First group ride with the S2R

Spectacular weather in the forecast for Sunday morning, so it's Ride On. You never know from week to week, who may show up, on what machines, and therefore what the tone of the ride will be. Destination to be determined by consensus on the spot. We gathered at the usual location at 09:00 and today we totaled 7. This was the first group ride that I've taken the Ducati S2R1000 to, so I was a little apprehensive, mostly because I'm still learning how best to ride this bike and I know the pace our group ride will take. This will be a test of my performance in the company of fast riders, judged not only by me, but by the entire group. And today, the fast guys are represented in force.

Now I am no slug, though my performance with the ZX6 this year has left a few things to be desired, but today I have to prove to myself that I can make this bike perform. I've put a couple hundred miles on it riding solo and my comfort level is pretty high, but this ride will set the bar.

It was decided that we would make a run out through northern Rensselaer county, dropping briefly into Massachusetts, and 3 different riders would take the lead depending upon our location. We snuck up on it by way of first heading up into Saratoga county. Out through Mechanicville, then continuing east at 100mph. North of Schaghticoke and then south, where the twisties start. The reverse way along Babcock Lake and Toad Point Rd. Further east, flying along Petersburg Pass until we run up on a group of cars crawling down the mountain. Turn around at the bottom in Mass. and head back up and over and into NY. Taconic Trail and Rt22 to Berlin; touched 125mph.

6 of 7 are V-Twin, 5 of 7 are Monsters

After that, up the backside of the mountain, through Taborton, and down the other side. Then I split off and headed for home while those still with the group returned to the gathering spot to disperse.

I could have ridden faster in many places, but position within the line often dictates the speed of your ride. There were also some road hazards in places and a lot of traffic in others. Overall, I think I did pretty well with the group setting. I'm still getting used to the power curve of this bike (VS say, my ZRX1200) and I was trying to keep below 7000 RPM as much as possible while I close in on 1500 total miles on the bike, so I was short shifting a lot.

Coming back down the NY side of Petersburg Pass, I downshifted setting up for a 90 degree lefthander and I'm just starting to hang off as I feed out the clutch and then I hear this loud *Bang!* and the bike shudders. I back off the throttle, and work through the curve, but I also knew that I had just found the rev limiter. It kicked in around 9200 RPM. So now I know... I knew it would be north of 8 grand somewhere, but surely not the same as 16K on the ZX6...

This wasn't the best of ride of my life on a few levels, but I'm still loving this bike. I think it was a good choice at a time when I needed a change and I'm really enjoying riding it. Now that I've got it fully broken in I can explore the full range of it's performance. And then there's the growing list of mods I'm planning...