2019 DUCATI PANIGALE V4 R
FIRST IMPRESSION
P116
aluminum swingarm delivers a
seemingly rangy 57.9-inch wheel-
base, despite which the V4 R
likes to wheelie under hard accel-
eration, and there's now a choice
of four positions for the swingarm
pivot in 2mm increments.
The Ohlins Smart EC 2.0
suspension found on the V4 S is
missing from the V4 R, because
electronic suspension is banned
from WorldSBK. Instead, the V4
R features a 0.6kg lighter me-
chanically adjusted TiN-coated
43mm Ohlins NPX 25/30 pres-
surised gas fork, which combines
well with the TTX-36 rear shock
to deliver a huge amount of con-
fidence, coupled with a sense of
agility that I wasn't prepared for
from the V4 R's chassis package.
However, having been fortu-
nate enough to test ride every
single factory WorldSBK machine
year on year between 1988 and
2015, the new Ducati's practi-
cally dainty handling strongly
reminded me in the way it steered
of the 750cc Castrol Honda
RC45 with which John Kocinski
won the WorldSBK title in 1997.
That earlier Japanese 90° V4
Superbike combined two often
