A thick early morning marine layer is hanging just a few feet above the coast as I whip through another mile of twisting euphoria. Each consecutive series of corners comes flying at me in a rapid succession that almost seems implausible and yet it's not. Because it's happening right before my eyes and even though I can't quite believe it's real, I know it is. Driving hard out of the turn I peer ahead and as soon as I'm able to focus on the next corner, it becomes the last corner. Gone. Just like that. Consumed in a remarkably easy singular motion that only comes forth when you realize that you're not just out riding, you're hunting a form of ecstasy.
With my heart pounding and a trace of sweat covering my brow, I swoop from corner to corner in an effortless advance. It's one part bodysteering, a touch of countersteering and a dash of sliding off the saddle. The perfect recipe for an easygoing graceful yet utterly sporty early morning adventure. The kind of exploration that allows you to do as much or as little work as you want and still enjoy the ride to exactly the same degree.
By the time I finally pull up to a stoplight in Malibu after miles of full tilt swooping satisfaction it's nice to finally take a breather - even if that breather includes a mouth full of sea salt. Sliding the bike into neutral, I turn my attention to a group of wetsuit-clad surfers who are crossing the street and staring. They have no idea exactly how much fun I've already had before even tasting a sip of coffee this morning. Of course right now I'm not even visible on their radar. In the lane to my right stands a piece of heavy metal auto lust, a brand new Aston Martin DB9 and it's luring every set of available eyes towards it.
Like most of the greater Los Angeles region, Malibu offers an almost crazy perspective when it comes to cars. Around here what you drive is far more important to some people than just about anything else in life. People will live in shacks but throw down serious amounts of coin for their automobiles, all in the name of personal illusion. Yet while perception is the rule around here, right now I can't help but feel like there's a certain kind of pleasure that comes from being the forgotten man. The lost member of the moto lust crowd. It's the kind of gratification that can only come from knowing that you've been let in on the big secret and nobody else has...
A secret called the Ducati ST3S with ABS.
It's not the fastest motorcycle in the world or the most exclusive, but it's certainly one of the most multifaceted. As I watch the heat on the DB9 continue to grow, I can't help but smile. When was the last time you swung your leg over an Italian motorcycle and enjoyed being the sleeper in the crowd? When the light finally turns green one roar is all it takes to make the point. While you don't need to exceed at business to ride this bike, the bike itself is nothing but business when it comes to riding.
At this point I'm nearing my fourth hour of riding and I've only stopped to get off the bike twice. Once to eat and once to fill up the tank. Compared to most Italian motorcycles this seems almost sacrilegious. I'm used to taking rest breaks in twenty-minute intervolves and yet today the only intervolve I care about is the number of minutes being spent traveling between curvy roads.
Thus far the ride has been nothing short of phenomenal. The kind of coalesced morning where the style in which you want to ride and the length of your journey come together in perfect harmony. It doesn't seem to matter if I'm feeling particularly sporty or willing to dial it down, the bikes acts happy either way. Smiles back at you and asks for more.
On most weekends by this point I'd be ready to cash it in and head home – but not today. Not on this bike. Not when I feel like I can go on forever. Carving canyons in comfort has been an utterly enlightening experience and I'm ready for more.
By definition the sport-touring motorcycle category is all about compromise. It's a unique market segment that's built on the belief that a number of folks want something that's lies between a full-blown land yacht and a high performance ergonomically harsh thoroughbred. Yet every bike that stands within the confines of this category puts one side of the sport-touring equation ahead of the other. There are no true fifty-fifty splits, or at least that's been my experience until I saddled up on the ST3S.
Introduced at the Milan Motorcycle Show at the tail end of 2005 as a 2006 model, The ST3S is the fifth "ST" designated sport-touring motorcycle to be produced by Ducati. The basic genetic structure of the bike dates back to 1998 when the ST2 first rolled off the assembly line and thrust Ducati into the sport-touring marketplace. Back then there was a good bit of fanfare made about those early bikes, however the first reviews weren't nearly as glowing as the company probably had hoped. For all their racetrack heritage, they were entering the sport-touring arena late and had some serious ground to make up. Since those early ST models the bike has seen a number of quiet revisions and has been bizarrely badged with a confusing sequence of numerical names. Instead of going sequentially, the boys back in Bologna decided to base the bike names solely on the number of valves per cylinder. Therefore for the uninitiated the ST3S is illogically newer than the ST4. While the naming convention might be a bit perplexing the basic idea behind the bike is not. Ducati bills the ST3S as bringing together, "the very best components and unparalleled comfort, making it ideal for day-to-day use" and they're not far from the mark.
