Thoughts After 1 week on the Hyper - Ducati.ms

Treadmarks · Aug 15th, 2008, 9:06 am

My observations after one week on the hyper s.

Swapped my softail for the S model hyper last Friday and have no regrets at all. For me, it is an excellent performance oriented commuter bike for my 60-mile round trip daily ride (Mostly expressway and back roads). My previous commuter was my Buell XB12X Ulysses. I have performed many mods to the uly to make it quicker, smoother and more practical as a daily driver. I will now put the hard bags and big windshield on the uly so it will replace the softail as our two up weekend travel bike.

Back on topic.

The hyper is near perfect for the expressway with its six-speed gearbox. It performs very well in my 80-100 mph ride to work (5:00 am, no traffic). At first I thought the wind would be a problem at these speeds due to the lack of a windscreen, but the shape of the bike seems to part the air and divert it to the sides rather than over the top. I think that’s pretty damn cool, as both my previous commuter bikes (XR650 Motard and the Uly) were very hard to hang on to at those speeds. I had to install a taller windscreen for the Uly due to the windblast at speed. I think the Hyper will be just fine without a windscreen.

The Hyper is considerably thinner than the Uly, more like the XR and is much easier to maneuver in tight situations like lane splitting in heavy traffic. I am not to thrilled about the mirrors/blinker/hand guards, as the excessive width reduces its ability to lane split and increases drag at high speeds. I may switch bars to a taller pro-taper with a more conventional mirror like dual stars or crg lane splitters and fastway hand guards. Not sure what to do with the front blinkers yet though.

It sticks to the road very well even when wet, and has a wide range of adjustments for the suspension. I am having a tough time trying to adjust the suspension to be more compliant and smooth on the bad road surfaces here though. I set the sag and maxed out the rebound and opened up the compression dampening but the ride is still pretty harsh on the bad roads. A fellow member here mentioned he went to 5-wt fork oil and said that helped a lot, so I may try that next.

I was very impressed with the engine performance in the monsoon rain that hammered me for 30 miles yesterday. Quite often, when my Uly would get caught in a rain that heavy it would stumble and want to stall or run rough unless you kept it wound up. When traffic came to a stop yesterday due to an accident, I took residential back roads to finish my ride home. I found myself driving though water on the road that was at least a foot deep for several blocks. The hyper never missed a beat or stumbled at all. I did get a fair amount of water thrown up on my backside from the rear wheel though. I will work on building a tidy tail that will let me position the license plate in a better position so it will block the water from the rear wheel. I can’t believe that on a bike this expensive, there is no hugger to protect the rear shock from debris from the rear tire. I suppose a hugger is in order to protect the rear shock. $$$

Performance Mods:

I like the quietness of the factory exhaust and love the look of the twin pipes that exit from under the taillight, but I would like a little more flow and performance out of it. A complete system is just too expensive for me now though. I’m thinking more like a LV cat eliminator, DP cams and ecu kit and disable the flapper valve. I will also look into porting the Airbox and a high flow filter. I am concerned if porting the Airbox will cause problems in the future when I get caught in torrential rains here in south Florida though. I see an HID conversion and sequential blinkers integrated into the LED taillight on the horizon too. I still can’t get over how damn expensive the DP parts are…I guess if you wanna play, you gotta pay.

All in all I totally love this bike and have a blast every time I ride it, even in the rain. I am happy to have found a forum that has great info specific to the Hyper, and look forward to a positive Ducati experience. I plan to get neck deep into the Hyper when I get back from my trip to Alaska where we are renting a Uly to ride to the artic circle.

Enigma · Aug 15th, 2008, 9:31 am

the airbox mod is fine, rain isnt going to affect it

GMP · Aug 15th, 2008, 10:10 am

I wouldn't even think about cams and the cam ECU before doing the full exhaust. I just installed a DP ECU for the 2-1 Termi with my stock cans and its rich on top, but great below that. Mine ran OK and a little snappier than stock with the DP airbox lid, LV cat eliminator, no flapper, stock ECU. A 14t countershaft sprocket is a nice cheap mod as well but if you spend a lot of time over 80MPH you may like the stock 15 better. Good luck.

Treadmarks · Aug 15th, 2008, 10:36 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMP

I wouldn't even think about cams and the cam ECU before doing the full exhaust. I just installed a DP ECU for the 2-1 Termi with my stock cans and its rich on top, but great below that. Mine ran OK and a little snappier than stock with the DP airbox lid, LV cat eliminator, no flapper, stock ECU. A 14t countershaft sprocket is a nice cheap mod as well but if you spend a lot of time over 80MPH you may like the stock 15 better. Good luck.

So, what you're sayin is the stock ecu will be ok with the airbox mod, LV C/E and flapper removed? That would be cool.

How did it sound with that set up?

Snappy....I like that.

GMP · Aug 15th, 2008, 12:34 pm

Yes, at least mine has been fine for 1700 miles. It definately sounds more throaty, from both exhaust and intake. Its a tiny bit smoother without the flapper but still snatchy. Less compression braking though. Decel has that fart sound below about 4K where it goes lean, but over that its nice. I didn't have the coin up front for a full Termi either, plus like you I commute with the bike at 6AM and need something that works good with db killers that I can add to the current system later. The Leo slip-ons seem to fit the bill.

yota · Aug 15th, 2008, 12:58 pm

handguards/mirrors removed, Vortex bar (higher, more pullback) cut to slightly less width than stock, motrax turn signals, CRG mirrors

HYPERR · Aug 15th, 2008, 1:27 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMP

Mine ran OK and a little snappier than stock with the DP airbox lid, LV cat eliminator, no flapper, stock ECU.

Did you have to reset the TP sensor?

GMP · Aug 15th, 2008, 1:42 pm

No, you don't. You only NEED to reset TPS if your changing the ECU, or if the angle is greater than 3.20 +/- 1 deg. when checked with the VDST.

The closed loop portion of the map can handle the change. I'm sure it runs leaner up top in open loop mode but my bike ran very strong with no problems. I think its safe until you can afford a DP ECU and exhaust.