I love my 1098 on track. Having said that it requires quite a lot of rider input and the slow gear changes are a bit of a pain but I guess that could be part of the 'more involving to ride' you mention. I had a ZX10r which was immense but was just so good I didn't get the same buzz as riding the Ducati. I'm concerned I might feel the same about the Panigale.
Just got off a zx10r and on to a 1299 and the Pani is way more involving and rewarding to ride. Saying that the top end on the big kwacker was an absolute riot
Flick the Pani into race mode. The 11 is easier to ride in a smooth fashion with a slipper clutch. Then its very fast indeed. I found as soon as you come off the throttle, the engine braking became intrusive and would slow you down too much, so that you'd turn in too early. Remove the engine braking and you can turn in at your leisure. I then found my corner speed improved consequently. The bike felt more settled and I could be braver into, thru and exiting corners. i.e I could turn in as late as my underwear would permit. The only time I find engine braking handy are the tight hair pins after tight hairpins or basically lots of slow corners one after another. I prefer a flowing more open environment, however now I have a pani I can mix n match and have started to put slow corners together much better than I could previously. Obviously all the above is empirical and I am a reasonably quick road rider and no track legend.
Ducati’s need to be ridden differently to I4 bikes if you are trying to go fast on a track. An I4 is good and piling into a corner, sharp turning and then powering out but Ducatis need higher corner speed and more of a sweeping line in order to take advantage of the better side grip maintained by a V2 over the I4.
Please don't show me. I've just bought a 1299 and my bank balance can't handle it even if I want one and keep looking.
1198's are simply amazing bikes, and have to agree with @cookster being one of the best Ducati's out there. Currently massively underrated in my opinion but it does look like the world is waking up to this and people are starting to realise this. The 1198 was the grand finale from Ducati to mark the end of an era in their superbike production and a demonstration of what 25 years progression through R&D can result in. Its the last Superbike they will ever make where the riders right hand is what keeps it on the road without the aid of the electronic wizardry we are seeing on production bikes now. If you can bag a good one now, I don't think you'll ever regret it and I don't think it would be a bad place to invest some cash either...
I think the 1198 is (along with the 998 etc in 2nd place) the prettiest Duc ever made , but it does have some elec wizardry with traction control (well the S does, not sure about the base one?) and they are around at reasonable price if you look around compared to Panigales.
Just bought an 1198SP privately at a price that appears very keen. Gets delivered Sunday by Ducati Manchester. Will sit alongside my 848 Corse SE whilst that goes back to standard then goes up for sale. After a fair bit of research I think the SP will be pretty collectible and appreciate as the final hurrah (1198R aside) of that era of Ducatis. And can't fecking wait to see what a feisty bar steward it is
They certainly are pretty beasts As cookster states above, the majority of base models come as pure as Ducati could build them with absolutely no life savers attached, something which will become appealing to buyers in the future I believe... Then again, I may be bias towards the base model
Looks like the more popular ones are, seems as though Tric's and R's are holding firm though from what I noted during my period of actively looking. Will be interesting to see what happens when the V4 arrives as they could quite easily plummet or remain strong depending on how the public receive the new one.
I think Pani prices initially softened but have started to firm up again as the v4 is not getting the reception that was anticipated. For now anyway.
The S seems to be more expensive than when I looked a year ago although I do agree there are few cheap base models starting to crop up. Lucky for me not seen one cheaper than I paid though
Not meaning to be obtuse (yeah I know, for a change etc) but doesn't that mean that you could've progressively turned in later and later? Meaning you could stay on the gas longer? This approach has to be quicker, no?
