Well, thanks to all the donations ($0) I finally brought some tires. So it’s back into scaring small children and senior citizens.
Having tires has allowed me to do a comparison. With what. Well a 2010 675 Daytona as it turns out. Back in early 1990 something I was looking at buying a red bike, so test road the 900ss and the new Daytona. I must admit it was incredibly Japanese, and nothing special.
Move forward to 2021, and my mate from the Ducati bike shop days, scored himself a 675 se as a track bike after being disappointed with his 749 track bike. For him unfortunately the Daytona heat exchanger shit itself. After reading forms quite common from 06-12 models. Before he found himself doing a close up inspection of the tracks asphalt, he raved about the 675. Being a typical ducati owner prick, I went oh yeah, I find it hard to believe. I do like the colour scheme however. Blue and white/almost pearl. Anyhoo, it require fixerating. Oil in the coolant, coolant in the oil. Nasty! I won’t go into the bit where he came in from his first run and it dribbled coolant on the deck ( never a good thing). And then went out again. First lap turn 12, 12000 rpm in 4th and asphalt inspection time. Oil and coolant on the rear tire will do that.

So after hours of stage cleaning the oil and coolant systems new alt cover and general inspections, and a hose kit, back in action. Test ride time.

Well, a bit of a surprise there. Man they have some poke and at 126HP it’s no surprise. The brakes are awesome. Nisin radials. The steering was a bit quick and light for my liking and wrist loading more than I like, but at 180kmph, there are other things to worry about, birds, cars, snakes, horses and cows etc.
Then I dragged out the 888 sp griffy for a comparison. At 168kg it’s heavier than 161kg 675. First off, way better noise from the tergminoni’s. A good warm up and into it. The old 888 is way more confident inspiring in terms of feeling planted. In acceleration terms with all the rawness and induction roar, and push back onto the bum pad, the 888 is way more exhilarating. Certainly felt like it could clean up the 675 without too much drama. But that’s just a subjective view point.

The whole point is, if you want a bike for track days and don’t want to thrash you beloved expensive Italian machine to death, a 675 with the heat exchanger replaced with a billet oil cooler would be a good choice it seems. Never thought I’d say that. Must be going senile 😁