As a result, this may be the first bike in my CityBike career that spent more time with the electronics engaged than not.Ībout those modes… let’s be honest here: Sport mode really is what this bike is all about. The downside is that personalizing or disabling the ABS, TC, or anti-wheel lift features individually bears an eerie similarity to entering cheat codes on a vintage video game console. The upside is that mode selection is simple, can be done on the fly, and provides settings that are spot on. The bike comes with three modes ( Sport, Touring, and Urban) that have pre-programmed TC and ABS settings, in addition to selected throttle curves and a horsepower cut for urban use. That said, Ducati has some explaining to do in regards to the interface. Even then, my forward motion was not interrupted. I had to intentionally apply throttle in gravel to convince the system to intervene in an obviously perceptible way. In this era of rapidly advancing ride-by-wire and engine management systems, the traction control integration achieves a high standard: it’s absolutely seamless.
Bosch-supplied ABS with three mappings covers the whoa side, while Ducati’s proprietary eight-level traction control manages the go. It’s the kind of raw, visceral experience that’s almost exclusive to big-bore V-Twin bikes, and the ability to take advantage of that is something that can only be credited to the geometry and setup out back.Īiding and abetting that fun is the SuperSport’s comprehensive electronics package. Judicious throttle application on corner exit results in drama-free thrust that plants your body firmly against the rear ridge of the seat. The rear of the bike feels planted and is capable of being the anchor when the front is overwhelmed.
The aluminum single-sided swingarm is controlled by a rebound and preload-adjustable Öhlins shock (the standard model employs a Sachs shock, also fully adjustable). The rear of the SuperSport is a little less bipolar. The other side of that coin comes into play on smoother roads with higher-speed sweeping switchbacks: it’s in that environment that the SuperSport S illustrates what can only be described as gloriously telepathic handling. More than once the bumps and ruts simply overwhelmed the bike and I found myself fighting to keep the bike on the road, never mind enjoying the ride. The dark side is that the track-ready suspension is simply not up to the task of the dealing with the “unsophisticated” twisty roads that are prevalent in so much of the Bay Area.Īs a result, I found myself really at odds with the front suspension. That information is certainly useful when the road surface is reasonable and the pace is high. This is another instance where paper and reality part ways. The massive fork translates every single bit of information from the front tire directly to the clip-on bars. Öhlins is still the top name in suspension for a reason. Where the standard SuperSport comes equipped with fully adjustable 43mm Marzocchi units, letting go of an extra $2,200 for the S model gets you a bike sporting ( SuperSporting) Öhlins 48mm titanium nitride-coated tubes up front and an Öhlins shock out back. Holding that engine up is nothing less than the finest Swedish boingers. To say that the engine made an impression on me is putting it mildly.
Offering 69 lb-ft of torque, with 80% of that available at 3,000 rpm, the SuperSport S isn’t a high-strung, barely-street-legal race machine, it’s a real-world sportbike. With 200 HP sportbikes readily available, a 110-horse “sporty bike that brings energy and sport emotion everywhere, from weekend to everyday roads” sportbike seems slow and almost quaint on paper, but I don’t have much use for paper these days. While novelties like noisy clutches and frequent maintenance have (mostly) gone by the wayside, Ducati has continued to set the standard for modern V-Twins. What is Ducati all about? Bikes that are more than the numbers. It’s quite obvious to me that this is the bike Ducati built to make sure the purists never forget what Ducati is all about. The S version adds premium suspension, Ducati’s up/down quick-shifter, and a color-coordinated pillion seat cover. Artfully crafted fairings wrap the front half but leave enough of the engine exposed to remind onlookers that this is not “just” a sportbike.ĭespite its relatively reasonable base MSRP of $12,995-the S we tested runs a more precious $15,195-the SuperSport looks and feels exotic in both trims, as you would expect from a Ducati. Built around a 937cc liquid-cooled V-Twin, the SuperSport S and its non-S (still no space!) base-model brother features a beautiful steel trellis frame-red, of course-attached to the DOHC cylinder heads. The SuperSport S is quintessentially Ducati.
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