To commemorate Troy Bayliss’ first World Superbike championship back in 2001, Ducati built this ultracool version of its Panigale V2.
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It seems like ages ago now, but there was a time when 750cc inline-fours and 1,000cc V-twins ruled Superbike racing. The apex of that era was the ’90s and early 2000s, before World Superbike raised the limit on fours to 1,000cc and before Ducati started asking for incremental concessions to remain competitive. In the ’90s Ducati won eight out of 10 championships; in the 2000s, five of 10.
In 2001, Australian Troy Bayliss rode his factory Ducati 996 R to his first of three World Superbike titles, all with Ducati. To commemorate the anniversary of that accomplishment, and also because it was a great excuse to make an über-cool version of the Panigale V2, Ducati decided to build the bike you see here: the Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary Edition.
Before getting into the specifics of the bike, it’s interesting to think about how Ducati has evolved in the past handful of years. It wasn’t very long ago that the company produced nothing but versions of the V-twins and had built since the 750 GT of the early ’70s. But as Superbike racing evolved, it became clear that the 1,098cc Panigale R V-twins, last raced by the factory in 2017, had been pushed to their limits. Ducati had already invested substantially in the four-cylinder format through MotoGP competition, so it was only a matter of time before the four-cylinder Panigale V4, Multistrada V4, and soon-to-come Diavel V4 arrived...
Full story here: https://www.cycleworld.com/story/bikes/ducati-panigale-v2-bayliss-first-ride-review-2022/
Motorcyclist Shirts: https://teespring.com/stores/motorcyclist
Shop Products We Use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/motorcyclistmagazine
See more from us: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/
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It seems like ages ago now, but there was a time when 750cc inline-fours and 1,000cc V-twins ruled Superbike racing. The apex of that era was the ’90s and early 2000s, before World Superbike raised the limit on fours to 1,000cc and before Ducati started asking for incremental concessions to remain competitive. In the ’90s Ducati won eight out of 10 championships; in the 2000s, five of 10.
In 2001, Australian Troy Bayliss rode his factory Ducati 996 R to his first of three World Superbike titles, all with Ducati. To commemorate the anniversary of that accomplishment, and also because it was a great excuse to make an über-cool version of the Panigale V2, Ducati decided to build the bike you see here: the Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary Edition.
Before getting into the specifics of the bike, it’s interesting to think about how Ducati has evolved in the past handful of years. It wasn’t very long ago that the company produced nothing but versions of the V-twins and had built since the 750 GT of the early ’70s. But as Superbike racing evolved, it became clear that the 1,098cc Panigale R V-twins, last raced by the factory in 2017, had been pushed to their limits. Ducati had already invested substantially in the four-cylinder format through MotoGP competition, so it was only a matter of time before the four-cylinder Panigale V4, Multistrada V4, and soon-to-come Diavel V4 arrived...
Full story here: https://www.cycleworld.com/story/bikes/ducati-panigale-v2-bayliss-first-ride-review-2022/
Motorcyclist Shirts: https://teespring.com/stores/motorcyclist
Shop Products We Use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/motorcyclistmagazine
See more from us: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/
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SportsTranscript
00:00 This is the Ducati V2 Bayless, first championship, 20th anniversary special edition.
00:07 This bike commemorates Troy Bayless' first world superbike championship back in 2001
00:12 when he won on a Ducati 996R.
00:15 What's special about this bike is obviously the special paint job, the new livery that commemorates that championship.
00:20 But it also has a couple of other parts like Ohlin suspension front and rear, a lighter battery,
00:25 and a couple of other things that make it exclusive.
00:28 The price on this bike compared to the standard model is $21,495 compared to $17,795 on the standard model.
00:36 The Bayless V2 is powered by a 955cc Superquadro V-Twin engine.
00:41 The fuel injection system has twin injectors, one above the throttle body and one below, for maximum power.
00:46 On the Cycleworld Dyno, we recorded 133 horsepower and 67 foot-pound of peak torque.
00:52 What's great about this engine, especially on track, is it's really a super middleweight, which makes it really, really fun to ride.
00:59 It's not as powerful as obviously the new Ducati Panigale V4.
01:04 It's way more powerful than the bike that it commemorates, the 996R, back in the day.
01:09 And the horsepower, 133 horsepower at the wheel, is just a great, fun track bike.
01:15 It delivers great power, and when you add in the electronics, it's really a super middleweight.
01:20 It's a super sport bike with a little bit more oomph, but you've got that V-Twin power.
01:24 It makes a really, really fun track bike.
01:26 Chuckwall is an interesting track. It's a lot of second and third gear corners.
01:30 So, there's maybe a couple places on the track where you hit fourth gear on the back straight and on the front straight.
01:36 But, coming out of the corners, the bike has enough torque to really pull you out.
