Ducati 1199 Panigale
Ducati 1199 Panigale
PREVIEW
Familiar Italian passion with clean-sheet thinking
IF YOU’RE A DUCATISTA, you’ve got to be excited. Sweaty palms, heavy breathing, the whole “I can’t wait” enchilada. Ducati has built its first all-new superbike in more than 30 years, and everyone with even the faintest interest in Italian sporting motorcycles is anxiously awaiting the opportunity to see one in the flesh. Or better yet, to ride one.
Two design elements that are not new are the 1198cc engine’s 90-degree V-Twin cylinder layout and desmodromic valve gear. Those parts of the Ducati heritage were too valuable to abandon, but the rest of this “Superquadro” engine reflects clean-sheet thinking.
It has, for instance, a massive 112mm bore and a very short 60.8mm stroke, giving it the kind of bore-stroke ratio (1.84:1) normally found only on Formula One race cars and Ducati’s MotoGP Fours. Such a radical approach was deemed necessary to allow a redline of 11,500 rpm in street trim and even more for racing. Those kinds of revs are needed to achieve the desired horsepower output, which Ducati claims is 195 at 10,750 measured at the crank—stratospheric numbers for a oneliter, street-legal V-Twin.
What’s more, the engine is the primary frame structure, just like the V-Four in Ducati’s 2011 MotoGP racer. A monocoque aluminum steering-head bracket that also serves as the airbox bolts to the engine in the front, the swingarm doing likewise in the rear. Footpeg brackets cantilever from the engine, not from a nolonger-existent frame. Eleven pounds of the Panigale’s 22-pound weight advantage over the 1198 are attributed to this design approach.
On the chassis side of the Panigale, the direction was to make it as close as possible to the works Ducati Superbikes while allowing it to be more approachable. The change in riding position is particularly significant, with the seat-to-handlebar dimension shrinking by about 1 % in., the handlebars rising by 3/8 in. and the bars widening by more than an inch. The feeling of doing a continual pushup around a track should be gone and street comfort enormously improved.
Although the wheelbase on the Panigale is just 56.6 in., a quarter-inch longer than that of the 1198, it’s a half-inch shorter than on the works SBK machines; the increased maneuverability was judged better for most riders than full racing geometry. Rake is set at 24.5 degrees with trail at 3.97 in.—exactly the same as on the works bikes, with Vs-in. more trail than on the 1198. The normal resultant increase in steering effort is offset by the 1199’s lighter overall weight.
There are three models of the Panigale: standard, “S” and “Tricolore,” with two different suspensions. The standard version comes fitted with a very light, 50mm, gas-pressurized Marzocchi fork with hard-anodized aluminum stanchion tubes and a gas-charged Sachs shock. The more-expensive models run Öhlins equipment with their mechatronic damper adjustment: Tiny stepper motors are built into fork and shock, replacing knobs and clickers, and allowing damping values to be varied automatically with the push of a button. The Panigale also has an electronic quickshifter, traction control and the possibility of anti-lock braking (standard only on the Tricolore). And almost every aspect of machine performance can be adjusted via buttons on the left handlebar switch, with visual feedback appearing on the dash.
During the Panigale’s entire R&D process, the bike's codename was "Extreme," and that also describes the lengths of enthusiasm that were brought to its development. Everyone at Ducati involved in the project seems to have unlimited ambitions for this all-new superbike. Our first impression is that their enthusiasm may well be deserved.
