I hope it is a proper race weapon and Ducati offer it with a race exhaust and other needed parts from new. It's depressing that no one club races big Panigales in the UK due to needing R money to do so. It's not likely to change since you'll probably need £35-40k to go racing on the V4R compared to ~£20-25k for every other brand for a new bike. Pretty much everyone will crash at some point in the season racing and £35-40k is mega money to start the season club racing before you have considered all the after market companies jumping on the band wagon with inflated prices for replacement parts. If I buy something next year I want to be able to race it the year after and that's going to be much more likely on a £20k BMW than a £32k V4R. It's still very tempting as a track day only toy I suppose....
Obvs, I have no idea which Desmo you rode. I had a go on one on the road back when they first came out, back to back with my 1098s at that time. It was magnificent to ride. Practically rode itself and was very compliant. Nothing like an "utter pig".
I was actually considering that and looked at trying a race or two this year to see how it went but I can't even fit a belly pan with the stock exhaust so would need to spend a couple of grand on a new exhaust before I can even get through scrutineering. The end of finance lump sum will be around £16k or more which is enough to buy a fully spec'd up Superstock bike as well which makes it a bit of a no brainer.
WSB homologation rules restrict the price Ducati can charge for the V4R to €40,000. Basic price of the V4S is £35k without the expensive trick materials everyone assumes will be in the V4R engine. IMO, there will be no budget capacity to include a race exhaust in addition to the EU4 compliant road exhaust or race suitable wheels. I can however see the V4R being a wholly unsuitable bike for the road as will the new S100RR if you are to believe the conjecture where in the rev band and how much power it makes. As an aside, I learned today that Moto Rapido’s 2018 Rider’s Cup winning bike is up for sale. If you have the cash, there is also a spares package so ready to race. A word of caution though, BSB rules, NO TRACTION CONTROL ! If you want it you need to be able to tame it Andy
Admittedly I only had a short ride out of Silverstone and down the A43 and back on one, but I found it a bit crap. The engine was lumpy on anything other than >2/3 throttle, it was a pain in the arse to get up to temperature as you can't rev it (or even ride it) when it's below 60deg and until the gearbox was hot, it was crap to shift and clunky. When you nail it, it was mega (although the throttle was really snatchy from off to on. Plus, you wouldn't see which way a modern bike went on it
Lol. So you had a go on a 'Racebike on the road' that was freezing cold and for 5 mins and at that point all Desmos are rubbish?
That statement would carry a little more weight if you hadn’t been standiing in front of a mirror when you posted it Andy
Perhaps the example I rode was not like the norm. Like I said, I only had a quick blast on it for 30 mins or so. Lovely bike, and loads of cool details, but the one I rode didn't like to be ridden anything but full on
As mentioned above that's the Speciale price isn't it? the normal V4S is ~£23,500. The rumours I heard were that the V4R will be £32,000 but I guess £35,000 wouldn't surprise me since the Speciale costs what it does. One thing I know for sure is there's no way I'll be paying an extra £4500 or whatever it is for a race exhaust. The current R has wheels from the S model and pretty decent manual suspension so I'd imagine the V4R will do the same? I understand the pressure Ducati is under for homologation etc but in my mind they should be offering a track bike without all the road junk. As you say they its unlikely to be road friendly anyhow!
Pete Hickmans BSB bike was £35,000 and the Martin Jessops Riders TT bike is up for the same at the moment so I'm guessing MotoRapidos Panigale is mega money and way out of my capabilities. I'm guessing the mapping is better than a road 1199R so it works ok without Traction Control? I used to regularly ride my 1199S with the electronics off but the R mapping is vicious and tries to kill you without the electronics on a little bit! The mid range dip kicks back in with vengeance and tries to chuck you into orbit!!
No traction in BSB is a misleading statement. And I’m sure it can go back on easy enough I do wonder what that bike would cost.
Yes you are right, got my prices mixed up. Not sure which of the 14 or 15 variations of race exhuast used on the prototype during testing will end up on the final version but a pound to a pinch it won’t be cheap. Andy
I don’t think it would be that simple, as BSB bikes all run Motec Dash, ECU, sensors and loom which doesn’t have TC settings as standard You’d either have to get a motec engineer to write it in (they’re not cheap), or flog it all on (good money if you can find a buyer) and buy all the standard stuff with tc and swap it all
