Performance Bikes — March 2018

28 PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK|MARCH 2018

THE SPECS

Power 214bhp @ 13,000rpm

Torque 91.5lb.ft@10,000rpm

Weight 195kg (claimed )

Price £24,035

DUCATI

PANIGALE V4 S

ENGINE

Type Liquid-cooled 90° V4, DOHC,

Desmodromic 16v. Counter-rotating crankshaft.

Semi-dry sump.

Capacity 110 3 cc

Bore x stroke 81mm x 53.5mm

Fuelling Ride-by-wire electronic fuel injection,

elliptical throttle bodies

Power 214bhp @ 13,000rpm (claimed)

Torque 91.5lb.ft @ 10,000rpm (claimed)

CHASSIS |

Frame Cast aluminium beam ‘front frame’,

engine as stressed member

Front suspension 43mm Öhlins NIX30 USD

forks. Öhlins Smart EC 2.0 semi-active

compression/rebound adjustment. Manual

preload adjustment

Rear suspension Öhlins TTX36 shock. Öhlins

Smart EC 2.0 semi-active compression/rebound

adjustment. Manual preload adjustment

Front brakes 2 x 330mm discs, Brembo

Stylema radial four-piston monoblock calipers

Rear brakes 245mm disc, Brembo opposed-

piston caliper

DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase 14 64mm

Rake/trail24.5°/100mm

Weight195kg (wet, claimed)

Seat height830mm

Fuel capacity16 litres

TECHNOLOGY

Rider aids Six-axis IMU-based traction control,

wheelie control, slide control, launch control.

Lean-angle sensitive quickshifter/auto-blipper.

Bosch cornering ABS with option to turn off

control on rear only or both wheels. Semi-active

suspension.

BUYING

Price £24,035 (£19,930 base model)

Contact http://www.ducati.com/gb

THE DETAIL

• they’ve ditched the confusing
  numeric tables where higher numbers
  meant less damping. They’ve realised
  treating normal humans like
  suspension engineers is folly, and just
  scares riders off. Now, you get options
  labelled things like ‘Corner Entry’ and
  ‘Exit Grip’. Click the one you want to
  improve, and there’s a simple slider –
  move it between ‘More Dynamic’ and
  ‘More Stable’, or other easy to
  understand terminology. In reality,
  Pani 1299 (and R1M) owners were
  largely baffled by their suspension, and
  missed out on the benefits. That should
  no longer be the case.
  The same applies to the various
  facets of engine-related rider aids: shift
  between safety and performance,
  stability and agility. Piece of piss. The
  menu system is clearer and easier, and
  new switchgear has a higher quality
  feel, and separates the buttons used for
  access and scrolling from the indicator
  switch – before, if you tapped the
  indicator cancel button to double-check
  you hadn’t left them on, it would bring
  up the DTC menu on the go. A change
  made especially to stop Whitey’s piss
  boiling every time we test one...
  Better switches are paired with a
  clearer 5in TFT screen – the readouts
  have been made clearer, and a new
  round mock tacho dial with a ‘needle’
  sweeping round is easier to read
  (though the level of concentration
  required meant I mostly changed gear
  using the big dash-top shift light, and
  feel for when the power eventually tails
  off). The left side of the panel has a big
  speedo – clear enough to note that the
  moment it drifted/spun out of turn one
  it was showing 172kph. What a bike.
  It really feels close to limitless – take
  a deep breath, hurl it at a turn later,
  faster and trailing more brake. It’ll find
  the apex, grip, and let you pick up the
  gas and leap at the outside kerb.
  Ground clearance is huge – only my

personalhabitofhangingtoesoutabit

farstopsitgoingevenmore.Ifyou’rea

bitjuvenileandfancydanglingan

elbowatthekerb,you’llprobablyfindit

withouttoomuchbother.Itgoesfrom

uprighttofullleansofastyou’dswear

thegroundisleapingupatyou.Itnever

getsvague–thosenewSupercorsas

alsohaveasubtlydifferentnewprofile

front and rear to enlarge the contact

patch at the near-horizontal angles the

Pani goads you into reaching.

On another day, I’d find even more

from some subtle changes – firming up

the rear to help keep it flat on the gas a

bit more, maybe put on my big-boy

bollocksandseehowmuchmoreis

unleashed with minimum traction

control intervention. But my physical

limits were a greater issue: the bike lets

youknowthere’smoretocome,your

brain is telling you to do more... but

yourmusclescry‘enough’,andthe

speed at which you can turn in, how

hard you can stop it and how early you

begin the relentless drive through the

revs and gears... By Christ, you need to

hang on.

Itneverletsup–clickfourth,andit

actuallyseemstopullharderasit’sno

longer fighting wheelies and spin, and

Riding position

retains the 1299’s

supreme ability to

control the bike

Bigger, clearer,

easier to use with

better switchgear

‘At the top of fifth, it still

doesn’t feel like the power

is starting to tail off’