Compared to 1299, rake is the same, and 2mm more trail, 32mm longer wheelbase due to much longer swingarm. Overall this geometry should make a very stable bike that can accelerate hard without excess wheelie. No one has mentioned yet what is probably one of, if not THE biggest difference that will make this bike handle the best of the Superbike bunch - the counter-rotating crankshaft! Every MotoGP bike on the grid has a counter-rotating crank. Ducati will have the only bike for sale to the public with a counter-rotating crank. The reduction in gyroscopic forces to resist turning is very significant. The ABS system now has the ability to work in front-only mode using the lean-angle algorithms, which means it will actually work properly when ridden hard on the track. Whether the braking FEEL is up to race par, remains to be seen, since historically the ABS systems have felt spongy to many of us and we've removed them. I'll give this one the benefit of the doubt until I can ride it. All of the electronics are going to be a step above current stuff due to the new 6-axis IMU vs. the current 5-axis IMU in the 1299.
Subjective comments I can make now that the covers have been pulled off. Sitting on the bike, to me the riding position felt more aggressive than the current 1299. We'll see once they're side-by-side with more people judging it, but I sat on the 959 Corse and the V4 back-to-back and the V4 feels more aggressive, both bar and footpeg position. The bike has a very aggressive look to it, that's something that is not translating well in the 2D images on the internet. Like I mentioned before, very few people will see this bike in person and decide they don't want one because they don't like the look. The new dash is sweet, everyone's going to love it I think.
The Akra exhaust is worthy of hanging on a wall as a modern art sculpture. It is going to be awesome to be back to the days where we can put a race exhaust on a Ducati Superbike and actually get REAL horsepower gains again, +12HP and -8LBS is something we haven't seen for a long time. I'll be surprised if we sell many V4's without that exhaust on them, it's the real deal. No, it won't be cheap, slightly more than the current Akra setup for 1299, but much more significant performance gains.
And please don't shoot the messenger here, but just giving everyone a heads-up that this bike is going to roll out in a little different fashion that what we've been accustomed to. Availability for 2018 is going to be very tight, dealers were not given the opportunity to order as many bikes as we want, we were given an allocation of how many they can produce and that's all. So dealers are not going to have enough bikes to meet demand. For us as dealers, we don't like this, our ideal scenario is to have bikes in stock for sale all year long. It's not going to be like that, these are probably all going to be pre-sold with deposits well before they start rolling out next Spring. I don't want to get into specific numbers because I don't know for sure, but I can say that I'm only getting half of the bikes that I would have wanted. I suspect, and this is just my guess, that the 959 still being on the old platform as the new bike is on the new platform, limits the production capacity, as well as the engine takes longer to produce. Eventually it will catch up I'm sure, but for the 1st half of 2018, not everyone who wants a bike is going to get one. Fair warning.