Ducati Panigale V2 | How Does It Compare To The V4S?

Welcome along guys, well I'm out again on the beautiful Panigale V2. I've had this for two weeks from Ducati UK. I've been riding it everywhere as much as possible to try and bring you a low down on this bike. It's October, the weather's not been great. My first ride was a little damp. A little damp? It was wetter than a haddox bathing costume. But today we're back out again. I've had it two weeks. I'm going to let you know what I think of this bike, how I found it, how it compares to its big brother, the V4S, which I had about three weeks ago. So I'm starting the video at the hospital and then I don't have to, well hopefully we won't end the video at the hospital as well. So let's crack on, let's get going and I'll tell you all about the beautiful Panigale V2. So the V2 Panigale. A bike, as soon as I saw this was announced, I always loved the 899. The 959 was also great but it lost a little bit of that beauty by those side exhausts. So I think the 899, the original was the best. Then they announced the V2 coming earlier in the year or end of last year and I saw the pictures and I thought oh with the single-sided swinging arm this has now got sort of the old V4, the 2090 V4 fairings and the front end. I thought you know what, and of course the big one, the exhaust is back underneath the bike again and I thought wow that could be an incredible road bike. 155 horsepower, so it's five horsepower up on the 959. 104 newton meters of torque. To be honest for the road that could even be classed as still a bit too much. It's certainly not a middleweight power figures, it's sort of lower end litre bike. I mean I know this is almost a litre bike but V-twins always make a little bit less power than the straight four equivalent but you know it's too much for the road. A little bit still it is fast. You do not need any more than this and I know I sound like a complete hypocrite saying that for a man who owns a tuned H2 but it really is. Ducati have still made this as a sports bike. They've not sort of done, they've not compromised it to make it a better road bike, if you get my point. It's still set up to be the best handling machine it could possibly be so it's, you know, it's very nose down. There's a fair bit of weight on your wrist, you know, it's quite a wristy position just like the V4 but that makes it handle beautifully but it does make, does compromise it a little bit as a comfortable road bike. Also there's no, it's still bloody wet, look at this. Also there's no road base comforts just like its V4 brother, you know, there's no cruise control, there's no heated grips, you know, it's got a lot of electronic package and updates and tech on this bike but all the tech is just there to make it faster. Nothing's on this bike to make it more comfortable for the rider. Yeah, plenty of punch, plenty of punch. I mean the wheelies, the V4S was a very stable bike. I don't know what magic Ducati had done on that bike. I think it was a combination of the electronics, the chassis but it was super, super stable and it didn't want to lift the wheel, you know, it's an incredibly, incredibly, it wouldn't say it was easy to ride because it wasn't but it was just very stable. This is, this isn't a stable, this will try and wheelie but it's still got a load of grip, an incredible amount of grip. I mean the liberties you could take in the wet on this bike, it's just, I don't think I've ever ridden a bike which instills so much confidence in the wet. It is unbelievable and I don't think it's just the tyres, this has the Pirelli Rosso Corsa 2s on. I've ridden bikes in the wet with that rubber before and it didn't have the confidence and grip that this gives you. The grip from this thing is, it's on another level. The power delivery from this motor is almost two-stroke. At 8,000 revs it just hits hard. Building up to 8,000 it's got a nice amount of torque, as I say 104Nm but that is quite late in the rev range and this bike really is, it loves to rev. It's unusual for a V-twin to like to rev, you know, normally they're all about the torque, they're all about the mid-range. This, whoa, it's very much about that power from 8,000 revs onwards. The only slight disadvantage to that, because it's a V-twin, it doesn't have that, the revs at the top end. When the red line's at 11,500, so it hasn't got like the 13,000, 13,500 rpm rev limiter like the V4. So the power comes in at 8,000 but it's all done and dusted by 11,500. As you may have noticed I'm really rather taken with this. When you first get on it you think, oh blimey, it's a bit uncomfortable and I was disappointed at first. You know, I wanted this to be the ultimate road bike and I thought, oh it's too uncomfortable, it's no good, it's too uncomfortable, write it off as the ultimate road bike. But the more you ride it, you get into it and you forget, you forget about that uncomfortableness. When I might have been on it 20 minutes again and I'd forgotten how uncomfortable it was when I first got on it. You just fit into it, it makes you throw it around and it's so engaging you forget about that riding position. I'm riding it back from Silverstone the other week which is about two and a half hours I was on this bike and it wasn't too bad, you know. By the time I got home I wasn't crippled, I was okay. I found it more comfortable than the V4S on a longer trip because I think the seat has got more padding in it. But it's not too bad, I can forgive it the uncomfortableness. I wouldn't want to go touring on it, you know, it's not a bike you'd want to tour on, obviously. But for Sunday morning, the odd little couple of hour jaunt somewhere, as long as you get off every hour just to stretch your legs, I don't find it a problem. Let's see how dry my favourite hill climb section is. It's probably going to be a bit damp I would imagine because it's under tree cover. It's had a little look-ski though, and you can't push it in this. It's only about eight degrees today as well so it is not warm. And there's leaves and stuff, that's a shame, isn't it? I'll have to take this one out again