First thoughts? Wow, this bike is beautiful. There are countless little details that catch your eye. More on those later. Upon sitting on it, you can't help but feel the highest seat this side of a trailie.

Start it up and you are greeted with stealth. The engine is very quiet and the engine itself is also very quiet, giving the feeling of a very tight package. Get on the road and the mirrors are genuinely useless. I'm not talking useless like on the 916. No, that's a fake useless. The MH mirrors redefine useless. And the seating position is identical to the 916 but your butt is higher off the ground.

OK, so some 916 helibars with bar end mirrors get installed so now we can enjoy the ride. Wait, have to fuel up. 1.8 US gallons about overflows the tank. Alright, back on the road... it's rush hour, so I split up to the front of the line of cars and get onto the freeway. The tank (and whole bike) is very very narrow. That's pretty cool. The handling is identical to the 916 thus far. Haven't gotten a chance to really push it, but everything feels the same.

I do have to look through the windscreen to see the tach, but this isn't a huge issue, as you develop a feel for the revs and the 2V power surges nicely and doesn't require caning all the time. Even respecting the break in rev limits, the MH has some pretty good power. Not as strong as the M900ie, but entertaining none the less. More info: Zina's words.

The MH is really fun to ride and is a nice combination of three things Ducati does well: superbike handling, 2V power, and fuel injection smoothness. Makes for big grins.

Update, Feb 02: With ever diminishing play money and garage space, Zina and I decided to sell the 916. We were going to sell one or the other, but we felt that the MH is special and potentially irreplaceable, while there will always be a 916 for sale. Also, the handling is still great, but feels a little light in the front. This is probably due to having less heft than the 916 I rode previously. It could also be some nervousness from the 170 rear tire; all the other Ducatis I've ridden have 180 rear tires fitted to their 5.5" rear wheels.

The bike is a ton of fun... we do need to work on the fuel tank situation, so we can go more than 70 or 80 miles between fill ups. But until that is sorted out, "Troy B" will become display piece until the new tank is done.

Observations