Ducati Streetfighter Premiere Report – Part I
After much anticipation, finally, the Ducati Streetfighter arrived in North American dealerships over the weekend. ducatinewstoday attended two events in Atlanta hosted by Atlanta Motor World and Ducati Motorcycles of Atlanta. Read on for Part I of the report.
On Friday evening, Atlanta Motor World hosted a private pre-launch reception that included members of the local official Ducati Club, Wild Ducs. Bikes were in short supply with 6 on order in the first batch already pre-sold, but there was a beautiful, black Ducati Streetfighter S model on display with some of the modifications that buyers will certainly make already installed, namely the full termignoni exhaust system and carbon fiber open clutch cover to let the rattle out!
The dealer President told me that they had received the termi system just in time to fit it for the premiere and everyone agreed the only aftermarket system that maintains the factory Ducati warranty sounded great, but you be the judge from the clip below or listening to the Ducati Streetfighter roar!
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to ride the bike due to my current injury but I could at least sit on it. The riding position was not what I expected, feeling very similar to the new Monster 1100 with the bars placed much closer to the rider than on my Monster S4Rs making it less of an arm stretch. Your torso is still canted forward (with a claimed 155 bhp this is probably to stop the rider falling off the back!) but the pegs feel quite low so the position is pretty comfortable and obviously nothing like the torture rack of the superbike models. Nevertheless I expected a slightly more aggressive posture on the bike but I have nothing against being comfortable.
The black bike looked simply stunning. In the pictures that have been available so far, the black didn’t photograph too well making it hard to clearly see the lines of the bike. The Streetfighter is handsome but not beautiful, more of a Aprilia Tuono approach than the Monster that came before it but stopping short of simply ripping the bodywork off of the 1098. The color is a dark, metallic grey (all the rage on the 5-series Bimmer don’t you know) and it really sets off the frame, wheels and the gold Ohlins forks. The termignoni exhaust is a huge improvement on the bulbous stock canisters with much smaller mufflers that have a trapezoidal cross section that I thought looked pretty good.
I ended up liking the Streetfighter even more than I expected and it was great to see so much interest in a naked bike, a class that is very popular in Europe but much less so in the USA. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and check out Part II where I take a look at a red, base model Ducati Streetfighter.
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