It seems like a lifetime ago now, but once upon a time I used to be half decent on a motorbike and in 2011 I found myself racing a pretty trick Ducati 1098R for a top team in the British Superstock Championship. It was a difficult season (for reasons that we needn’t go into), but I did fall ever so slightly in love with the 1098R. Once we had got the thing set up the way we needed it, it was truly one of the best bikes I think I have ever ridden on a circuit – everything came so easily on it and the results weren’t too bad either (provided it managed to get to the end of the race without its gearbox pooing itself). It is with extremely fond memories I reminisce about my days racing in BSB, but I’m pushing 30 now and (as Dangerous Bruce and Frodo keep telling me) the pork pies and pints haven’t been kind to me, not to mention the years. But how have the years wearied the 1098, I wonder? It’s 12 years since the first ones appeared on road and the race track and although they were considered pretty cutting-edge back then, things have moved quite considerably on (especially in the Ducati camp).
Luckily for us, our mate, Steve Southwell has just bought a 1098S and said if we promise not to crash it, he’d let us take it for a spin. He paid £9,000 for his bike (don’t tell his wife) and he bloody loves it; and as soon as I clapped eyes on it I could tell why. In its ‘Tricolore’ colour scheme it really was a stunning piece of eye candy and aroused many a happy memory of the ‘R’ model I had raced in ‘11. The ‘S’ might only have the 1,099cc engine, rather than the 1,198cc lump that you get in the ‘R’ (I don’t know why they still call it a 1098), but still, I couldn’t wait to throw a leg over it and see if the big old Ducati could still do things to my soul that the screaming, space-age superbikes of today simply can’t.
When Boothy couldride.