Show Notes
Enter to win the Moto Guzzi V85TT: https://fanathem.com/canyonchasers - Ducati’s factory team just ran away with the most dominant World Superbike season ever, and we think it exposes a bigger problem. When the Panigale V4 R is basically a GP bike you can buy for $50k, why would Yamaha, Kawasaki, or Honda spend millions to show up and lose? We dig into the tech that makes the Ducati so good (twin pulse firing order, counter-rotating crank, electronics that add rear brake mid-corner), why fuel flow limits haven’t slowed it down, and what we’d do with the series if it were up to us. Spoiler: more power, fewer rider aids, worse tires.
We also follow up on last week’s counter steering debate and the idea of putting a potentiometer on the steering head to see what the bars are actually doing. Then we get into single function forks, and I share a frustrating track day at Utah Motorsports Campus West where no setting I tried gave me any front end feel from the big piston fork.
And yes, there’s a brand new Moto Guzzi V85 in the studio. More on that below.
What should happen to World Superbike? Let us know in the comments.
0:00 Intro 0:17 First impressions of the new Moto Guzzi V85 9:22 Counter steering follow-up: your comments 17:04 Ducati's perfect WSBK season 22:30 Inside the Panigale V4 R 30:44 Is this the death of World Superbike? 42:40 What we'd do: more power, fewer aids, worse tires 49:56 BSB's 200hp cap and the 500cc two-stroke era 56:20 Single function forks explained 58:52 Track day: no feel from the big piston fork 1:07:00 Our techniques aren't tattooed on us
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