend on??

This is the sound of a 1299 in my head. You hear those ominous cellos and clarinets? That’s the 1299 accelerating to light speed (or thereabouts). Me thinking shit this is fast! Now you’re 40 seconds in just as the rest of the strings come in. This is the warm feeling of astonishment that washed over me as I braked; stamped down through the gears and tipped into the first of a 6-mile series of twisty and flip flop bends. Those string rises? That’s me falling in love with the chassis of this bike. Nothing i've ever ridden turns in quite like this, nothing is as composed as this at lean,and at this speed.
Left, right, left. Open the throttle you’re flying, this bike cannot be this good? Can it?!
Two minutes in, that’s me oblivious to the explosion of revs and noise around me, feeling absolutely relaxed. Pondering what I’ve just done, what I’m doing as I’m flying towards the next set of bends. Riding this bike must look and sound so violent to the outside world. People must look on thinking: that is insane. In reality it’s calm, serene, Jesus it’s even beautiful!
2 minutes 58 that’s the realisation that I can literally feel the road surface through my hands, feet and buttocks. 3 minutes 44 that’s the tight, right hand, 90 degree bend approaching and the ferocious brembo brakes pulling this thing back to 1st gear from 5th, no protests, no holding of breath. I decide to turn in later than on my 899, I flop it over, 48 degrees of lean on the dash. New Supercorsas this is insane, open the throttle and its rampages away.
The trumpet fanfare that’s me realising Ducati have packaged all the theatre, all the insanity, all the quirks they are known for, into this one machine and made it flipping rideable. It’s now about 4 minutes 35 seconds and I’m riding over the top straight slowing down, bewildered inside my helmet. Special, really, really, really special.

Astonishing.

10) Some other assorted notes. I had a chance to try the cornering ABS out when a jeep pulled out of a side road on me. It was never a dangerous situation. Nevertheless having the knowledge of it and being able to brake whilst still cornering was a great feeling. It's a slightly strange feeling as you wonder why the bike isn't standing up.

If the new 959 is this bike with a little less top end it will be a weapon on the road.

There aren't many better ways to test rapidnessness and agility than overtake a Porsche Carrera GT and leave them for dust, even when the driver is in a racy mood.
Click to expand...

This just makes my write up look bad from earlier today... Lol. Think I've got my work cut out for me....
I'd have to retry.

I will write up my s1000rr review soon.
I am visiting the Berlin mottarrad factory in 2 weeks. Anyone is welcome. But would be a good chilly ride for a good test of my new beemer.

Lenny675 · Oct 28, 2015

I think you should send Ducati a link to your reviewing ability mate & see if theirs budget to use you a daily reviewer, your views are clearly honest & none biased, I think a genuine every riding reviewer that people can relate to & believe is brilliant marketing.
Seriously thanks for a brill write up their, time well spent reading rather than getting up for work

Rossgo · Oct 28, 2015

Lenny brilliant idea. Or write to fast bikes and ask if they need a new journo?!

Burndownthediscos · Oct 28, 2015

Cheers guys in thinking of gathering them all into a blog on my website and just trying to promote the blog more.

Burndownthediscos · Oct 28, 2015

Big update in first post

Stu675 · Oct 28, 2015

Burndownthediscos said: ↑

Big update in first post
Click to expand...

I can't see what's changed?

Rossgo · Oct 29, 2015

Stu675 said: ↑

I can't see what's changed?
Click to expand...

Stu scroll down and your notice the date in big bold numbers
28/20/15
BDTD has added more.

I haven't managed to read it yet as it is a big chunk of text!

Rossgo · Oct 29, 2015

Have just read your new part of your transcript! Absolutely incredible. The music (if you could call it that!!) sounds brilliant, excellent feeling you get imagining your electrics doing the work!!

Stu675 · Oct 29, 2015

Rossgo said: ↑

Stu scroll down and your notice the date in big bold numbers
28/20/15
BDTD has added more.

I haven't managed to read it yet as it is a big chunk of text!
Click to expand...

Yup. Wasn't showing before for some reason.

Rossgo · Oct 29, 2015

It's a great write up glad its showing now mate

Phill748 · Oct 29, 2015

The write up's are good mate, the only thing to consider if you are pitching at a Mag is to stick to one 'tone' for example I think if you want to talk in detail about every day experiences, it needs to focus on practicalities, running costs, all that stuff that will appeal to that type of reader. I guess what I am saying is don't try to cover 'all' the basis and risk not hitting the sweet spot.

allpag44 · Oct 29, 2015

Great review. Interesting, informative and very well written.

Burndownthediscos · Oct 29, 2015

Another note added about this mornings jolly!

Thanks again for the advice and encouragement guys.

Red675 · Oct 29, 2015

ive found you a paint scheme for the new wheels mate, no need to thank me

cpszx · Oct 29, 2015

painted to match his bbq calor gas canister? now thats commitment

Red675 · Oct 29, 2015

lol this is what the chap in question had to say for himself

"Motorrad", Europe´s biggest Motorcycle Magazine wrote 4 pages about my bike. The design is based on "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". And an art magazine wrote also about it.

presumably about how not to decorate an 889

2016 Ducati 1299 (base) Review

JT

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

volant

mhuh85

Lenny675

Rossgo

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Stu675

Rossgo

Rossgo

Stu675

Rossgo

Phill748

allpag44

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Red675

cpszx

Red675

Share This Page

Quick Nav

2016 Ducati 1299 (base) Review

Burndownthediscos Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos Thread Starter

Share This Page

Quick Nav

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter

Burndownthediscos
Thread Starter