I've only seen a couple of Panigales up close. Had to toot both of them to get past... 195bhp is only worth having if you're prepared to use it.
I think a fair few are. Unfortunately to some, Ducati is the sportsbike equivalent of owning a Harley to the wealthy man having a mid life crisis. A few weeks ago at the JHP open day, they had a Panigale with all the bodywork removed. I had a (very brief) discussion with just such a person who insisted it WASNT a Panigale as it only had two cylinders!
WARNING: DUCATI SNOB ALERT!! so whats wrong with being an aspirational brand? Isnt that what attracts most of us; something different which shows either you have fantastic discernible taste or have made good in your life...or have enough wonga to repair the fecking thing as it breaks every 5 miles As a 25yr old watching foggy win WSB on a bike costing 20K v one from the japs costing 6K all added up to wanting one. And when I got one, it was just as he OP describes....slack cutting needed eh
Nothing wrong with the brand, i just meant it does sometimes attract people who buy a Ducati or a Harley for one reason only and it has feck all to do with enjoying riding the bike and everything to do with their own sense of social climbing!
i think its a case of them probably just breaking in there engine , also there are some good ducati's in the recent past , but if you havent a ducati then i think the panigale is the one to have if your after one , theres one gripe i have with ducati's of recent past and its the dry clutch sound , i absolutley hate it , it sounds god awful to me and just does my head in , im so glad the panigale doesnt have it , i know some people like the dry clutch sound but sorry its not for me . the 1199 ducati panigale , what a jem of a name , i can only imagine myself not liking the bike , i think im gonna have to really try to get used to it , comin from a jap inline 4 it will be quite differant .
One point though the pannigale is the most advanced bike yet from Ducati, running up there with the newest BM HP4 with all this active suspension malarky ABS Traction control , what are you newer Ducati owners going to be able to do other than change the key fob .
This was also extremely true when the 916 was the hot-poop bike to have. Suddenly a whole raft of people became Ducati owners who hitherto hadn't been, and no doubt many of them moved on to whatever hot-poop bike you then had to have. But most of us will be guilty of having a bike which exceeds our abilities, exceeds road conditions, because we like the kudos ownership brings. The kudos is one of the things you are paying for. It's disingenuous to pretend it's not a factor in bike choice. I'm not down on Panigale owners for submitting to the temptation. I'd just be down on Panigale owners who creep about using none of their bike's assets and who'd disappear into your mirrors if you were on a CB500. But the same holds for any superbike owners. All the gear and no idea?
the bm hp4 is just mind blowingly good , its imense , the engine is so refined and all the gizmo's with it , its a wonder how bikes can get better !!
What I don't get is the number of people that buy these expensive machines (and a lot of Ducati owners are guilty of this) and don't ride them. A bike is to be ridden in my book. I've had mine six weeks now and I've put 1500 miles on the clock. I know it's not a huge number but I can't tell you the number of story's I've heard about bikes being sold after years of the same ownership with just over a 1000 miles in the clock. The bike's are hardly run in!
Ride them? Are you mad? They're not meant to be ridden. They're just a blank canvas for turning into a carbon and billet aluminium collage.
...and ridden hard and as its meant to be too ET. But I appreciate not all are the same, some like the joy of owning the machine rather than seeing what it can do. Still happy to chats bikes and bullshit with them
The Duc has to be ridden (and I don't mean pootling like you can with IL4 1000cc's) otherwise its just God awfully uncomfortable on the wrists.
Remember when the R1 first came out? So many of those ended up as very low mileage almost new bikes in the classifieds as people scared themselves silly
You've not heard a panigale running yet, have you..? My point exactly. I'm not a great rider by any stretch of the imagination, but you don't buy a near-200bhp bike and ride it like Driving Miss Daisy. Obviously some people do.
