The big Duke was a beast on track.
”I think I can make it to the fuel stati… Oh!”
At £24,795, the V4S is unsurprisingly the dearest bike in USB 2020, and it was one of the bikes that I was secretly the most excited to ride. Last year the V4S impressed us all on the road and on the track with its phenomenal engine – but it was a bit of a handful unless you were a WSBK spec rider. For 2020, Ducati told us that they’ve acknowledged that, and worked hard to make the package easier to live with. They’ve engineered 30% less torsional rigidity into the chassis, they’ve altered the geometry, given us a wider fairing and taller screen and improved the traction control and wheelie strategy. Oh, and bolted on a pair of wings to the side of it for good measure. The only hang-up I had with the Duke last year was that it was a bit highly strung, so if they had managed to calm it down a little bit, the new V4S had the potential to be a world beater.