Men's Journal

When you buy a bike like Ducati’s Streetfighter, it’s not enough to know how fast it goes or how well it handles. You want to know whether it’ll earn you respect on the road, too. Enter Boston’s Dynasty Crew motorcycle club.

by Ezra Dyer

I’m straddling Ducati’s new Streetfighter — 155 horsepower with handlebars. I merge up onto the highway, peer into the rearview mirror, and twist open the throttle. A quarter-mile ahead there’s a car in my lane until, suddenly, I’m nearly in the car’s trunk. I know that modern performance bikes are ridiculously quick in a straight line, but this is speed on a scale that makes me wonder if my will is in order.

I squeeze the front brake with one finger — the Brembo monobloc calipers are so powerful that a clumsy grab of the lever could easily lift the rear tire off the pavement — and dial it back down to the speed limit. The Streetfighter will do 0–60 in less than three seconds — about as fast as the $1.7 million Bugatti Veyron. But unlike the Bug, the Streetfighter doesn’t have such luxuries as air bags or seat belts.

As a naked bike it also has no windshield or fairings. The lack of bodywork leaves me feeling like Miss Gulch riding her bike to Oz in the tornado. And since I don’t have a full-face helmet, I become intimately acquainted with the taste of gnats and truck-thrown gravel.

Even so, I’ve always thought of Ducati’s Monster, the company’s less suicidal naked bike, as my ideal motorcycle. It’s more performance-oriented than a Harley, but more comfortable than a crotch rocket. The Streetfighter is the Monster taken to its irrational conclusion, combining the same minimized aesthetic and upright riding position of the 1098 Superbike with a slightly less powerful version of the wailing engine. It’s a machine with serious street cred, which is good, because today I’m riding with the Boston chapter of the Dynasty Crew motorcycle club to get its opinion of Ducati’s latest bike.

I arrive at our meeting spot on Newbury Street in Boston, and within a few minutes I spot a trio of bikes approaching. They’re hard to miss: Dynasty Crew president “K-Diddy” rides a Ducati 996 with a chrome frame, carbon-fiber wheels, and a paint job with more Gucci logos than New York’s Canal Street. He’s accompanied by the club’s public relations officer, Franco, and a new member, Brian. Franco rolls on a Yamaha R1, Brian a Kawasaki 636. They all wear the requisite leather Dynasty vests emblazoned with patches such as Dealer of Death, Bikers 4 Obama, and Life’s Too Short To Ride With Ugly Women. Brian hasn’t earned the right to wear the Dynasty Crew logo yet.

We mount up and head over to a biker hangout in Washington Park. The Dynasty Crew guys each take the Streetfighter for a spin around the block. And though they find the $14,995 bike a riot to ride, they have a few nitpicks mixed into their praise (see below). My own unease with the Ducati’s rodeo-bull power is validated when Brian climbs off after his turn. He holds out his hands, and they’re shaking.

But that’s why it inspires lust. Yes, the motor’s low-rpm vibrations rattle your skull below 20 mpg, and the dry clutch’s satisfyingly definitive engagement comes at the expense of a shift lever stiff enough to make Popeye wince. And, dear God, the wind. But a little brutality is the hallmark of a superbike stripped down to its most visceral ingredients. That, and a hardened biker shaking in fear.

Click the image below to read the rest of the Dynasty Crew’s reviews:

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2009 issue of Men’s Journal