Ducati touts a ground-up beating with the buff hammer ahead of MY22 for its Panigale V4 super-de-duper bike. As always, Ducati's racing tech makes its way over to the civilian sector on the V4 platform to bring a comparable level of performance. Whether or not that's a good idea on public roads is a debate for elsewhere, but the capacity for stupidfast speeds is certainly there. The factory calls this model the most significant evolution of the Panigale V4 to date, and indeed, it carries lots of new goodies to make it the new “new.”

2022 Ducati Panigale V4 Design

Form follows function, as well it should, but this newest version of the Panigale V4 gets a facelift all the same with new, windtunnel-tested bodywork and thinner, all-in-one biplane wings that deliver their 80-plus pounds of downforce on the front axle at 186 mph. The revised fairing lowers improve airflow through the cooling system, and by extension, the engine's stamina under high-output conditions.

Overall, the new bodywork paints a rather aggressive picture, and why not? It can certainly walk the walk with what it's got under the hood, so go ahead and flaunt it. Not even the seat would escape the reworking. It now rocks a flatter saddle pad with a new texture on the cover that's meant to improve control when you start throwing around the body English.

The bubblescreen up top is pretty much a carryover, and the front turn signals come integrated with the standoff-style mirrors for easy removal of both ahead of track days. Same with the combination plateholder and rear turn signals, easily removed and their mounting holes plugged. The teeny-tiny tail just accentuates the all-up-front visual balance that leaves this newest Panigale V4 iteration looking even more like a big cat ready to pounce.

2022 Ducati Panigale V4 Chassis

Curb weight on the Panigale V4 is well below the quarter-ton mark at 437.6 pounds once the 4.49-gallon fuel tank is filled, and to meet that goal, certain concessions had to be made. The factory sticks to its stressed-engine build that rocks a small aluminum front frame unit for the front end, and the single-side swingarm pivot out back to effectively eliminate the frame as we think of it.

Symmetrical, 17-inch cast wheels round out the rolling chassis with Z-rated Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP hoops to make the connection to the concrete. The suspension is also off the top-shelf with 43 mm, usd Showa forks ahead of a Sachs monoshock out back, all with the full trinity of tweaks, and with 5.1 inches of travel at both ends. Softer fork springs help improve suspension smoothness while the swingarm pivot was raised by 4 mm as an anti-squat measure.

Dual, 330 mm discs and four-bore, Brembo Monobloc Stylema calipers haul down the front end with a 245 mm disc and twin-pot anchor out back. The master cylinder is of the self-bleeding sort, and both ends benefit from the IMU-driven Bosch Cornering ABS EVO that calculates the available traction and modulates the level of intervention based on same.

2022 Ducati Panigale V4 Drivetrain

Like the rest of the bike, the drivetrain on the Panigale V4 comes with a host of upgrades all its own this year. The engine itself is a Desmosedici Stradale V4 plant, so it rocks the Desmodromic valvetrain that omits the traditional valve spring in favor of a pull-closed cam. This delivers positive closure while eliminating the harmonic valve float associated with high-rev operation. An 81 mm bore and 53.5 mm stroke gives it a 1,103 cc displacement with a speecy-spicey 14-to-1 compression ratio.

Electronic engine management takes care of business with a new torque-management strategy that helps keep the rear wheel planted when you get a little too twisty with it. Also new is the SBK gearbox that rocks taller first and second gears for coming out of the curves, and sixth gear for more top-end on the straights. It comes paired with a retuned Quick Shift that's set up specially for this transmixxer.

New Power Modes logic works with the ride-by-wire throttle control with a quartet of settings – Low, Medium, High, and Full – that let you dial in the delivery you want. As for power, this mill generates an impressive 210 horsepower at 12,500 rpm with 90.6 pound-feet of grunt that come on fully at 11,000 rpm, so this is clearly an engine that likes to be wound up pretty damned tight indeed. The “low” setting limits the output to 150 ponies with a particularly forgiving acceleration curve. Top speed is clocked at 186 mph.

2022 Ducati Panigale V4 Price

You'd better be down for some Ducati Red, 'cause that's the only paint for the base Panigale V4. U.S. MSRP starts out at $23,295, and the factory has race-ready equipment ready to go in its accessories catalog so you can turn it into a race-bike proper if that's your thing.

2022 Ducati Panigale V4 Competitors

As a street bike with a definite track bias, the Panigale V4 in in rare company, but I think Honda has an answer for it in its race-tastic CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.

Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP

The bodywork on the Fireblade is entirely performance driven, and I hesitate to declare one better looking than the other – it just simply shouldn't matter with such race-tastic machines. However, the ram-air port detail is worth pointing out for the performance boost it delivers at the top end. Though you have to be positively hauling booty to garner the benefits, and won't get much out of it at public-road speeds, much like the downforce winglets the Panigale carries. Like the Panigale, the Fireblade comes with easily removable street gear when it's time to strip down for race days, lest you think it's less race-capable in any particular way.

Honda runs a four-banger but orients it as an in-line engine mounted transversely in the frame. Compression is nearly as hot as the Duc at 13.4-to-1, and the Red Riders earn their reputation with 214 ponies on tap, but as usual, it comes with a trade off in the reduced torque with 82.6 pound-feet of grunt against the Duc's 210/90.6, respectively.

Honda scores in the stems with electronically-controlled suspension parameters versus the manual tweaks on the Duc, and the brakes break even with lean-sensitive ABS all around. At $28,900, the Honda is quite a bit prouder than the Panigale and its $23,295 starting price, with comparable levels of engine-control tech and capabilities which leaves Ducati in a pretty good place in the market.

Read our full review of the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.

He Said

“Yeah, yet another bike that I should probably never throw a leg over, even with the reduced horsepower power mode in effect – I just simply cannot be trusted to not drive it as fast as it'll go. That said, this machine was built for true speed enthusiasts, whether on track or not, and I expect, legal or not. If you want to take your street-riding game up a notch, this bike should definitely be on your short list.”

She Said

My wife and fellow motorcycle writer, Allyn Hinton, says, “This new Panigale V4 is a serious business. The new strategy on the “Full” power mode is the sportiest to date on any previous Panigale V4. The gear ratio on the new SBK gearbox is very race-oriented. By lengthening first and second gear – by 11.6 percent and 5.6 percent respectively – you can take even the tightest corners in first gear and get superior acceleration out of the curves. Lengthening sixth gear gives the new Panigale V4 faster top speed than last year's model. These are just a few of the improvements Ducati made that elevate the new Panigale V4 to top-of-the-line performance for your fiery-eyed, peg-draggin' pleasure.”

2022 Ducati Panigale V4 Specifications

Further Reading

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