PANIGALE SIZE ‘SS’
DUCATI SUPERSPORT A first ride in the hills near Seville in southern Spain did much to underscore the Ducati SuperSport’s penchant for commuting and sports-touring as well as going fast. Here is how the bike revealed its attributes
ON MANY SUPER-SPORTS bikes this ride would be getting uncomfortable and annoying by now. I’m on a twisty back-road in the hills near Seville in the south of Spain, and for the last few miles the surface, which was superb for most of the ride, has been more like something suited to an adventure bike launch: bumpy, potholed and made slippery by occasional patches of gravel as well as dampness from recent rain.
This is hardly traditional Ducati country, but the SuperSport is handling the tricky conditions well. Or, at least, its relatively high handlebars and compliant suspension are making this part of the ride much more enjoyable than it would be on plenty of sports machines, while the 937-cc V-twin engine’s flexible response and gentle power delivery, backed up by traction control and ABS, are making the bike improbably easy to ride.
Improbably easy, that is, only if you take one look at the SuperSport’s name and sleek, fully-faired shape, and expect this latest V-twin to be a hardcore, track-focused weapon like its similarly styled Panigale stable-mates. Because this Ducati is subtly different: designed for commuting and sportstouring as well as going fast; and intended as a more versatile and riderfriendly entry into the world of Bolognese sports models.
In this respect its SuperSport name, initially slightly confusing, is following a Ducati tradition. Sure, the famous beveldrive 750 and 900 Super Sport of the 1970s were uncompromising street racers. But when the name was revived in the late ’80s it was for the 900 Super Sport: a relatively simple, inexpensive air-cooled V-twin alternative to the eightvalve 851. The new SuperSport is much more sophisticated but has a similar role, as a more road-biased and affordable alternative to the 959 and 1299 Panigale.
There’s certainly a distinct Panigale look to the new bike’s sleek, fully-faired shape, with its low screen, clip-on handlebars, slim seat unit, and glimpses of a black-finished V-twin engine. But closer examination reveals that the screen can be raised to increase wind protection, and the clip-on bars, bolted above the top triple-clamp, rise a few more centimetres to give a much more upright riding position than the Panigale’s racy crouch.
The SuperSport comes in two varieties. The standard model, finished in Ducati’s traditional red with black wheels, has fully-adjustable Marzocchi forks and a Sachs rear shock that is adjustable for preload and rebound damping. The upmarket SuperSport S, which comes in the same paintwork or in white with red wheels, wears fullyadjustable Öhlins units at both ends, and includes the two-way quick-shifter and colour-matched pillion seat-cover that cost extra with the standard bike.
In other respects the two models are identical, both powered by the Testastretta 11° engine as fitted to the Hypermotard and Multistrada 950. The liquid-cooled, eight-valve desmo lump’s core components are unchanged but it has a new ride-by-wire system and a twin-silencer exhaust. If the maximum output of 113 PS at 9,000 rpm sounds unspectacular, bear in mind that Ducati’s legendary 916 flagship made an almost identical amount, which seemed like plenty at the time.
The cylinder-heads and crankcases are also strengthened to allow the engine to form a stressed member of the chassis, by being mounted solidly in the tubular steel trellis frame. This is closely related to the Monster 821’s frame but modified to allow parts, including the headlamp assembly, to be bolted directly to it. The single-sided aluminium swingarm is also borrowed from the Monster, working a shock mounted diagonally on the right of the bike.
The SuperSport isn’t quite as aggressively styled as the Panigales but it still looks sleek and sporty. That impression very much remained when I climbed aboard to find the red paintwork extending inside the fairing, and a neat LED instrument console displaying digital speed below an analogue tacho bar and row of warning lights. Above that was the screen which, like that of BMW’s R 1200 RS, can be raised or lowered by 50 millimetres simply by pulling or pushing it.
Given the SuperSport’s road focus I was glad to start the launch in southern Spain with a street ride on the standard Ducati, leaving the track-test of the S-model for later. Especially when my group of Italian journalists set off at a healthy pace on the damp road. I started with the bike in Urban, its softest riding mode, but that cuts power and felt boringly flat even in the wet, so I switched to Touring, which gave full power with a relatively gentle throttle action.
In both that and the sharper Sport mode the Ducati was more than quick enough to be fun, giving a respectably sweet throttle response from barely off idle, at least in the lower gears. The motor’s broad torque spread helped make the bike easy to ride in the damp. Ducati say the Testastretta lump produces 80 per cent of its maximum torque output from just 3,000 rpm, and 90 per cent of that figure between 5,000 rpm and 9,000 rpm.
It certainly felt that way, as the SuperSport rumbled forward enthusiastically even when the tacho was showing less than the 6,500-rpm figure at which that peak output is produced. It stayed pretty smooth, too, even up near the 10 grand limit, although the mirrors got blurry at times. When the road opened out, a brief burst of acceleration quickly put 175 km/h on the speedo before I had to slow, well short of the top speed of about 230 km/h.
On the faster sections I was glad that I’d been able to increase weather protection by raising the screen, which was just about possible while riding (though not at high speed). Even the taller setting only took some wind off