Auto-blipper envy after riding my mate’s Panigale

There are three of us who are planning a trackday season on newly acquired bikes. I'm on a 2014 Ducati 1199, Paul has a 1299, and Steve is riding a 2013 R1. Paul bravely let us both have a go on his bike once he'd run it in, and we were really impressed by his auto-blip downshift function. I wondered if it would be possible to retro-fit the set-up to my bike and are there aftermarket kits out there for the R1?

Rupert McCarthy, email Answered by Chris Dabbs, MCN

Even though you and Paul are both on Ducatis you can't just get a system which is the same as the one on his bike. The 1299 (and the 2015 1199R) both have a bi-directional shift sensor for up/down sensing and different wiring. And the later bikes have an inertial platform for lean anglebased braking, which means different software in the dash. So you are really looking at taking all of the 1299 electrical parts which then leaves you a big re-map headache. So you and Paul have got to go the aftermarket route. Both your bikes are ride-by-wire models so that gives you access to the latest kit. The older, mechanical systems are quite limited, using air pressure in the manifold, which varies by revs. On your Ducati and R1 the Blip Box (around £665 from Bike Sport Developments) is a simple plug-andplay with a 'second blip' that holds up the revs a little for better rev/gear matching.