I appreciate there money out there & people willing to spend it , but I can't get my head around these price tags.. Affordability is one thing, justifying that much money is another.
Hard to believe oil, water and brake fluids add a whopping 11kg to the dry weight. Its wet weight minus fuel, is 12kg more than the 1299SL. You could surely shave some of that off with some billet and carbon parts. If tracking the bike, probably more (lights, indicators, mirrors etc) then you are only 6bhp short and a few kg heavier. Not a huge difference but a massive one in price. For that reason I think the FE wil sell well.
You can buy a Honda for 20k, a Yamaha for 19K and kwak for 22k. Ducati will have noticed this and upped their prices to remain a premium brand. If it were my money, 35K wouldnt buy a 1299R FE. I'd put it towards a Desmo as a 1299R FE isnt going to be a future desirable as say some of the others as the Pani has won fuck all. Says a guy with a 1299S. Of course it could win the WSB, but unlikely.
Well hopefully Ducati might this time after they taken your trousers down just give a little KISS or a little CUDDLE as a thank you lol
I know Andy, but a national championship isnt the world championship and its only 1. How many did the 9*6, 998, 999, 1098 etc win by comparison? Thus they have much more pedigree and consequently kudos imo. Theres still time though.
It's won a shit load of races in wsbk.. and is the only bike other than the kwak to do so. BSB title. Has done well in superstock. It's won the north west 200. Hardly fuck all..
By comparison, why dont you list what the 888, 916, 996, 998, 1098 won? Both national and worlds? A tad more than 'did well in superstock'. Thats my point. Its a terrific bike. I own one. But its predecessors won everything and often. Thus they have the kudos.
This is my biggest complaint as well. It's not Ducatis fault but euro4 is such a big compromise to an extreme race bike like the Panigale R that you are ending up with half a tonne of dead metal and a £3500 additional exhaust system bill to get the most out of the bike which surely you would want if you are paying £35k for it? I still really want this bike but I'm seriously thinking it might be better to forget about being road legal and consider kit race bikes in the future to avoid paying thousands for the Euro4 bullshit, and have something like a 1299S for the road which IMO is the best road bike out there at the moment.
I'm not going to disagree with your view point but looking at the wider picture of racing, the factory investement in the models you hold up was huge. From the 888 era (what late 80s early 90s ?) to the end of the Ducati heyday mid 2000s Ducati supported a huge number of satellite teams and privateers. Ducati support to the Panigale has been woeful with a single factory team and it only picked up outside WSB when Paul Bird ditched Kawasaki for Ducati. You also need to factor in the rules bias towards Ducati which really only started to swing back to the JIL4s mid to late 2000s. Sad to say for all it's brilliance, the Panigale hasn't fired the imagination of a wider audience like the 916 et al. Shame really. Andy
Just to note the £3500 figure is just pulled out of the air as a cost to replace the existing system with cats etc which I assume are at the bottom just in front of the wheel. It's possible you can just remove that section which would make this much more desirable for me.
I thought the standard looking cans with the pipes coming from them and finishing wheel barrow style were the euro 4 cans, standard on the 1299sl but that came with the full race system also
My assumption is that this is euro 4 compliant like the 1299 Superleggera. That bike comes with two catalytic converters in the stock exhaust and ships with a complete separate race exhaust system. It's not clear if the advertised weight is with or without this but I'm guessing the FE does not come with the race system.