As The Pacific Coast Highway turns into Interstate 10 and I head towards Downtown LA, I can't help but think that this bike does so many different things well it's almost revolutionary for a rider like myself. It's got that truly unique Ducati spirit and charm while at the same time seemingly allowing the rider to go on endlessly. Someone my age doesn't normally admit to wanting or needing a bike that goes beyond racetrack chic, yet this motorcycle offers the kind of comfort, reduced heat emissions and quite frankly a riding position that doesn't require mandatory twenty-minute wrist breaks. Swishing through a series of lane-changes I can't help but think that in many respects this is a 999 that you can ride all day.
Twenty minutes later as traffic on the Freeway comes to its usual crawl, I watch the temp gauge rise towards to the mid 210s and I find myself shaking my head. It's unbelievable. While it's a hot day in LA, I don't feel the usual Italian heat wave pouring over my lower body. Unlike my 999 and other Ducs I've ridden, someone at the factory finally figured out how to get the heat away from the rider when you're rolling down the road under fifty miles per hour. For a real world Ducatisti this is a borderline mind-blowing revelation, however for the sport-touring category it's nothing new.
Clearly Ducati understood the competition when they introduced the ‘ST' line because most discussions about sport-touring motorcycles inevitably begin with BMW. They've been building comfortable, reliable, heat resistant motorcycles forever and while there are other players in the market, BMW clearly has defined itself as the sporty touring motorcycle manufacturer over the past several decades. Yet for all their German reliability and completely functional engineering, the ST3S offers something that no BMW I've ever ridden has – a nimble, intuitive, heart pounding and emotionally cathartic riding experience that in many ways is just as comfortable as any Bavarian utilitarian ride.
Thirty minutes later I'm across town and standing at the base of The Angeles Crest. After all the freeway riding I've done today, I can't wait to finally get a chance to let the bike out again. Personally I find playing at the top of the rpm range the most fun you can have on a motorcycle, but true to its touring nature the ST3S makes rolling along at seventy-five miles per hour plus almost a completely non-event. It doesn't roar, shake, buzz, or rattle it just goes on and on and on. In an effortless movement towards your destination. I can easily imagine tearing off hundreds of miles a day for a week straight on this bike.
Yet the beauty of the ST3S is that it can do anything you want whenever you want. As California Route 2 shifts from a quiet neighborhood byway into a full-blown sportbike ascent in mere seconds, the idea that this bike is based on compromise seems illogical to say the least. It's not nearly the same visceral sensation as say a 999, but it's the best damn emulation of that experience I've ever felt on a bike with bags.
In some respects calling this bike a sport-tourer is a gross understatement. While it's obviously built to travel, it excels at making you feel invincible when you're carving corners. Heading into the first of many endless corners it becomes apparent that I'm moving around far less in the saddle on this bike than I normally do. The taller and wider handlebars make countersteering a breeze and the ST3S has a magical way of swooping from corner to corner with an astonishing sense of ease.
The bike just flows from one place to another and that creates a remarkable feeling of control. You can't help but feel like you're one with "the line" and while it's not exactly racetrack technical the sensation is completely relaxed. It's also just damn easy to body steer this beast. The footpegs are located directly beneath where you're sitting and that allows you push down with such a tremendous amount of force that it can hurdle the bike wherever you want it to go without any other input being made. Instantly.
Coming out of the next corner I get on the gas and whip the throttle back. There's a moment of hesitation and then the bike just shoots out from underneath me. It's not nearly as instantaneous of a response as a Superbike or even some of the Monsters, but the ST3S gets going with the best of them in its class. Perhaps even the best in its class. It's deceptive speed to say the least. You almost don't expect it with a bike this big, but no matter how many times I let the bike out it just keeps asking for more. Unlike other sport-tourers I've ridden this bike doesn't leave you lusting for more power. Rather it offers plenty of useable power.
At its core the ST3S is very much a Ducati and when you're pinning the throttle back and letting it rip, the bike lets you know it. It yells with Italian heritage and a vast command of the human condition. There's an utterly Italian sensibility to this kind of speed. An emotion that doesn't come from statistics or require you feel like you're hanging on for dear life, but rather offers you the chance to feel like you're one with the acceleration. You create it and you control it. The bike is merely a conduit for your dreams and your passion.
The giddy-up factor can be directly attributed to the 3-valve 992cc 107 horsepower engine, which is built on the 1000DS motor platform. Ducati astutely altered the engine by adding an extra valve so that now there are 2 intake valves and 1 exhaust valve per cylinder. The result is a surprisingly stout feeling powerplant that offers a more commanding sensation when you're opening it up then the traditional 2-valve 1000DS does. Why they have decided to neglect this engine in favor of promoting the 2-valver is beyond me. Granted I have nothing against the 2-valve, but this engine offers such a greater linear sense of delivery that I wonder why Ducati doesn't ship more models with it.