01:41 So, sometimes I would carry third gear instead of going down to second.
01:44 And, you know, I was saving a shift here and there by doing that.
01:48 A couple of the corners I could just roll in, there's some tight corners, and you could go down to second.
01:53 But, honestly, third gear would carry really well out of those.
01:56 So, that was a, you know, the engine really showed its flexibility in those cases.
02:00 I really thought that the engine pulled great, super cleanly through the rev range.
02:06 The top end is really amazing on this bike.
02:09 It kind of pulls hard down below, and then it has, you know, a little bit of a mellower spot.
02:14 And then the last 2,000 RPM when you're approaching redline, it really blitzes through those really quick.
02:19 You've got to be ready on the quick shifter to grab that shift because it'll bump into the limiter really quick.
02:25 So, the top end is really fantastic on this motorcycle.
02:28 Like most of the modern Ducatis, this has a full electronics package.
02:32 You've got your wheelie control. You've got your cornering ABS.
02:37 You've got your engine braking control. You've got an up and down electronic quick shifter.
02:43 You've got all these things that you can refine.
02:45 The bike comes standard with three settings.
02:47 You've got a race setting, you've got a street setting, and you've got a sport setting.
02:51 At the track on slicks, we obviously ran the race setting.
02:55 It provides a different dash, has a little bit of different information.
02:58 But you can go in there and you can modify all those parameters for traction control and your ABS.
03:04 And you can change your engine braking if you want to roll into the corner faster.
03:08 Or if you want a little bit more engine braking coming in, you can set those settings.
03:12 And we kind of messed with that a little bit, but we got some pretty conservative settings that we were happy with.
03:19 And the bike worked great all day.
03:21 Unique to this bike's chassis is the Ohlins suspension front and rear.
03:25 This is not electronically adjustable or anything like that.
03:28 It's manually adjustable. It's an Ohlins NX30 fork on the front and a TTX36 shock on the rear.
03:35 The shock is offset to the side so you can easily access the clickers, make your changes real easily.
03:41 Another big benefit is it comes with a standard lithium-ion battery, which saves 6.5 pounds over the standard V2.
03:48 So that's a pretty good weight savings.
03:50 Out on the track, this bike just handles and steers very light.
03:55 Exactly what you would feel like with a track bike or what you would want it to feel like.
03:59 In our case, we swapped out the standard treaded Pirelli Rosa Corsa II tires with SC2 slicks.
04:06 And we're out on the track and had plenty of grip all day.
04:10 The ergonomics were pretty good for me.
04:12 The cockpit's a little bit tight.
04:14 The only complaint that I would really have is that I wish I could move my butt back a little bit more in the cockpit
04:20 to kind of get set up for some corners and stuff.
04:22 It's a pretty tight arrangement.
04:24 But overall, the handlebar position, the seating position are overall pretty good.
04:29 I just would like to be able to move my butt around a little bit more to get comfortable.
04:33 The Brembo radial mount M4 32 monoblock brakes were absolutely outstanding on the track.
04:41 There's not a ton of super hard braking zones at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway,
04:45 but one and two finger braking, obviously, with these Brembos is no problem.
04:50 Combine that with the cornering ABS, you could trail brake deep into the corners.
04:54 I had a little bit of the ABS on for the entire day and completely trusted it.
05:00 I could trail brake in super deep, leaned over, never felt anything weird.
05:04 They were very trustworthy, which is just one thing that you don't want to have to think about on the track,
05:09 is worrying about that stuff.
05:11 This system takes that all away.
05:13 You can completely put your faith in it and know that when you're coming into a corner,
05:16 slightly leaned over, that you'll be able to just drag that brake into the corner
05:21 until you get to the apex and not have any issues with locking the front or tucking the front.
05:25 In conclusion, what we have here is a special edition.
05:28 Then the question arises, "Well, is the $3,600 that this bike is premium over the standard model worth it?"
05:35 What you have to look at is, do you like the bodywork and the graphics and the special seat and all of that stuff?
05:41 Yeah, that's a no-brainer. If you like the look of the bike, then yeah, it's worth it.
05:45 You also get the manually adjustable Ohlin suspension, front and rear, which is a big upgrade.
05:50 It already comes with a lithium-ion battery, which saves you some weight.
05:54 For the guy who just wants a turnkey track day bike that they can take to the track,
05:58 yeah, it's probably worth it. You get this exclusive paint job, which is obviously very cool.
06:03 For $3,600 extra bucks, you're already talking about a near $20,000 bike, so yeah, we think it's worth it.
06:10 That's it on this test of the Ducati V2 Bayless First Championship 20th Anniversary Edition.
06:16 You can go over to CycleWorld for the full story, where you can read all the specs,
06:20 see the dyno charts, and find out all the other information you want about this bike.
06:24 Like, comment, and subscribe, and thanks for watching.
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