The Diavel is capable on the bendy bits too. The wide bars offer great leverage and while it isn’t really flickable due to its size and footprint, it holds steady on lean once you’ve muscled it over. Those Pirelli Diablo Rosso III tyres have a big hand in this. You can feel the rear wheel skipping out when you make the apex and try to accelerate out of the corner, though, and that is one scary experience. So, I erred on the side of caution after a couple of corners and switched back to the relative lack of lunacy of Touring mode. Breathing a little easier, I set off again. The brakes on the Diavel are top-spec and they live up to the hype too. This is a hefty unit and once it gathers up inertia, getting it to shed speeds should be a challenge, but the Brembo set-up has it under control. With the electronic cosseters up and running, the Diavel doesn’t fuss about under hard braking and comes to a standstill in a predictable fashion.
Now the Diavel isn’t a practical, every-day use kind of bike, especially in India. The ground clearance isn’t the greatest, so you have to be careful as you scale those Everest-inspired bumps that local contractors seem to revel in tormenting us with from time to time. It has a lazy turning radius, too, so U-turns, especially in tighter lanes, will ensure you a get a proper workout, whether you want one or not. You can’t really thread through traffic either and even backing it out of a street-side parking space is a pain. The Diavel, especially in this S guise, doesn’t go easy on your bank balance either. With an ex-showroom sticker of Rs 19.60 lakh, the ordinary middle-classer would have to make a shady deal with the actual devil to afford this one.
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