BIG engines shoehorned into little bikes can’t help but be fun – one look at the classic shot of Ruben Xaus backing a Ducati Hypermotard into a corner with the back tyre smoking, his knee on the deck and his hand waving to the camera shows that pretty graphically. It is surely one of the most insane motorcycle pictures ever made, and even if you never try to emulate the Superbike star, you won’t be able to help but have fun on a Hypermotard.

For the Aussie launch of the machine we were taken to Eastern Creek – not the Grand Prix racing circuit though, the go kart track next door. You might think the bike would be overkill but you would be wrong. On the tight track the Hypermotard was a bag of fun and a real surprise. I don’t know of many other bikes with 1100cc which could be ridden as fast on such a tight track. Strong power, great brakes and surefooted handling had us journos cracking around the track faster than we had any right to be.

In the pits

On hand were the standard and ‘S’ models. Standard bikes were fitted with Termignoni slip on mufflers while the up-spec ‘S’ models had a trick two into one system fitted. And then there was NF Importer’s head honcho Warren Lee’s very serious ‘S’, fitted with carbon fibre wheels and a worked engine. Yeehaa.

 Ducati’s air-cooled 1100cc DS (Dual Spark) engine could hardly be described as a powerhouse. It only has two valves per cylinder and around 90hp. That’s on paper. In the real world it performs much better than you would think, especially when mounted in a lightweight machine such as the Hypermotard. If you are looking for more grunt buy a 1098. At 179 kilos the Hyper is no heavyweight and the flexible nature of the DS engine suits the character of the bike nicely. A tubular trellis steel frame is used to link everything and as on all Ducatis does a stirling job. A single sided swingarm, lightweight alloy wheels, big radial Brembos and under seat mufflers complete most of the package. It’s an oddball looking machine, with its duckbill front guard/headlight arrangement and fuel tank design. But as with some of Ducati’s designs it’s a matter of self assessment. You can’t make everyone happy.

On the track

Heading out for the first time we thought it would be a handful on the tight Eastern Creek go kart track. It took a couple of laps to work out the best riding position. We noticed some put their feet down, motard style, while others had their knee out, and some upright. We found riding it road race style was the best compromise, as the low seat height, compared to regular MX based motards, made it difficult to adopt that style. The grunty engine made lofting the wheel out of corners child’s play and the big ’bars were perfect for adjusting the lean angle while hanging off the bike.

Any thoughts of the Hyper being a handful were soon left behind as we hustled the bike from corner to corner. We sampled the different spec models and you could notice the difference between the standard and S models, the better brakes and suspension of the S giving both greater feel and performance. Then lastly a strop on Warren Lee’s super Hyper had us at another level altogether. Man did that thing crack, handle and steer. We are not sure what the extra cost would be over the S but it wouldn’t be cheap. It’s a no brainer if you have spare cash to burn but otherwise it would be difficult to justify the extra expense we reckon.

On the road

Our time with the Hypermotard didn’t end there. It’s fine to test a bike in controlled conditions but what’s it like in the cut and thrust of everyday life? We only had to travel 10 kays down the road to realise the standard seat on our test S was pretty hard. And considering we had a three day 2500 kilometre run planned this thought didn’t feel us with confidence.

Ducati came to the rescue with a genuine accessory gel seat and to make things easy with luggage an accessory pannier set and tank bag. The panniers differ to the norm because they mount over the tank and not over the seat as most do.Stuffing our gear into them had us realising they weren’t as big as they looked but then we are known for taking too much gear on trips.

As there is no fairing as such – you can get an accessory screen – the tank bag when full did a good job of keeping some of the wind blast of your chest and because you can see the panniers you never need to feel or look to see the panniers draped over your seat are still there.
If long days in the saddle are anticipated these accessories are a must, especially the gel seat.
There are a number of other little touches that give the Hyper a unique feel. The mirrors and integrated indicators are perhaps one of the standouts. If some track time is on you just fold the mirrors in towards the bars/handgaurds – easy.

Our test route was from Newcastle to Bright in Victoria and return, with detours to Batemans Bay, Bega etc. With plenty of corners thrown in the Hypermotard was at home and even though the pace set by some fast bikes was a bit frantic at times the Hyper was never left behind or felt underpowered.
We even managed a 1000 kilometre day for the run home. Not the ideal machine for those sorts of highjinks but we both coped OK.

During the run it never missed a beat but you do have to be careful of the fuel range. About 200 kilometres will pull you up, literally but if you plan fuel stops it’s fine.

The final say

As a track bike it’s awesome. As a road bike it’s just as good. We could live with this bike day after day with no problems whatsoever. There’s a few bikes out there which offer such a loony fun factor and are as versatile as the Hypermotard, but the list is a very short one.

The standard Hypermoto costs $18,495 + ORC and the ‘S’ $21,995 but we’d also factor in the cost of some of the factory accessories to make the bike a better day to day proposition.

Accessory prices:

Tank bag $360, tank cover (necessary for side bags) $367, Tank side bags $557.