Everyone’s favorite street racer/personal trainer/male model/art director/fashion designer, Adey, just borrowed a Ducati 1199 Panigale for a couple days from Beverly Hills Ducati. You know what he did with it too, The Snake. Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for, a real rider on a real road on the world’s fastest motorcycle.
Update: two more videos added. :continue:
This 23-photo sequence shows South African Superbike rider Chris Leeson crashing his Ducati 1199 Panigale in Turn 1 at the Kyalami Race Track. Chris was entering the turn at high speed when he lost the front over the track’s notoriously bumpy pavement. No major injuries, to the rider at least. As you can see in the photos, the Ducati sheds pretty much every major sticky-outy part.
Snapped at NOLA Motorsports Park by Pro Italia, dozens of identical Ducati 1199 Panigales are lined up in the pits, ready for the brand’s dealer introduction. Riding the bike on the track, speaking to its designers and engineers and learning how to work on the new superbike enables dealers to better serve their customers with real knowledge and experience. For us it’s just a rare opportunity to see so many of this year’s new Duc in one place.
We’ve previously published CAD renders of what’s underneath the Ducati 1199’s fairings, but Ducati just released these studio photos of the bike, naked. Nothing new is revealed, but these high-res, wallpaper-ready images do emphasize just how compact the “frameless” design is; there’s virtually no free real estate anywhere in the 1199’s 56.6-inch wheelbase. :continue:
Penned by Giandrea Fabbro, also responsible for the 1098 and Multistrada 1200, these sketches reveal the process behind the Ducati 1199 Panigale’s design. If you haven’t yet seen the bike in person, it’s a radical twist on the sportsbike theme. The diminutive size — think 250GP bike — accentuates the organic lines, at once evoking the classic proportions of the 916 while taking a big step into the future. :continue:
“Ducati 1199: so light, powerful, stable, comfy and easy to ride with a cockpit full of tech stuff to keep you busy playing all day,” says Troy Bayliss. Because Sean decided to run into a lampost instead of go on the bike’s press launch in Abu Dhabi, here’s riding impressions from the retired SBK racer instead, as well as an onboard video of him lapping Yas Marina. :continue:
Italian magazine Motociclismo snagged the opportunity to film a pre-production Ducati 1199 Panigale undergoing dyno testing. No word on numbers yet — they’re likely embargoed until close to the bike’s February launch date — but this is a good opportunity to listen to the 1199 running away from a perfectly composed promo video. Does this sound like a 195bhp v-twin to you? :continue:
195bhp. 1,199cc. 112mm pistons. 60.8mm stroke. Chain/gear driven cams. This is the engine that powers the Ducati 1199 Panigale, the most powerful production v-twin ever. :continue:
We’ve covered the Ducati 1199 Panigale extensively. From engine analysis, to how it stacks up against the competition, to the sound, now that we’ve seen the Panigale in person, it’s obvious that the Panigale is the return to form we’ve all been waiting for. As you can tell with Nicky Hayden standing next to the 1199, the thing is absolutely tiny. We’re talking Aprilia RS250 tiny. Even better, and only apparent in viewing the bike in the round is that there’s absolutely no such thing as a bad angle to be found. Yeah, there were half naked models walking around and the free Peroni was great, but everyone, even the nonbelievers, only had eyes for the bike. Welcome back, Ducati. :continue:
This is Valentino Rossi checking out the new, still camo’d, Ducati 1199 Panigale. Rossi’s tiny (5’ 11”), but doesn’t this photo make the new Duc look distinctly human-sized? After his first sit, the MotoGP rider described the bike as “a gem.”
Photo: Danilo Petrucci
