Journo ‘hacks’ get hands on Corser’s machine!

On Monday 31st August, the day after the Austrian Round of the World Superbike Championship at the A1-Ring, several European journalists (including freelance racer-writer Alan Cathcart, Motor Cycle News’s Richard Fairburn and PS-Motorrad’s Jurgen Gassebner) were allowed to get their hands (and their bodies!) on Troy Corser’s race-winning Ducati 916, in a test organised for the occasion by View Point, with the collaboration of Team Ducati ADVF.

After setting a more than respectable 1m49s around the 4.3 kms circuit (about 20 seconds off the pace of the ‘experts’), we quizzed Richard Fairburn about Troy Corser’s bike and he told us about the way it performed in terms that we think are interesting for the everyday bike user.

"My first impression was that Corser’s Ducati 916 was not as ‘aggressive’ as I thought it would be - declared Richard - In fact suspension, braking, turn-in and power delivery could all be handled quite easily and the bike in general feels ‘usable’ for a normal, everyday road rider. As for the power, it didn’t ‘explode’ along the straights, again as I thought it would, but the 916 is an exceptionally fast bike and it was geared highly for the fastish A1-Ring circuit.
I found the gearbox difficult to get used to and it was easy to miss gear changes. The reason is that it’s an upside-down box, and Corser has to tap the left-foot gear lever down to change up, the opposite to a road bike. The right-foot rear brake lever is also not connected, because Corser has a thumb-operated brake, and so that felt a bit strange as well.
The other thing is that everything is set up specifically for one rider, in this case Corser who moves and sits in a particular way, so the whole bike feels a little strange. Still, I must have made a good impression because some old bloke came up to me and asked me for my autograph afterwards!".

Let’s hope Team ADVF give the bike a good going over before the next rounds, to iron out all the ‘gremlins’ encountered by the journalists!