Street Missile

‘This Ducati wasn’t built for a lazy life. It’s 1,103 cc of bright red barking desmodromic V4. The bareknuckle prizefighter doesn’t have another bike to brawl with today’

Story: Roland Brown Photography: Phil Masters

It’s good to have an incentive to ride a fast bike as its designers intended and my need to return the streetfighter v4 s to ducati’s UK base at the silverstone circuit in the english Midlands by 4.00 pm looks ideal. it’s now just gone 2.00 pm and google Maps estimates just over two hours to get there, via a nonmotorway route from where we have finished taking photos somewhere south of London.

riding a powerful, ultra-light naked superbike should make it easy to beat that schedule, right? But i’ll need a fuel stop on the way, plus a rainwear stop if i catch a thunderstorm. My phone is clamped to the handlebar and hard to see in bright sunlight, so there’s a fair chance i’ll take a wrong turn. and the phone’s low battery level means i’ll be lucky to reach more familiar roads before it dies.

Just enough doubt to make things interesting then, giving me a choice between taking it slightly easy and staying on course or upping the pace in the hope that there’s time to miss a turn or two and still make it. on the streetfighter there’s no discussion. this ducati wasn’t built for a lazy life. it’s 1,103 cc of bright red barking desmodromic v4. the bare-knuckle prizefighter doesn’t have another bike to brawl with today, but, at least, it can attempt to beat the clock.