All the Duels – Face to face Dorsoduro – Hypermotard: two very shameless Italians! – The same program: fun!

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Face to face Dorsoduro / Hypermotard: two very shameless Italians !

All the Duels - Face to face Dorsoduro - Hypermotard: two very shameless Italians! - The same program: fun!

The sun is back and the conditions are right again to (re) indulge yourself on a motorcycle! What if we saw what it looks like on two big Italian supermotards with a strong character, the Aprilia Dorsoduro and the Ducati Hypermotard? ? Face to face !

The same program: fun !

Their silhouettes clearly announce the color: our two Italians intend to privilege the pleasure of driving before any other consideration of a practical or material nature! They are also both equipped with high-level sports equipment: inverted forks, radial-mounted front brake calipers, braided hoses, etc..

Like its cousin Shiver, the Aprilia Dorsoduro offers the choice between three injection mapping modes, selectable on the handlebars: Sport, Touring or Rain. The differences between the "mappings" are really sensitive to driving, although Touring mode is preferred over Sport mode because of the latter’s relative brutality..

Well curved and attractive, the "Dorso" highlights its tubular steel trellis chassis on which are grafted neat aluminum plates.

The gear used exudes seriousness, but Noale’s sympathetic Supermot ‘variation cannot fight against the fittings chosen by the Bologna firm: the 50 mm fork (that’s a big deal!) Comes from Marzocchi, the rims from Marchesini and braking was entrusted to Brembo, including the magnificent radial front brake master cylinder !

The Ducati hits hard … but makes it pay in return: more than € 2,500 separates the Hypermotard (€ 11,565) from the Dorsoduro (€ 8,999)…

And since we are discussing the subjects that annoy, know that the pleasure of riding a supermotard on a daily basis also involves some inconvenience: the two machines, for example, almost completely ignore the practical aspects. !

The key to the problem…
It’s crazy how a small detail can quickly screw up a beautiful day of driving … On the way on the A11 towards Le Mans to attend the wet stages of the Rallye de la Sarthe (read, the Dorsoduro lights up its reserve indicator light around 120 km. Twenty kilometers later, I surrender and stop at a station to refuel the beast. I turn the key in the fuel cap as normally as possible, without forcing. And there it is. is the drama: the key tears like tin and remains in my hand! I contemplate, dumbfounded, the end remained in the cork … The metal of the key must have had a flaw to break so easily, but Here is a lot of pissed off, unable to refuel or switch on again … 140 km from my home and without any duplicate, of course! All I have to do is call Aprilia assistance – efficient and easy to reach! – to have me repaired to a garage near Nogent-le-Rotrou (28). The convenience store, particularly nice, pa r manages to extract the broken end of the key in the hope of making a duplicate. I’m skeptical of the chances of success, but a friend of my Saint Bernard, who runs a locksmith nearby, manages to make a key … that works! Except that the original key of the Dorsoduro is coded! The motorcycle therefore asks me for a security code… which I don’t have! I randomly type 000000 … and it works! This is the default code that each owner will quickly take care of personalizing. !

Fortunately, they are both equipped with a coded key immobilizer, because they are almost incapable of carrying any anti-theft device: the Hypermotard saddle does not even come off! That of the Dorsoduro deigns to rise, but only reveals a location barely sufficient to accommodate a disc lock, provided you remove the toolkit and therefore rely on Italian reliability. !

Even hassle to secure a bag: the two motorcycles proudly sporting dual exhaust pipes under the saddle, it is really not easy to find serious anchor points without risking scratching the fairing or melting the bungee cords….

Finally – as if that weren’t enough! – the autonomy of our Italian competitors borders on the ridiculous! This is due to their mini tanks (12 liters for the Aprilia, 14 for the Ducati), but also to a fairly high average consumption of around 7 liters per 100 km during our test … While driving a little muscular , but still !

Result: the changeover indicator light comes on from 120 km on the 750 cc Aprilia and around 140 km for the 1100 Ducati! So much so that having a great day on the bike, you have the impression of going to the pump every ten minutes … which requires you to anticipate your refueling so as not to find yourself running out of fuel in the open countryside !

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