However, just like the 1000DS there is a relatively small power window when compared to the 4-valve Ducati engines. When you're getting on the throttle the impression of hyper-acceleration only kicks in around four thousand rpms and then it dies down just around eight thousand. If you top the engine out to ten on the tach it doesn't seem to add very much to the adrenaline creation experience.
Rocketing along about a third of the way up The Crest it's hard to miss the change in the road surface. What had been a perfectly paved chunk of asphalt transforms into a wet-weather battleground. Suddenly there are patches and grooves in the pavement that can completely unsettle a sportbike. It's in these sections that the Showa front end and the adjustable Sachs rear shock truly shine. The ST3S does a magnificent job of helping you navigate these kinds of rough and tumble sections by offering a tremendous amount of feedback while at the same time bouncing you around considerably less than a base model 999 or the entry level Monsters. Of course by definition sport-touring motorcycles are supposed to be less harsh in these sorts of situations and the ST3S succeeds in this regard. It's the kind of bike that marginalizes poor asphalt without it being a detriment to its performance capabilities.
Of course getting a bike going and getting it stopped are two completely different aspects of riding and luckily the ST3S offers a commanding set of Brembo brakes. For a sport-tourer they're outstanding. They offer a terrific feel for the road and at no point did I ever get the sense that they were underpowered when trailbraking through a corner or coming to a stop. In some respects they might be too powerful – if that's possible for brakes - because no matter how smoothly you apply the front disc brake the front end of the bike has a real propensity to harshly dive. It's not completely obnoxious but it certainly takes some time to get used to and is a definite departure from the way in which either the Superbikes or the Monsters handle braking.
When I finally roll into the parking lot at Newcombs Ranch, I toss the bike up on its centerstand and start to unlock the bags. If there is one area that Ducati still pales in comparison to BMW, it's the luggage. For starters the need for separate keys for the ignition system and the bags baffle me. You'd think in today's world having one key do both tasks would be standard issue. The locks on the bags are another sore point. They're not the worst in the class, but they're not BMW simplicity either. For the sake of all motorcyclists around the world I wish all the manufactures would just get together and license BMW's design. There's no need to try and out-engineer perfection. On the flipside however unlike BMW, the hard luggage is included in the bike's purchase price.
A place like Newcombs offers a tremendous amount of motorcycling diversity – both in the bikes that show up and the riders. Glancing around the parking lot it's obvious that there are all kinds of motorcyclists. A good portion of them probably won't fit on an ST3S. The bike is by no means short. I'm 5'11 and while I was able to put my foot completely down at a stop, it certainly felt like a bit of a stretch. I can't imagine shorter riders feeling very comfortable unless they start changing seats or repadding the stock saddle.
An hour later I'm heading back down The Crest towards the Westside of LA after a late lunch and I'm finally feeling just a bit past spent. The sun has started its decline and a day that once held an endless amount of opportunity now holds nothing more than a few more hours of light. As the traffic gets a bit heavier and I make my way down the mountain, it's hard to ignore exactly how many things Ducati got right on this motorcycle. I'm not sure why the company puts so little effort or emphasis on marketing the "ST" series in general or the ST3S in particular. This is simply one the truly great motorcycle that is on the market right now and it offers a plethora of personalities to explore. If you feel like running it hard it's absolutely game for the adventure yet on the other hand it's more than happy to play along if you're in the mood to take it easy and amble around.
It's truly one of the most outstanding packages I've ever ridden. As someone who doesn't draw a paycheck from either ProItalia or the mainstream motorcycle mags, I suppose it's fair to say that I have a very different view of journalistic objectivity. I came into this review with some fairly heavy preconceived notions as far as this bike was concerned. It's a bike that does not sell particularly well and my sense was that if the motorcycling going public was ignoring it there was definitely a reason. After thrashing around on it for a few weeks the only rational for this limited demand that I can come up with is a lack of marketing support.
I also suppose at this point I'm starting to sound a bit like a Ducati evangelist, but the reality is that this is just a wonderful motorcycle that offers traditional Italian sensibilities and flare while at the same time catering to the creature comforts that make riding for extend periods of time extremely enjoyable. It's a downright fantastic combination of every aspect of riding that I not only enjoy, but also admire. Having now ridden my fair share of Italian metal if I had to come up with a top five list to own and ride, I find it somewhat bewildering and shocking that of all the bikes that are out there the ST3S would sit in one of my top two slots. It's not nearly as visceral in any aspect of riding as a 999, but for everything else - and everyday life - it's outrageously good and in many respects it makes weekend adventures far more enjoyable than any full-blown literbike could. This is more than just a motorcycle; the ST3S is a swiss-army knife for riding. It lets you carve corners, take grand adventures and motor along at any speed you like. If there's a better definition for sport touring I don't know what it is. |
