2017 Ducati SuperSport and SuperSport S launch review

Squint a little bit, and the new Ducati SuperSport looks like a Panigale. The S version even more so, thanks to the golden Ohlins up front. But as your gaze switches to the price tag, your eyes widen – but not in a bad way.

That Panigale-ish Supersport you are eyeing off may run a tight sticker price – just $17,990 for the base version and starting at $19,990 for the S – but what you get for that money and, most importantly, how it rides, is far from a bargain basement proposition. I can honestly say it’s the most fun I’ve had on a Ducati since I rode the Titanium Diavel, but without the high-end entry price (relatively speaking). Then there’s the bits this bike offers above all others.

It might look like a sportsbike, but is in reality closer to a mid (-ish) capacity sports tourer, so easy is it to ride and broad in its applications. The bars are high, the seat soft and the whole bike lends itself to long days in the saddle like no Panigale ever does.

Road smarts
For a start, this is one of the best Ducati engines for the road. Very similar to the sweet beast powering the 950 Multistrada that I so unashamedly lauded recently on Bikesales, the overwhelming sweetness translates to a similar level of road-smart prowess on this bike.

That sweetness doesn’t mean it’s a soft-ish compromise though, and our launch test included a nuts-out strap on a private piece of radar-free bitumen, and it was no boring barge – it still has the Ducati sporting heritage permeating its core, thanks largely to a bottom-end grunt fest of an engine.

What isn’t there is the grumpy, lumpy, harshness of the bigger sports-focussed bikes. As fun as that is, the SuperSport is an all-day bike, not a “short bursts” kind of machine. The engine is enough power-wise, because you can use the torque to make short work of the gaps between the corners, and you don’t need to buzz the top end mercilessly to force it up to speed.

Sport all the way
The bike offers different engine modes (Urban, Touring and Sport) of course, but the user-friendliness of the 937cc liquid-cooled Testastretta 11° V-twin, also found in the Hypermotard, Hyperstrada and Multistrada 950, means I just left it in Sport mode and rode it that way on road and track. The chassis is like-wise user-friendly.

Slim, low (a 810mm seat height) and compliant in exactly the way the Panigale et al are not, the bike steers nicely on its Pirelli Diablo Rosso rubber, with the stability/quick steering ratio absolutely nailed. Putting together long, bumpy sections of road is as sweet as it gets on a Ducati, on both the base model and the S. It really is pleasing how well this bike’s components allow it to work you over crappy sections of road, before allowing you to get to the good stuff and enjoy that as well!

So, you may be thinking at this stage that all this user-friendliness has delivered a soulless Ducati. Yes, but mainly no.

For a start, the design of this thing is striking. It’s not until you notice the high bars that it looks less like a Panigale, but the almost total lack of fasteners on the fairing, adjustable screen, pleasurable seat and solid brake set-ups give it its own personality.

It is the most comfortable Ducati with a fairing I have ever sat on and goes a long way to erasing bad memories of week-long rides on a 996S – surely one of the most painful experiences of my motorcycling life. Where those bikes, and to a lesser degree the current Panigale range, were like riding a two-wheeled, fire-breathing rack, the new Supersport is a teddy bear of a thing, looking after you in a way the older bikes never did.

No barriers
In that way, the lack of pure commitment required to access those incredible V-twin power waves has gone and good riddance, I say. Those uncompromising ride positions were a barrier to owning a Ducati back in the day, even if they were also a rite of passage for long-time Ducati riders. This SuperSport is aimed at dragging new customers to the Italian brand, though, and this is one way to do it – make them feel welcome on the bike, rather than feel the bike was asking you to give up your sanity on a long ride to deserve to ride it.

It’s not all perfect though, the heat coming out of the bike kept me warm on a cold winter’s day, but the thought of riding this bike in summer is unpleasant. I’m actually not sure why it’s so hot in the saddle. The usual culprit, an underseat exhaust, is absent, and the engine doesn’t generate massive horsepower (a relatively paltry 113hp at 9000rpm claimed), but warm it is.

Otherwise the rider triangle is well-placed, with enough weight on the wrists to offer quality front end feel, but even during our dire peak-hour run back to Ducati HQ in Sydney traffic, the SuperSport is a comfortable place to be.

You actually learn a lot about a bike lane filtering for endless kilometres and what I learned on that run was that the bike remains user-friendly at low-speed – a big plus, as getting to the fun bits inevitably involves negotiating traffic at some point. This is a Ducati you would commute to work on, no problems, rain, hail or shine.

It’s light, narrow, the clutch is feather-weight and the engine character is manageable in the rev basement, rather than a cranky beast. I didn’t enjoy that run, but I didn’t hate it either. The SuperSport is versatile.

