I'll give it until May 2018 before there's a long thread complaining about the fixtures and fittings being shit
Ok so I've spoken to a dealer who was at the Ducati dealer conference on Lake Como earlier this week. When pressed over the three leaked photos from the factory we've all now seen, what I did glean was the following: 1. The bike definitely retains the fairing/tank Supersport side extensions 2. The battery and many of the electronics are now mounted under the front end of the fuel tank 3. The TFT dash rather like the new Monster 821, now sports a new layout in as much as it also (a first for Ducati) actually displays the fuel level in the form of a bar graph and this TFT will be rolled out across other models in the months/years to come 4. When showed the leaked photos they were only prepared to say that the bike shown in those images is not representative of the bike they saw earlier this week, as in real life the front end is much much narrower/lighter/leaner and overall physically is very close to Panigale V-twin proportions, compared to the lardy version we have seen so far.
Fair dos. Possibly a first on the Monster 821 and V4 then. More encouraged by the description I got of the bike's slender proportions as opposed to the pics and what they portray.
Thing is, almost everyone hated the looks of the 749/999 bikes when we all saw the photos and video reviews but when you see a 749/999 in the flesh it looks just right assuming no ugly graphics layout. Same same. See it touch it lick it ride it, then decide
To be fair, Ducati could display the fuel level by way of a stack of custard creams and it'd still be as accurate as my translation of accent Egyptian hieroglyphics
The dash on the new 821 looks good, and hopefully they address the screen misting issues that some tft's screens suffer. So the leaked pics id say were a plant to guage / stir press & public. The fairing we seen probably bulbous & camouflaged to hide the bikes shape. Not long now to see / find out about it.
Almost correct. I've been told by a UK dealer (I cannot disclose who) that these pictures (which were taken in a developmental area of the Bologna factory) were most likely doctered in house (some extremely good PS skills here to still give an air of authenticity) or more likely, pre-production bodywork has been fitted (as has been muted many times) before they were "leaked" onto the net. All part of the game and we at least know that the real bike is considerably thinner than these images show the bike to be. When I spoke to the dealer he said that at a glance you could not differentiate it's proportions from those of a Panigale V-twin. The tank is also I am told much more slender than the images we've seen so far. It's not yet clear where exactly the battery sits under the tank, but from what I have been told it is located towards the front of the tank, so most likely it is housed under the forward detachable top panel thus not encroaching into the airbox volume under the tank itself. The side fairings incorporate the extending spars (still not keen on those) but again, as with all of the pictures I showed him, he concurred that the actual bike is much more flowing and petite in terms of bodywork and styling. Music to my ears. He really wasn't prepared to say more than that and he's been asked a lot about it since returning to the UK from the conference. I know the dealers have to respect the NDA and TBH, I don't really want to rain on their unveiling parade, but a few morsels of info now and then can't hurt!!
