kingofthewoods wrote:...I am not an expert or anything close to it....
Sorry, but that's pretty obvious. The weight you quote for the Duc is a "dry" weight, i.e., the weight of the bike without any fluids (no gas, no oil, no coolant) AND without the battery. The weight of the 2008 Honda CBR1000RR is 435lbs *wet*.
The Duc's motor is a V-twin, with the cylinders situated 90 degrees apart...I guess that's why Ducati's using that goofy "L" twin nomenclature, but I have seen v-twin motors referred to as "Longitudinal v-twin"...whatever...ain't nothing new or special there.
All that said, I love the Ducati 1098 series. I hated what Pierre Terblanche had done to the line, and it's nice to see the 916 lineage again, especially with the single-sided swingarm. If I was in the market for a v-twin sportbike with a degree of exclusivity, the 1098 would be the one. If I wanted the same with an inline four...this'd be the one...
Also, you might want to read a recent post of mine about sportbikes for newbie street riders, if you're interested in self-preservation (and don't want to be paying out your arse to repair a crash-damaged Ducati)...
http://crfsonly.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20847