Is this the fastest thing you can legally ride?
This road-registered machine feels anything but legal, delivering outrageous thrills.
Motoring
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I’ve never flown a fighter jet into battle, but I have ridden Ducati’s Panigale V4 S, and that’s pretty much the same thing.
Don’t believe me?
Ask former Top Gun instructor and F/A-18 Hornet pilot Vincent Aiello, an author who will tell you high-performance super bikes are the closest you or I might come to experiencing the thrill of air combat.
And nothing will get take to the danger zone faster than this Ducati.
Powered by an 1103cc V4 “Desmosedici Stradale” engine developed from Ducati’s dominant MotoGP team, it makes a staggering 159kW (or 216 horsepower) while weighing just 187 kilos.
MORE: Riding Ducati’s Multistrada V4 RS.
It’s difficult to put those numbers into context.
It’s like a fast-forward button for when the world is moving too slowly.
Or a personal roller coaster you control with your right wrist.
Or a fighter plane you can ride to the office.
Jet jockeys and Panigale pilots have much in common, including unwavering self-belief, the use of wings to stay in control, and the need to exercise their vehicles in government-approved locations.
Both feel as though they could break the sound barrier inside city limits, but neither are allowed to do so.
MORE: Riding Harley-Davidson’s Softail
A bike that hits 160km/h in first gear (and more than 300km/h in sixth) must be exercised on track from time to time.
The Panigale’s rampant acceleration is unlike anything I’ve experienced on four wheels.
Sure, there are fast cars out there.
But they don’t feel like they’ll rip your arms off under heavy throttle, and they don’t work out your arms, thighs and abdomen when braking from speed.
They don’t assault you with cyclone force winds, frenzied vibration and a snarling, serrated roar you can hear days later.
This engine is nothing short of a triumph. It will go down in history as one of the greatest motors offered to motorcyclists of any era.
Bikes like this are a visceral experience that get under your skin in a manner that feels almost sinful.
MORE: Riding GWM’s ‘V8’ motorcycle
No one needs a Panigale in the shed.
But some folks burn with a lustful passion for these machines.
The good news is that this MotoGP bike for the road was developed for folks who aren’t professional riders.
Heavily revised for 2025, the bike has a bigger seat that accommodates the – ahem – potentially larger posteriors of middle-aged people ready to drop fat stacks of cash on a shiny red bike, while giving jockey-sized athletes more room to shift their weight from front to back, and side to side.
Comparatively wide handlebars make it easier to live with than some sports bikes, and optional cruise control makes highway motoring less of a torture session.
It has smarter electronics to help save riders from themselves, including traction control, wheelie control and cornering ABS with a clever interlinked braking system that helps elicit maximum braking power from the rear tyre.
Priced from $49,300 ride-away, the Panigale V4 S is packed with hardware that makes riders dribble, including race-spec Brembo brakes, gooey Pirelli rubber and active Ohlins suspension.
The bike’s brain listens to 70 electronic sensors, taking a variety of factors into account to help you go faster than ever, in relative safety.
Running changes to the chassis saw Ducati dispense with its traditional (and stylish) single-sided swingarm in favour of a more conventional unit designed to offer a touch of confidence-inspiring flexibility when riding on the side of those massive tyres.
The outrageous performance potential of modern rubber required engineers to throw away their usual rules to develop a bike capable of 60-degree lean angles – the sort of insanity that can have riders dragging their elbow and shoulder along a smooth racetrack surface.
Back on the road, the genius of the Panigale is how flexible and adaptable it can be in real-world conditions.
A wet weather riding mode limits power and heightens the sensitivity of safety systems to help you stay upright. Road, Sport and Race modes dial up the aggression incrementally, working with suspension that reads the road and your riding style, making constant adjustments to deliver the right balance of compliance and support.
There’s a scalpel-like precision to every element of the bike that makes it truly addictive to ride.
Naturally, there are more than a few compromises to such a focused machine.
For starters, there’s no fuel gauge. And that 17 litre tank doesn’t last long when you’re up it – this is a bike that will pass anything except a service station.
The nuclear reactor of a motor generates enormous amounts of heat. That’s no bad thing on cool mornings or at highway speeds, but it’s genuinely unpleasant in stop-start traffic.
And then there’s the matter of relevance. What do you do with a bike like this?
Do you risk life, limb and licence by riding it daily on the street?
Does it become a lounge room ornament?
Do you become a track addict?
Ducati describes the bike as “magical and irrational”, with an appeal that transcends common sense.
Until you feel the need for speed.
DUCATI PANIGALE V4 S
PRICE From $49,300 ride-away
POWER 1103cc V4, 159kW and 120NM
WARRANTY Two-year, unlimited kilometre
SAFETY ABS, traction control, wheelie control, stability control
THIRST 6.5L/100km
Originally published as Is this the fastest thing you can legally ride?
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