next year, in the summer. Too wet to push it, it's a shame, it's a shame, it really is a shame. It's got that, I can tell though, even with those, you know, slight bit of lean angle, I can tell it's got that lovely, you know, that level of grip around the corners, the stability that its big brother's got. It's got all of that. As I said in the first ride, it's got everything you love about the V4 version, but with a smaller price tag. That is it. It's even got all the electronics. The bike is fully customisable on the electronics front. You can turn off wheelie control and traction control separately. You know, for a mid-range, I say mid-range priced bike, it's sort of, it's entry-level litre bike, isn't it really now, there's 15 grand. Entry-level litre bike, you've got sophisticated IMU, six-axis IMU, wheelie control, which you can turn off from the traction control, which is what I've got it set now actually, and the three rider modes it's got, sport, street and track, you can then customise those how you want them. So you can go into each of those modes, turn off wheelie control across all of them if you wanted to, and it remembers that, and when you turn it on and off, you don't have to go in and turn the wheelie control off every time. It just goes into your mode and you have it as you've set it. You know, it's exactly what you want from an electronics package. Exactly what you want. The Ducati have nailed electronic package, and I actually find the switch gear on the V2 much easier to use than the V4S. Pheasant, shift. On the V4S I found the buttons quite hard to push on the, because you have to go left and right and push on the inside of the button and the gloves on, it was really tricky. This is just up and down sliders using the indicator button, so you hold the indicators down, let's just give you a quick demo, and that takes you into the menu and you just go up and down on this one. Race, sport, whatever you want. I think I'll just keep it in sport, press the button, close the throttle, job done. It's all nought to 60 as we've got a clear bit of private road, not from launch because it's not there. Hit the rev limiter a few times there, that's the thing, because you know, the power kicks at eight but then it's all over by eleven and a half, so you do tend to hit the limiter a little bit on this. That's all good, isn't it? That's all fun. What is this guy pointing at me? Oh, they're just doing some surveying. Kind of scary, aren't you? Oh, we've got a dry corner, got to make the most of the dry corners. This has got the Showa big piston forks, you know, a very well-known front end now. It's a Sachs rear shock. The suspension is nice and soft, you know, it's not overly hard. I think the chassis on these, well there's hardly any chassis, there's just a little bit of the front that bolts to the engine that also acts as the airbox, but it's also very rigid, so the suspension, sensibly, they've made it nice and soft on this. It's pliable, it rides over the bumps, it doesn't jar you at all. I know the V4S had the electronic suspension so you could adjust how harsh it was, but there was no comfort mode and it was much harder, even in the street setting, it was much harder over the bumps than what this is. This is a much, this is much softer, which is perfect for the road. The V4 version had a limited tank range, you only could get about 100 miles out of the bike. This, I'm pleased to say, is better. It's about 120, 130 miles out of it as a push, because I think the fuel tank's the same size, but of course it uses less fuel, so you've got about 120, 130 mile range, which is adequate. Here she is, the Panigale V2 for some close-ups. Great things about the V2 is it's still got the same headlight arrangement as the V4. That ultra-sexy front end looks absolutely amazing. Brembo's are not Stylemas, they're a lower quality Brembo caliper. Still good, not quite as much bite, just have to pull the lever slightly harder, but they still work very well indeed. You'll notice on the V2 there is no wings, no wings on the V2, and I actually think, without the wings, the lines of the bike work much better for me, so it's a bonus for me, I think. It's got no wings, and you're not going to notice the wings on the road from a performance point of view, so I'll go for the looks. No wings here, please. Single-sided swinging arm, beautiful. Obviously the 899 never had the single-sided swinging arm, so that completes the look of the V2 for me, and just icing on the cake is the exhaust is now under slung, so you've not got the big pipes like the 959 sticking out here, all under slung, very neat, very tidy. Slight difference with the V4, the engine casings are actually, I think, aluminium on the V2, so it doesn't have the magnesium covers like the V4 does. Actually, the V4 is lighter than the V2. Amazingly, the V4 is a couple of kilos lighter than the VT version, not quite as high a resolution as the V4. The V4 dash is slightly bigger, this is slightly lower resolution. The actual way the needle moves around the dials is slightly lower resolution, but it's got all the information from the V4, very clear, very easy to read. The V2 comes with pillion provisions, let's say if you want to go for the single cow, but this piece basically comes right and wraps around, that'll cost you another £300. So let's talk about the bad things about the Panigale V2. Now believe me, there's not a great deal of bad about this bike at all. My only criticisms really with this machine is the position, it's a bit uncomfortable. I mean, if Ducati wanted to make this a road bike, which they obviously don't, they want this to be a track bike which just has less power and is a little bit cheaper than the V4. So they're not, I don't think they're looking for road bikes, but if they were, I wish they would add at least some cruise control. I can live without heated grips, I can live without satellite navigation and all that other stuff good road bikes have, but on a sports bike I'd love some cruise control, because it's so wristy, it'd just be nice to slap on the cruise control, sit back, just take