To commemorate Troy Bayliss’ first World Superbike championship back in 2001, Ducati built this ultracool version of its Panigale V2.

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It seems like ages ago now, but there was a time when 750cc inline-fours and 1,000cc V-twins ruled Superbike racing. The apex of that era was the ’90s and early 2000s, before World Superbike raised the limit on fours to 1,000cc and before Ducati started asking for incremental concessions to remain competitive. In the ’90s Ducati won eight out of 10 championships; in the 2000s, five of 10.

In 2001, Australian Troy Bayliss rode his factory Ducati 996 R to his first of three World Superbike titles, all with Ducati. To commemorate the anniversary of that accomplishment, and also because it was a great excuse to make an über-cool version of the Panigale V2, Ducati decided to build the bike you see here: the Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary Edition.

Before getting into the specifics of the bike, it’s interesting to think about how Ducati has evolved in the past handful of years. It wasn’t very long ago that the company produced nothing but versions of the V-twins and had built since the 750 GT of the early ’70s. But as Superbike racing evolved, it became clear that the 1,098cc Panigale R V-twins, last raced by the factory in 2017, had been pushed to their limits. Ducati had already invested substantially in the four-cylinder format through MotoGP competition, so it was only a matter of time before the four-cylinder Panigale V4, Multistrada V4, and soon-to-come Diavel V4 arrived...

Full story here: https://www.cycleworld.com/story/bikes/ducati-panigale-v2-bayliss-first-ride-review-2022/

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