00:00This is the 2026 Ducati Hypermotard V2 SP.
00:05I am in Moda, Italy, and I just rode it all day on track
00:08and had a great time.
00:10I'm especially excited to be here
00:11because I love Hypermotards.
00:13I rode one in 2019, the 950 when it came out,
00:17and I bought it.
00:19I had a test bike.
00:20I loved it so much.
00:21I traded in my Panigale.
00:22So it's super exciting to test this new one,
00:25and Ducati has changed basically everything.
00:27It's an all-new motorcycle.
00:29Like the other V2 models in the Ducati lineup,
00:33it has the new monocoque aluminum frame.
00:35It has the new V2 engine.
00:37And so some important figures there.
00:39In the SP form, it's 31 pounds lighter than the predecessor.
00:43The base model is 29 pounds lighter than its predecessor,
00:47and you can really feel that straight away.
00:49Horsepower also is boosted.
00:51We're looking at 120 claimed horsepower
00:54and 69 pound-feet of torque.
00:56So about six horsepower more than the predecessor.
00:58Those numbers don't really convey
01:00how different this motorcycle is, though.
01:03So unfortunately, I didn't get to try the base model,
01:05but I had all day on this SP,
01:08which is different from the base model in a few ways.
01:11So up front, it has Brembo M50 calipers
01:14instead of the M4.32 calipers that the base model has.
01:17It has aluminum forged rims.
01:20It has, of course, this fancy paint job.
01:22Ohlins forks fully adjustable and fully adjustable Ohlins shock.
01:26So you do get quite a bit of bang for your buck.
01:28There's also a lithium ion battery as standard.
01:31So unfortunately, I didn't get to ride on the street today.
01:35Instead, I was on track all day long.
01:37Between the Hyper 950 and this, there's a clear winner
01:41in terms of ease of use.
01:44On the track provides a lot more feel.
01:46It's lighter and just easier to ride.
01:48So some of the geometry changes, it's more raked out
01:51and it has slightly longer wheel base.
01:53And so you'd think, yeah, it is more stable.
01:56I always talk about the Hyper 950
01:58as feeling like you're riding an exclamation point.
02:00Like you're just kind of, it feels really short
02:03and you're on the front end.
02:04And this feels more sort of conventionally motorcycly.
02:08The ergos are still very Hyper-Motard,
02:11but on the old one where you have to trail brake super hard,
02:14take advantage of that weight transfer
02:16and shoot in and out of the corner as fast as you can.
02:20This you can drive a little bit more
02:21like a traditional motorcycle that has better corner feel.
02:25And that's a huge takeaway for me.
02:27One of the things that they focused on is improving handling.
02:31It still has that agility
02:33that the Hyper-Motard is known for,
02:35but when you get mid corner,
02:37you can actually feel what the front end is doing much more
02:40and you can change your line much easier than on the 950.
02:43And so on a racetrack, that's just,
02:46it makes your life so much easier.
02:48The engine too is a lot easier on the racetrack.
02:507,000 RPM or so on the 950
02:53and it's buzzing and it's busy
02:56and it's vibrating and it's fatiguing.
02:59And this new V2 engine is super smooth.
03:02Most of the corners around Modena are second to your corners.
03:06You're kind of living in the upper RPM range all day long.
03:09And it's just not fatiguing it.
03:12You don't get all those vibes coming through
03:14like you would on the 950.
03:16And that's a big change.
03:17And it really highlights a lot of the differences
03:19in philosophy that Ducati has
03:22and how they develop motorcycles.
03:24In the past, it was sort of only performance,
03:27but these days they're trying to make fast motorcycles
03:30that are also easy to ride for a broader demographic.
03:33So you want this to be fast for the fast guys,
03:37fast for the not fast guys and easy to ride for everybody.
03:40And I think that's what Ducati really excelled at with this.
03:43I have to say I would much rather ride this motorcycle
03:46on a racetrack than my Hyper Motard 950.
03:49So the question to me is they've refined this thing so much,
03:53is it still Hyper?
03:54And that's where it gets a little tricky
03:56because objectively there's so much that's better
03:59about this motorcycle.
04:00It's better front end feel, it's less fatiguing to ride,
04:05the electronics are more advanced.
04:07And of course on this SP we have these awesome
04:09Brembo M50 calipers, Olin suspension.
04:12But in gaining all of that,
04:14I do think they've lost a little bit of that hyper spirit.
04:16So what I love about my 950,
04:18I always describe that bike as being feral.
04:21Like it's just wild.
04:22You know, it's not a motorcycle you want to ride
04:24on like a leisurely summer evening ride, right?
04:28It's like you want to go full throttle, full brakes all day long.
04:33It doesn't do neutral throttle and just tooling around.
04:36And so what it does is it gives you these sort of heightened experiences,
04:40heightened sensory experiences,
04:42and by distilling sort of like what it feels like to ride a motorcycle.
04:46And so it's super engaging.
04:47So this one is a little bit different.
04:50Yes, it's more refined, but it doesn't have that manic quality.
04:53And I think for a lot of hyper motard owners like me,
04:56that's kind of what we're after in a motorcycle.
04:59That rawness, that visceral nature.
05:01And this is just something different.
05:03And I can see why Ducati did that.
05:05And it's the right move because it makes this more approachable
05:08to a broader demographic of riders.
05:10But if you're expecting that sort of hyper motard story to continue
05:14in that same vein of lunacy,
05:18this is something a little bit different.
05:19And I think you could make the case that that trajectory from the onset of hyper motards,
05:25from the beginning of hyper motards,
05:27they've all sort of gotten more refined and refined and refined.
05:30I think this is probably, you know,
05:32maybe you could argue that this is the biggest step in refinement yet.
05:35Obviously, it's an all new platform and it's a different beast.
05:40So to me, it's the most capable hyper motard.
05:44It's a clear step forward compared to its predecessor.
05:47But I have to say, I do miss elements of the 950.
05:50I want a hyper motard to be a little bit crazy.
05:53I want it to be a little bit exhausting to ride.
05:56I love those inputs that it gives me.
05:59This is just a little bit different, but it still has that energy.
06:03Like you don't forget that you're on a hyper motard when you're on this bike.
06:06It's just so easy to go all the way through the rev range and get on the brakes
06:10and you're right over the front wheel.
06:12It's still all of those hyper motard sensations.
06:14It's just in a little bit different package.
06:16It's more refined.
06:18It's more approachable.
06:19It's easier to use.
06:20At the end of the day, I can do more on this hyper motard than I can on mine.
06:25I would have been exhausted and probably wouldn't have had nearly as much fun on my 950 as this.
06:31But this bike is all about that.
06:33You know, you can ride it to the track, have a great time on the canyon roads,
06:36and get here and do the track thing.
06:38So, yes, you lose some of the charisma, the personality, that sort of feral nature of the 950.
06:45But what you gain is a lot more sophistication and a lot more capability.
06:50,
06:50,
06:52,
06:53.
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