Roland Sands Ducati Desmosedici Dirt Tracker
Roland Sands Ducati Desmosedici Dirt Tracker | |
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RSD Desmosedici Dirt Tracker
Cycle
World. review
We do get to throw our leg over some pretty
blue-groovy motorcycles here at Cycle World
(the Greggs Customs R1 comes to mind), but even that seems a bit tame compared
to the Ducati Desmosedici Street Tracker Roland Sands cooked up. (Matter of
fact, the Greggs bike helped inspire the Desmo.) When we got wind of this
build, a little persistent pressure got us in on the ground floorthat and the
fact that Roland and yours truly go way back
into the mists of the early 90s at Willow Springs, and share an addiction for
sideways cycling.
We had high hopes of rolling the bike out for its
debut at the Indy Mile this past August, but that race was, sadly, cancelled,
and a more modest plan evolved to get in some laps at the classic Ventura County
Raceway, right on the beach in SoCal. Seeing as how
went to all the trouble to make this bike road legal (and since thats
where owner Justyn Amstutz says hell be riding it a lot), I also took it for a
little shakedown cruise on the street.
On public roads, this Ducati turns heads with its
classic livery and outright UFO appealand it stretched my neck with its 990cc
V-Four GP-bike performance. It stretched my ear canals too: The D16RR desmo
scream echoing off Venturas coastal foothills raised quite a racket. (Hearing
it from the patio of Rustys Pizza on Main Street below, lucky owner Amstutz,
builders Roland Sands and Welding Rodney Aguiar, and Thirdwheel John Burns
wouldve sworn there was some sort of offshore powerboat race going on if they
hadnt known better.) Dirty Ducs midrange feels comparable to what your typical
liter-bike makes at peak, and it just keeps building till 14,200 rpm. If you
were waiting for the rev limiter to arrest-hook your wheelie, its a good idea
to have a back-up plan and your right foot covering the brake. On the other
hand, thanks to upright ergos and the wide Fatbar, its comfortable to ride and
easy to keep between the curbs around town; short-shifting keeps the decibels
down to a dull roar no louder than a brace of open-piped Harleys.
Hopping the 101 freeway to the Ventura
Fairgrounds is a trip back in timeand its also time for the hard work to
begin. How will this untested $200k, 200-horsepower Duc of dirt work with a
fraction of traction? The vision Id been falling asleep to for weeks prior
involved hucking the Duc into smooth dirt corners and letting those ponies eat
their way grazefully out of the exitsbut
when we rolled up, the 1/5-mile oval was in sad shape, with a wavy surface and
clay balls of various sizes, from pea to bowling, everywhere.
But, okay, the photographers and crew were all
there along with Roland and the others, so what was I gonna do? Theres a reason
why the oldest bike in flat tracking (H-D XR-750) is usually the best; these
things take years to develop, and its very much
not all about horsepower. With very little flywheel, enough power for two
very stout flat-track bikes, suspension on its maiden voyage and a track like a
marble factory killing floor, the bike was a handful and Im amazed I made it
around as many laps as I did. And thats all Ive got to say about that.
On a bigger, faster, perfectly prepped track like
the Indy or Springfield Mile, it mightve been a different, more graceful story.
But cooped up on Venturas treacherous short track, Desmo Ds massive potential,
Im sad to admit, went mostly untapped. Having said that, the show must go on,
and I did give the bird my best shot.
Anyway, dirt-track glory or no, there really and
truly is nothing else on the street that flies like this RSD Desmo Street
Trackerand after watching his big-ticket Ducati flash repeatedly before his
eyes, thats where Justyn Amstutz says the Dirty Bird will be indigenous from
now on. (Hell change his mind, eventually.)
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