Checa's WSBK Ducati 1098R RS11 Superbike | Obsolete? Who’s Obsolete?

Further loading the dice against the twins, the street 1098R actually weighs the same as the minimum dry weight (with oil and water, but no fuel) for the RS11 racer, and it breathes quite a bit better, too. That’s because the stock 1098R’s elliptical-bore throttle bodies measuring the equivalent of 63.9mm must carry 50mm intake restrictor plates imposed on it by the rules. The RS11 retains a starter motor, and even with this, the Ducati must still carry lead ballast to meet the 363.8-pound (165kg) minimum weight limit.

It was immediately noticeable that Checa uses a very long first gear on the Ducati’s six-speed gearbox, and that he’s geared the bike to use only the lower five ratios for the twisty Misano track. “I tried to use only four, but five is better,” he said, while also revealing he uses first gear four times per lap there. “I put it in first to use more engine braking, also to hold a narrow line in a tight bend, and then also when you open the throttle, you get a more direct response; second is too long with too low revs,” he said. This relative newcomer to the desmo V-twin racing fraternity has set up his bike in a way that I felt completely at home with at Misano, opting to adjust the ramp-style slipper clutch with noticeably more engine braking than other Ducati riders usually do. He avoids rear wheel chatter by manually sliding the clutch, although the ICS variable idle speed program in the Marelli ECU surely helps — the Ducati was just great on the brakes. Using bottom gear while exploiting the magnificent braking delivered by the RS11 Ducati’s uprated Brembo radial package gives a little extra stopping power and vital control as you peel into the apex of the turn, provided you remember to keep working that clutch lever when necessary to offset the start of any chatter. It also lets you turn more tightly, like the sharp right-hander leading onto Misano’s back straight, where holding a close line allows you to get hard on the gas much sooner. “You can do that turn in second as well, but it’s a longer line so you cover more distance, you have less grip, and the throttle response also is not as good,” advised Checa. “I use first gear for this reason.”

I had a great illustration of the Ducati’s strong initial pickup one lap exiting the second-gear final turn on to the uphill Misano pit straight, when Marco Melandri cut inside me under braking, and his Yamaha teammate Eugene Laverty tried the outside line. Gunning the Ducati in pursuit of Melandri, I noticed how well it picked up on initial acceleration at low revs in second gear from around 7500 rpm, lifting the front wheel in second and then third gear before I stepped on the rear brake each time to hold it down, until I ultimately lost out to the faster fours as the revs mounted. Still, though Melandri was long gone, I actually managed to hold Laverty off along the fourth-gear front straight aboard the Ducati, noting as I did so that the Team Althea guys on pit wall were all waving their arms in support. Sorry, chaps, not brave enough; Laverty swept under me into the left-hand Turn Two, quickly followed by Johnny Rea on the Castrol Honda in the ensuing long right. But I was given a good illustration of the relative engine performance of the Ducati against its four-cylinder rivals, and it’s quite obvious from this that Checa won his world title by riding clever, and making his Pirelli tires last longer.

Though the Ducati will drive from as low as 5000 rpm in a slow turn, you need the reading on the Digitek dash — much more legible than I remember it to be — showing 7000 rpm before you get serious acceleration. But get it revving above that, and the Ducati thunders out of a turn with deeply impressive drive, until the three green shifter lights above the dash start flashing at 11,800 rpm, and you need to think about grabbing another gear. There’s a larger red shift light fitted on the right, but Checa doesn’t have it connected, a fact I discovered by unintentionally hitting the 12,400 rpm rev limiter. He prefers to change gear by sound and feel at around 12,000 rpm once he sees the green lights flashing. I found the wide-open race-pattern powershifter a little sticky on downshifts, and you must use a lot of foot pressure to change gear either way, which is obviously a matter for personal choice for Checa. Some riders go to the other extreme, and seemingly shift gears by waving their toe at the lever. However, you must use the clutch for downshifts, which coming to the Ducati immediately after riding two four-cylinder Superbikes each equipped with an auto-blipper, it was initially hard to get my brain focused on using again.

The reduced weight transfer and more rational steering geometry of Checa’s balanced chassis setup made the Ducati feel really confidence-inspiring on the brakes, helped by the extra engine braking from his chosen setting for the slipper clutch. At the other end of a turn, the traction control seemed even less obtrusive than the last time I rode a Ducati superbike two years ago. But it must have worked, because I didn’t unhook the rear wheel even chasing factory Yamahas, yet without seemingly holding back drive. I’d just occasionally hear a slight engine fluttering exiting a turn, but it didn’t make the engine pickup any less vivid, just more effective. The ride-by-wire throttle had a smooth, fluid response, delivering irresistible acceleration out of turns while combining with the traction control to optimize engine response without you really noticing it. The whole electronic package on the Ducati seemed really user-friendly; it gave me confidence to open up the throttle while leaned over without feeling I needed to lift the bike up before I tried to aggressively get on the throttle. Exiting the final second-gear turn was a good example; I could get harder on the throttle, sooner, knowing that I wasn’t going to spin the wheel in doing so.