Our place is up in the Blue Ridge mountains near Deep Creek lake. We're about 15 minutes from WV in any direction except North..go that way and you'll be in the Ohiopyle region of PA in 20 minutes...
In other words...it's all good to great roads, lots of elevation changes, everything from the wide high speed sweepers of New Germany to the to gnarliest, crumbling switchbacks of Savage River, with spotty seeps running out of the rock faces that border both sides of the roads.
You'll find it all in this area; gentle two lane bordered by rolling meadows one minute, and narrow, one lane paths through tunnels blasted out of solid rock the next. Roads running past man-made lakes and reservoirs, and then one of the wildest stretches of river anywhere; the "Yough"...class iv-v rapids that drop 3000 ft in fifteen miles
and the roads run right alongside.....
Great place for a great bike.
The bike fires off, is quite tractable right off the bottom, and pulls strongly till about 6800-7000 rpm where it pulls HARD...like in 07 R1 rear sliding leaving darkies front wheel coming up fast-hard. The bike feels like a cross between the fastest inline four you've ever ridden and a REALLY strong RC51.
The bike is wide like the RC, but lighter feeling. Bimota raced a few of these in WSB back in the day and finished mid-pack, but they marketed this bike as a "sport-tourer"....I dunno about that, as the seating is pretty extreme (this coming from a guy that thinks the DB4 is comfy) and I'd be afraid to throw a set of saddlebags over that sculpted tail section.
The stock seat is pretty good, but the pegs are high, the reach to the bars is far and the tank is wide. Perhaps if I were 30 years and 30 lbs lighter it would feel better.......
Brakes are the older Brembos, but they are ferocious, even by today's standards. I believe they are a high-carbon content steel; whatever they are the pads bite hard and now; care must be used on damp surfaces as I managed to slide the front a few times while crossing above mentioned seeps while braking for turns.
Even though the bike is based on the older GSXR1100 and a wide one, steering is light and neutral and you can trail brake without the bike wanting to stand up. The rear brake is a tiny thing and just the way I like it...weak and ineffectual for anything but settling the chassis mid-turn and coming to a low speed stop.
The bike comes equipped with a steering damper, but I never cranked it up as the bike always felt planted. There is a stretch of road back to my cabin that is a series of whoops through multiple turn esses that ends with a decreasing radius two-apex turn with a dip in the last apex with a short uphill straight. My old 954RR would wobble hard coming off that turn with any kind of vigor, the Duc SS gives a hard shake off the dip.... those lovely forks and Ohlins shock gave me a little bounce.....and that was it.....hard on the throttle I never had to back off.
These bikes are dangerous in that they encourage you to try MORE.. more throttle, more brake, more more more..............
Nice bike.