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Ducati Panigale 959
Road Test This might be Ducati's
entry-level sport bike, or what Ducati calls a Super-Mid level bike, but it's no
toy.
Where the smaller Ducati's like
the 748, 749, 848 may always have been considered second class to some Ducatisti,
you could never accuse the 899 or the 959 Panigale of being anything but
full-blown Italian superbikes. The harder you ride it the better it becomes. The
more you work the front, the better it feels, and the earlier you get on the gas
the more it digs on and loves it. My theory is that Ducati even
parked it on stage in Milan last week so the pipes were pointing away from the
audience. But Ducati had no choice but to meet the new rules, and this is how
they got round it. It works much better when you see it than in pics. Trust me
on that, or go and see it at the NEC for Motorcycle Live on the Ducati stand
next week. But there's more. It's more refined, hits a touch harder At high revs it sounds angry and still sounds every bit the booming 955cc Ducati it is. And in the metal, the cans look great. You'll be pleased to know there's also a set of Akrapovic slip-on cans, and a full race exhaust system available as options from a Ducati dealer.
The Akrapovic slip-ons feature a
neat grill which blues up nicely after use. It looks MotoGP-spec. It may be almost 1000cc but has
lost none of the rev-happy charm of the 899, and like the bike it replaces, it's
so engaging to ride and oh so thrashable on track. The 899 was a treat, this is
even better. It's not a big jump up but it is a good step-up in terms of
performance, refinement and rideability all-round. Yet still has 7500 miles
between service limits and valve clearance inspections every 15,000 miles.
Impressive. They're all conventionally
adjustable with a good old-fashioned screwdriver rather than the superfly
semi-active set-up on the £21,050 Ducati 1299 Panigale S, or the similar
conventional set-up on the 1299 Panigale at £17,025.
Unsurprisingly, the 400cc difference between the super-mid and the superbike means it feels very different to ride to the big monstrously powerful 1299 Panigale. Where that is all about getting it in to a corner and getting it settled before using every single sinew in your body to hang on to the brute force torque and 200bhp power force it delivers. The 959 Panigale never feels that fast, but you know it's getting a move on and a good rider on an 959 wouldn’t get left behind by a 1299 rider. You have to work it, rev it, make it and you work for your lunch but when you do it pays you back. Big time. Because of the heavier Euro 4
pipes and sound deadening inside the fairing the bike is actually slightly
heavier than the 899 at 176kg, compared to 169kg for the older bike. But it
makes up for it with an extra 6 per cent more power, which translates to 157bhp.
The 899 made a claimed 148bhp. The 1299 weighs in at 166.5kg dry and uses a
single-sided swingarm. The track at Valencia, or the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as it’s officially called, is tight and twisty and the 959 Panigale laps it up. Get it from 8000rpm and it pulls cleanly off the corner with a nice feeling to the rear tyre, what feels like a smoother power curve, though it’s subtle, and a more linear feeling from the throttle. Not mentioned in the press details is that they have lengthened the gearing with a new rear sprocket.
The motor feels subtly more
punchy on track, but it's on the road where you'll really notice the changes to
the extra torque and horsepower. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to ride the 959
on the road but I’m sure the changes will be even more noticeable.
Cook it in hard at the end of the straight though and you'll feel the Brembo Monobloc brakes aren't quite up to the spec you'd like. Maybe a change of pads would help? But I felt they sometimes lacked the power I was looking for and a few times there was a lot of lever travel. Upgrading to the more expensive Brembo M50 calipers would cure this. It’s never bad, but could be improved, and as the rest of the bike gets better and faster the brakes could do with a tweak too. Also, the bike features electronic engine braking which helps the bike settle into a corner to run faster corner speed. This gets rid of some of the natural effect of a big V-twin’s engine braking, and stops the engine slowing you down rapidly on the overrun, allowing you to run into corners hotter. ombined with the great new
slipper clutch and it's all about running in hot and getting away with massive
corner entry.
But when you're in the corner it
feels great and you get a great connection with the rear tyre from the throttle
when you're in Race mode. The first session in the morning
saw the bike set to Road mode. where big handfuls of throttle would make the
traction control kick in and make it bog coming off corners. But, it was on the
setting you'd use on the road to give us a feeling of what that might be like.
ater, on the Race setting the more you ride the bike harder, get it stuck in on
its nose and feel the front-end, the more involving it feels and the faster you
can ride it. As I got braver you can really take liberties with the electronics
package too. The ABS never cut-in, and on Race setting the traction-control
never got in the way. It allowed a bit of slide at the rear, and the front to
lift off corners in a wheelie as it powered out. There’s no adjustable wheelie
control like on the 1299 Panigale, and it also lacks the auto-blipper downshift
system, which is shame, but keeps the price down a touch. I love big power bikes but
they're always slightly terrifying on the road, where the 959 always feels
manageable and gives you the impression you're riding it, and you’re in charge
rather than it riding you like the 1299 sometimes can if you’re not on your
game. Source bennetts.co.uk
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Any corrections or more information on these motorcycles will be kindly appreciated. |