Ducati 899 Panigale

Ducati bikes are very popular among the Indian audiences, they are known for their bulky body with sporty contours that look dominating and offer formidable performance on the Indian roads. The company was started by Antonio Cavalieri Ducati at Bologna, Italy in the year 1926. The company did not always manufacture bikes as in its initial stage, the company used to manufacture radio equipment and components. After the Second World War, the company decided to venture into automotive technology; they made their first bike with the famous Cucciolo engine in the year 1950. The Cucciolo was a great success, and Ducati replaced the name Cucciolo with the name "55M" and "65TL".

Most of the time people find it hard to differentiate between a Ducati sports bike and a Ducati Superbike. As the company has a versatile portfolio, it is quite common to be mistaken, to make it simple, here are the bikes from Ducati that belong to the superbike segment.

1. Ducati 959 Panigale: The Ducati 959 Panigale is among the popular Ducati superbikes in India. The bike also won the award as the “Superbike of the week” shortly after its launch. The bike has a bulky appearance due to the wider fairing, windshield and larger air intakes. The fairing gets an LED lamp setup which mimics the one in Ducati’s litre-class flagship model 1299 Panigale, while the rear gets a revised design for the split tailpiece. The 959 Panigale is built on a die-cast aluminium monocoque frame, which has the engine as a structural element. The bike features split seats with the lifted pillion seat while the bike is only available in Red colour. The bike features liquid-cooled L-twin Superquadro engine that offers displacement upto 955cc. The bike is able to generate power and torque upto 157bhp and 107Nm. The bike has electronic elements like the ABS and the driving mode system that can be set from race, sport and wet.

1. Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition: The bike is named as final edition as it is the last bike by the Italian maker that features the V-twin engine. Currently, the company is working on an even more powerful engine called as the V4 that will be featured in the upcoming Ducati superbikes. The 1299 Panigale Final Edition shares some of its looks with the Ducati 959 Panigale. Both the bikes feature aggressive looking headlamps with large fairings and air vents. The 1299 Panigale Final Edition comes with a tricolour body that includes colours like Red, white and Green. The bike runs on a 1299cc L-twin Superquadro engine that produces 206bhp and 142Nm of torque through a six-speed transmission.

These Ducati bikes belong to the superbike segment, while there is also the Super Sports segment that features even more powerful engine but are not suitable for driving on the concrete roads. On the other hand, Ducati is planning to upgrade their superbike’s performance by launching the V4 Engine.