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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