Would someone please tell me I don't want a new Panigale please? It will be no better than my 1198, that kind of thing. It's a nagging itch - stupid as I adore my bike, think its bloody gorgeous, fantastic and I still prefer the looks of it to the Panigale. It's just, well, ummm... (What's the main difference between the 1199 and 1199S? Is it the suspension and exhaust, or is there more than that? Other than price!!!)
Same exhaust, standard ones. As far as I know extras the S comes with are Ohlins suspension, marchesini wheels, carbon front mud guard, LED lights and I think the S is set up ready for the DDA stuff (although I'm not sure whether they all are). I could tell you you don't want one, but to be honest I had that itch and it only got worse. Go test ride one, either the itch will be cured or you'll scratch it. I scratched and it was a good scratch XD
I was filling the Pani up yesterday and a guy walked over and said "I f@£$king love those bikes. I so want one" Not only do you want want one but the guys looking at you want one too.
Is the differences between the standard (reluctant to use the word base on a £16k bike!) and S machines worth the difference? I really want the electronic suspension but curious If it's a gimmick. Has anybody been lucky enough to test a pair back to back?
I bought the S after testriding the base model and the S feels better when riding hard or on rough roads (when set softer, race mode on bumpy roads is rather erm interesting shall we say!) either that or I'm just getting used to the bike and riding smoother at any rate. I did a good tank of petrol on the base model testriding and I've now done 700 miles on the S and I'm definitely happy I got the S. My personal decision was based on the fact that lots of reviews mention that the power of the bike is a bit much for the chassis to handle without getting out of shape so I figured I needed all the help I could get to get the power down to the road smoothly. It wasn't so much the fact that you have the electronic adjustments, it's more the fact that its the Ohlins. Not to say that the base suspension is anything shabby but I wanted to really ride the bike so for me it's worthwhile. If you are going to do limited mileage and not thrash it around too much then maybe it's better to save the cash and get the base model which is pretty damn awesome anyhow.
