QUIKSPIN: Ducati Hypermotard 796 - Hyper Activity

I’ve learnt to love Ducati’s 796 Hypermotard. Initially I found it a demanding ride that I could take or leave, but its character, personality and idiosyncrasies won me over in the end.

The bike came about after Ducati took a model that was then a very radical deviation from its core model line-up, a bike that was pure hoon – an aggressively-styled, large-capacity, lightweight supermotard powered by V-twin hostility – and toned it down to a lower, even-lighter, manageable hoon bike by replacing the 1100cc V-twin with a newly-designed 796cc version.

Many expected the baby version to be more like a boring version, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If anything, the 796cc is more suited to the style of bike and really allows you to carve up the urban circuit, sling-shotting yourself from point A to point B with sheer childish glee.

Glee, mind, which only comes after you’ve patiently waited for the thing to decide it’s warm enough to cooperate. For a current model, fuel injected bike with electronic brains, it’s a frustrating trait. And, as I found out on a cold, damp morning, adrenaline inducing – I had the rear wheel try to pass the front, while I was out of the seat with my legs level with my head. Awake!

There is an exhaust leak on the testbike – which could very well throw out the sensors and effect the idle – but Ducati did give us the heads-up on collection, so it must be an inherent idiosyncrasy in some form. And that’s okay, ’cos if you want a boring, predictable motorcycle the Hyper ain’t for you. Its long narrow dirtbike-like seat allows you to sit right up near the ’bars when you’re punting wideeyed through the fun stuff, and becomes wider and plusher further back when you want to take things a bit easier.

The engine is a blast in the low- to mid-range, there’s plenty of torque on hand there (67Nm, claimed), but is at its happiest in the mid- to highrange where it smooths out and doesn’t want to shunt you around the place constantly working the six-speed gearbox for the right cog.

The non-adjustable 43mm upside-down fork feels solid and predictable and the fully-adjustable rear shock does a great job with plenty of feedback. The pair of radial-mounted four-piston Brembos do a remarkable job of pulling up the sub-170kg (dry) bike, matched with the rear which is surprisingly effective.

Many people baulk at the ’bar-end foldable mirrors which widen the bike significantly in traffic, but I grew to love being able to slap them closed whenever I needed to – simply not an option on many other machines.

Its raw styling suits it to a tee – the matt black, the carbon-fibre hugger, its beaked nose, the independently-mounted taillight that looks like an after-thought just oozes the Hypermotard soul, and that Italian-branded tank joins in to give you a bike that exudes far more than its price tag suggests.