a little bit of weight off the throttle hand without the pipe stopping. So I think cruise control is a lovely addition to a sports bike. Look at the double R, I mean that is a beautiful road bike because it's got things like a cruise control, heated grips and all that. The RSV4, a track bike on the road, even that has cruise control. It doesn't have anything else, it doesn't have any navigation, it doesn't have any heated grips, but it has cruise control because it's almost essential on a wristy bike and both of those bikes are not as wristy as this one. There's very little else you know really. The heat from the exhaust, you know this was a massive criticism on the V4S, on this you've got a bit of heat, you've not got nowhere near as much heat as the V4, I'd say half the heat, half the cylinders, half the heat. It's perfectly acceptable, admittedly it's getting on in the ear now, I don't know what this would be like at the beginning, you know in the mid-summer, a 30 degree day, I would imagine it would be hard work, but I could live with it, it wouldn't stop me buying it. Other bad points, oh I think you know, there's not a lot else, there's not a lot else at all. The positives with this bike are up here, the negatives are down here, you know. People have said, oh servicing costs, Ducati, oh that is, that is, it's not true, not for this model. I looked at some servicing costs, Ducati Preston, I'm just picking on them because they had their servicing pricing online, the annual service on one of these is £277, the valve, the valve check, which is a 15,000 mile service, is £370, so you take your annual, plus your valve check. For a Honda Fireblade, annual service on the Honda websites generally is about £300 for an annual service on a 2008 to 2015 Fireblade, it's not even the latest one, and a valve check is about £500 on one of those, so it's comparable with a Honda Fireblade. I think if you're going up to the V4 version, then yes, you're hitting the realms of more expensive servicing. The other sort of thing which may put me off buying one of these, I think it's definitely a bike that you'd want to get serviced by the main dealer, because when you look at it, it looks very complicated, the way it all bolts together, how the fairings fit on, Ducati don't seem to build bikes conventionally, they do it their own way, and I guess once you're used to it, it would be fine, but it looks quite a daunting prospect to think you want to service this yourself, when you look at how all the fairings fit on and how it all bolts together. So I think if I was to buy one of these, it would very much be something I'd throw at the Ducati dealer every year, and have them service it for me. The quickshifter and blipper is also as good as the V4S version, that was one of my great things I loved about that bike. This one is as good, the linkage is not quite as rigid, there's a bit more slack in the gear linkage, but the operation of it is faultless, and for a V-twin I think it's hard to get a good quickshifter on a V-twin, and they've managed it, absolutely managed it. Throttle connection, as I mentioned in the first ride, you've got very direct, very engaging throttle on this machine, it's another reason it's so, it is so much fun to ride, because of that direct throttle, I mean you wouldn't even really know this was ride by wire, you know, it's that good. All of the electronics just integrate seamlessly, you get no feeling that they're holding you back, that they're stopping your forward progress. Electronics these days are absolutely, if electronics are working well, you don't know you've got them, you don't, they're not hindering you, they're not, you know, they're just working and making you faster, not slowing you down, that's the thing with them, and this has got the latest electronics, and I think for a bike, a Ducati in this price range, the fact that it's got all that, you know, that's, that's fantastic. Well there we go guys, thanks so much for watching, really appreciated, as ever, for watching my content, I love having you guys along, I love bringing you reviews of these bikes, and now the channel is turning into a bit of a bike review channel, I suppose, but you know, I'm trying to sort of grow the channel now, I've got Greg involved with it as well, because I think he's another very experienced biker who's ridden bikes all his life, well, since he was 15, he has had a motorcycle in his garage since he was 15 years old, you know, and he's had a lot of bikes, he's got a lot of experience of bikes, which is why I brought him in to help contribute to the channel, and he's actually going to be going on the new Trident launch, the new Triumph Trident, Greg's going, and then we're going to do a sit-down type review afterwards when he's back, I can't do the lockdown thing, so Greg's going to go to this one, but we're starting to get invites, Triumph are on board, Triumph are talking to me, Triumph are sharing press embargo information now on new models, so the channel's all going in the right direction, so that's all because you guys are watching, and I really appreciate it, I really do, I mean, I've been doing this for nearly seven years or something now, you know, there's a lot of channels who've been going for seven years who have a million subscribers, you know, it's always been relatively slow growth for me, but I've kept on plodding along, plodding at it, old chopsy, he's a good plodder, but we're starting to now, last couple of years, we've got some momentum and it's fantastic, and that's thanks to you, so I really appreciate it, so I'll see you on the next video, I don't know what I'm going to be on, I don't know what it's going to be, oh I know what it's going to be, no I don't know what it's going to be, I don't know what I'm going to do these, but it'll be something very cool and very entertaining, you can rest assured of that, I'll see you later guys, this is power level one, which is full power, I could do that all day, what have you done here, I told you I was scared back there, I've never dropped the bike before in my life, oh, that's it, that's it,