2016 DUCATI 959 PANIGALE
FIRST RIDE
P42
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MILAGRO
T
he penultimate corner of
the Circuit de la Comunitat
Valenciana Ricardo Tormo
in Spain showcases one of the
great spectacles in motorcy-
cling. It's a semi-blind, initially
rising left hander that swoops
dramatically downward to a ultra
tight left hairpin, and is one of
those corners that begs you,
pleads for you, to attack it harder
than you did the lap before. It
makes you happy to be a motor-
cycle rider.
This is the corner where Marc
Marquez is at his brilliant best,
sliding and drifting the rear of his
million-dollar missile in a show
of utter contempt for the laws of
physics. I am not of his talent.
Nor is my steed of his speed.
But that matters not because,
right now, I'm having the time of
my life.
Through the famous left, the
2016 Ducati 959 Panigale is sim-
ply glued to the tarmac, helped
to no end by the race-spec
Pirelli SC2 soft compound rubber
adorning the 10-spoke wheels.
The chassis is communicating
with the clarity of an iPhone with
full reception, the front and rear
only slightly snaking and shaking,
Ducati's new 959 Panigale is one of the
few bikes that inspire such confidence you
feel like a Master of Puppets.
MOTO PUPPETRY
cont. on page 48
