ATTN all of those who have purchased AND ridden the 2023 V4R! I would really like to hear all of your feedback on the new bike, ESPECIALLY if you had the 2019-2020 V4R.
Let's hear the good, the bad and the ugly (if possible). The changes are small but I am curious if it is worth upgrading so please elaborate on how you feel about the changes to the ergonomics, electronics, engine characteristics and geometry changes.
My feedback after riding my 2024 R on local canyon roads and the first outing on track.
I first took it out on local San Diego twisties in “as delivered middle of the range settings” sag, compression and rebound to get a feel for the bike during the break-in period. The R felt very easy to ride out of the box. Power delivery was noticeably smoother and I found myself winding it up to get more out of it. Overall the bike felt sorted and planted though during the winding road outings. Fast forward to having my mechanic setting up the suspension as I was heading to Chuckwalla for a shakedown. Rear rider sag was at 45mm and he thought it was too loose based on Öhlins recommended settings. It took 10 turns of preload, one shy of max, to get it in range of 32mm. Odd, especially how the bike felt sorted already. Maybe the new shock links, spring, swing arm position combination Roadracerx previously mentioned here was the reason? I don’t know and I’m looking for answers from the braintrust here. The front was in range out of the box so we didn’t have to touch that. All damping was middle range (12 clicks out up front and 18 clicks out on the shock, if I remember correctly).
For background info, I’ve been racing my modified 2019 V4 for the last three years and I’m basing this review on a comparison to that bike. I’m 150lbs and have a 80nm shock spring and 9.0 springs in the FKRs up front on the 2019. Roadracerx set-up the chassis on this one and I was able to log a personal best of 1:51 last season at Chuckwalla on this bike. We’re getting quicker but with a lot of effort to get there.
Now at Chuckwalla with the new R, fitted with Pirelli SC2 front and SC1 rear, T-drive rotors and full Akra, (what a sweet sounding pipe) it was time to open her up. I kept the map in Race A all day and the remaining settings (DTC, DWC, DSC, etc.) in least intrusive, #1. On first outing I immediately found the bike to be stiff in the rear (no surprise there) so I went back to stock preload, 10 turns out. This returned the bike to a more balanced chassis, sag settings be damned. Now that we were back to a known setup I could start to push harder, get a feel for things and fine tune settings. Overall first takes, the bike felt very responsive to inputs and effortless to go from tip-in, to mid corner adjustments of lines, to hard acceleration. It was a beautiful thing to not have the bike try to leave you behind like the 2019 would. I found “full throttle” on accel earlier and longer than on the 2019 with no drama. I found myself noticeably too slow mid-corner and having to accelerate much earlier in the turn because the bike would just go where I wanted it to go with less effort, physically from me. My eyes were still calibrated to the riding habits and techniques needed for the 2019 V4 and this bike could handle much faster corner entry speeds. I just needed to start trusting it. Training comes to mind. Mid-corner I could easily adjust my line either with trail braking, engine braking or both and get on the throttle more aggressively with zero drama. This bike is so much smoother and linear, a big plus for a small guy like me.
I played with damping and found the sweet spot to be a couple of additional clicks out on all adjusters (for now). Two too many yielded a bit of pumping and in stability on acceleration.
So my assessment albeit non-technical, rider-feel based and anecdotal, is that the changes Ducati has made to tame the V4 beast are amazing based on one outing at a familiar track. I look forward to picking up the pace and learning to extract the potential this package offers in the coming seasons. Mostly this would take winding her up higher in the rev range and keeping it there to take advantage of the available HP. Breaking the old habit patterns the previous gear ratios called for.
Lastly I’ll add, after my initial day of track riding the new V4R ‘and getting used to it,’ I took the 2019 V4 out on a local canyon ride the next day; wow!!! What a difference. I now call that one “Wild Thing.” Lots of fun but wa-a-y more power on throttle opening.
Happy riding everyone,
