The Ducati Streetfighter is equipped with everything that made the Superbike a legend: Awesome L-Twin muscle with brutal, big-bore torque, thoroughbred chassis technology, beautiful single-sided swingarm, planet-stopping Monobloc brakes and pure, sophisticated class.
While the tank and seat shapes leave no doubt as to the Streetfighter’s roots, it is the upright and commanding riding position that really starts to shape the character of this ultimate naked. New, minimalistic controls, instrumentation and headlight design leave the front looking clean and mean, while twin-stacked right-side mufflers at the rear leave the tail-end high and sharp. No other Ducati has ever achieved such an aggressive stance while providing a comfortable, empowering, controllable and enjoyable ride.
But the ‘S’ sophistication doesn’t end there. Awesome street-going Ducati Traction Control and Ducati Data Analysis are standard issue, making it clear that the Streetfighter S is not all muscle – it’s intelligent too.
Producing a ballistic 85lb-ft (11.7kgm) of torque and 155hp (114kW), the Streetfighter’s awesome 1098 power house fears nothing of the naked sports competition. The L-Twin, Testastretta Evoluzione engine gives both the best power-to-weight and the best torque-to-weight ratios in its class.
The handlebars are gripped by beautifully shaped clamps that flow sleekly into the bar-risers. Symmetrically mounted, remote brake and clutch reservoirs are small, low and compact and feed slim, radial master-cylinders by Brembo to complete the clean and uncluttered controls arrangement.
Taking care of the rear of the ‘S’ is a single high-spec Öhlins unit fully adjustable in spring preload with full adjustment and highly engineered control of compression and rebound damping. The unit is also fitted with a ride enhancing top-out spring which helps maintain rear tyre contact under extreme conditions.
The Streetfighter S pushes the spec way up with 43mm Superbike-spec Öhlins forks that have sliders treated in low-friction TiN. Fully adjustable in spring preload and precisely adjustable in compression and rebound damping, they ensure ‘S’ feeling and finesse when the fight gets rough.
