RULE BREAKER

In 2012, Ducati rewrote the V-twin sportsbike rulebook with the 1199 Panigale...

- JON URRY

With Alvaro Bautista finally bringing Ducati a long-awaited World Superbike title (after a barren spell of more than a decade!), it’s easy to forget that the Panigale wasn’t always a V4. And in many ways, Ducati would probably like its fans to overlook the V-twin Panigale models because they were, in terms of track success anyway, the black sheep in the Bologna sportsbike family. Yep, despite seven years of trying, this groundbreaking V-twin was the only model in Ducati’s WSB-homologated range to not win a WSB championship. But track success (or lack of it...) aside, is a used 1199 Panigale now worth considering? It’s a Ducati sportsbike, of course it is – although you do need to know what you are getting yourself into, as it’s not a traditional Ducati...

Released in 2012 in standard, high-spec S and Tricolore (which was basically an S with a flash Italian-flag homage paint job and a few extras), the Panigale was a revolutionary machine for Ducati. Named after the district of Bologna that the factory is located in, the Panigale was a ground-up new model that introduced a heap of both physical and computing cutting-edge tech.

Starting with the engine, the all-new Superquadro motor may be a 90-degree V-twin with a desmo valve system but these are the only things (okay, and 1198cc capacity) it has in common with older models. Massively over-square in its design, the Superquadro dumps Ducati’s traditional cam belts in favour of cam chains, and with them boosts power up to a claimed 195bhp while also extending service intervals. That’s the good news; the bad news is that it won’t be to everyone’s tastes, as with this new design comes a very different character...