What I did enjoy was our road ride and track session. Stroking the bike along on one of Sydney’s most famous bike roads, it was nice to be insulated from the bumps by quality suspension, using a fuss-free engine that delivers on power even if you make a mistake. The pressure is off when on the throttle with this bike, and the Ducati sound is unmistakably comforting.

S really hits the spot
While it’s an enjoyable roadbike, I wasn’t sure it would handle the up-spec pressure of the track, but it does, particularly the S version.

The base model bike is softer and was less able to handle the braking power those Brembos crank out on the fifth-gear-to-second end of the back straight, but the steering remained neutral and the bike unflustered over crests and off-camber littering the track. Feel is good, and that’s how I like it!

The S version is better suited, armed as it is with Ohlins boingers each end, though the main difference between the two was the S version’s ability to stay high in the stroke on the anchors.

And what magnificent anchors they are, the Brembo M4-32s on both bikes are as good as they need be for a bike like this. Need to stop quicker? Brake harder. You need to be all kinds of special to run out of brakes on these things.

Other stand-out features on the S include the powershifter, which works in traffic as well as on the track both up and down gears and, timed just right, will pop like a world superbike machine. Speaking of sound, the Termignoni pipes on one of our test fleet offered a whole new aural pleasure range, even though the stock set-up is pleasing, too. Feathering the throttle just the right way popped out a lovely burble, and even doubled as a safety feature as you pick your way through the traffic.

On the road, using the screen to help ward off some of the frigid breeze was effective, and while Ducati won’t recommend it, it’s easy enough to open it to the up position on the fly, and vice versa. I also really liked the dash, even if scrolling through it and choosing different options seems to take an extra step or two compared to other marques' systems.

The bike did show up a weird electronic interference on the track, though. When shifting gears flat out with the clutch on the non-quickshift machines, the bike would bog momentarily before resuming full noise. Weird. I thought at first I was hitting the rev-limiter, but shifting earlier changed nothing and it certainly is something the clutch is doing that causes it, perhaps because the clutch action shifts maps in the ECU (many bikes use the gear lever for the same job, instead) as it changes gear and perhaps confuses it.

This trait showed up when doing wheelies, too, with the bike happy to clutch up in first, but not second – it was like the traction control was left on and the engine would simply cut to keep the wheel on terra firma. Ducati wasn’t sure what caused it, but it was a track-only blip on the radar and these really aren’t for pulling wheelies, either. I didn’t notice anything on the road.

Summing up
Ducati’s SuperSport range is a quality push for new customers at Ducati. There are fewer compromises, including on the price tag, but enough of the Ducati character to offer new owners the kind of experience they paid for. Old-school Ducati riders might find this bike lame in some areas, but if they are honest with themselves they will enjoy the bike for that reason and appreciate the lack of serious commitment needed to ride it. They may even ride it more than their older-school machines!

It may be lower-priced, but I really enjoyed riding the SuperSport range (I’d take the S version, of course) and would be happy to own one. At that price, it’s certainly an option!

SPECS: 2017 DUCATI SUPERSPORT (SUPERSPORT S IN BRACKETS)
ENGINE
Type: Liquid-cooled Testastretta 11°, eight-valve, Desmodromic L-twin
Capacity: 937cc
Bore x stroke: 94.0mm x 67.5mm
Compression ratio: 12,6± 0.5 :1
Engine management: Electronic fuel injection with 53mm throttle bodies, full ride-by-wire

PERFORMANCE
Claimed maximum power: 113hp at 9000rpm
Claimed maximum torque: 96.7Nm at 6500rpm

TRANSMISSION
Type: Six speed
Final drive: Chain
Clutch: Wet multiplate, mechanically operated

CHASSIS AND RUNNING GEAR
Frame: Tubular steel trellis frame
Front suspension: 43mm upside-down Marzocchi fork (48mm upside-down Ohlins fork), fully adjustable, 130mm travel
Rear suspension: Sachs monoshock (Ohlins monoshock), fully adjustable, 144mm travel
Front brake: 320mm discs with Brembo M4-32 monobloc radial calipers, Bosch ABS
Rear brake: 245mm disc with twin-piston caliper, Bosch ABS
Wheels: Three-spoke light alloy
Tyres: Pirelli Diablo Rosso III – front 120/7-17, rear 180/55-17

DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITIES
Rake: 24 degrees
Trail: 91mm
Claimed dry weight: 183kg
Claimed kerb weight: 210kg
Seat height: 810mm
Wheelbase: 1478mm
Fuel capacity: 16 litres

OTHER STUFF
Price: $17,990 ($19,990)
Colour: Red
Test bike supplied by: Ducati Australia, www.ducati.com.au
Warranty: 24 months, unlimited kilometres