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Riding the Ducati Panigale V4 S is quite a trip, as the experience is nothing short of relentless. There’s power everywhere, and if ever there was a machine to remind us that we, the riders, are the limiting factors in performance, this is it. By now there has been quite a lot written about the Ducati Panigale V4 S on the digital pages of Motorcycle.com. From our First Look of the bike a year ago, to Kevin Duke’s subsequent First Ride Review, we’ve then gone on to put it on the dyno against its natural rival, the Aprilia RSV4 RF, followed by a full-on showdown between the two Italians on both the street and the track. Hell, despite some of its shortcomings, we even gave the Panigale V4 S our 2018 Motorcycle of the Year award!

Through it all, though, there’s been a question lingering in the back of our collective minds: Now that Ducati has retired its venerable V-Twin for superbike duty, does the V4 still have the same character – the same DNA – as its V-Twin ancestors before it?

On the racetrack, the fight between the Aprilia RSV4 RF and Ducati Panigale V4 S was so close, it resulted in one of, if not the, closest shootout in Motorcycle.com history, with the two protagonists separated by 0.2% – two-tenths of a percentage point! – on our scorecards. On paper, anyway, the Ducati emerged victorious for a track tool, but it was only our racetrack ringer, Shane Turpin, who ultimately picked the Panigale V4 S – and its $4k heftier price tag – as his weapon of choice. Meanwhile, both Tom and I would elect to save the extra dough and be perfectly happy with the Aprilia – despite what the scorecard says.

Battle Of The Titans: Aprilia RSV4 RF Vs. Ducati Panigale V4 S – Track

By now, hopefully you’ve already read our street installation of this two-part test. If not, STOP! Please do check it out because it outlines and dissects each and every bike in great detail, and it very well might answer a slew of questions you might have that aren’t addressed here, in the off-road portion of the shootout.

2018 Big-Bore Adventure Touring Shootout – Part 1: Street

I just spent last weekend riding Ol’ Faithful, my 2008 Honda CRF450R, up in Mammoth, California, on trails very similar to those I rode in Nevada City on the Alta Redshift EXR. Riding up in the Sierra Nevadas is an absolute must for any off-road or dual-sport rider, but it got me thinking… We were riding at a base altitude of about 7,880 feet before climbing up even higher into some of the area’s mountains and lookouts. As a result, Ol’ Faithful was starving for air and running out of steam on her top end.

2019 Alta Redshift EXR Dual-Sport First Ride Review

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The 2018 Isle of Man TT turned out to be one of the most spectacular fortnights in the storied history of the meeting. Virtually every race saw new lap records set, at speeds that were unthinkable a decade ago. The weather was glorious, and a host of new dining and imbibing options have proliferated. There were some tragic losses to go with the glory, but that is part of the unparalleled history, character, and danger of this extraordinary contest.

Other than the 40,000 visitors to the TT, though, millions of additional motorbike enthusiasts around the globe settled for watching the race coverage in the comfort of their homes. But not live. Instead, the TT programming is distributed as a set of same-day highlights programs, which spawns considerable production challenges.

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You’ve heard the adage a lot if you’re a consistent Motorcycle.com reader – it’s more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow – and with our recent Lightweight Sportbike Shootout we’ve gone ahead and proved it. By now we’ll assume you’ve already read the shootout, seen our conclusions, and also drawn your own; but what exactly do these three motorcycles look like at speed around Laguna Seca? This is your chance to see for yourself, as we’ve captured a quick lap aboard all three bikes, courtesy of Yours Truly.

“Quick lap” is relative, of course, considering the relative lack of power these bikes make and because getting a clean lap without traffic was next to impossible. Still, these on boards reveal quite a bit.

Honda’s known for its iconic lineup of CBR sportbikes – the CBR600RR and CBR1000RR are two of the most legendary sporting motorcycles to ever grace a racetrack. Look deeper into Honda’s product lineup however, and you’ll find Team Red has a host of other models also wearing the CBR nameplate. Here, we’ll take a look at the CBR500R. A 471cc parallel-Twin, the 500R represents a stepping stone to the bigger, badder CBR models – or does it? After spending some time with it, here are five things you need to know about the 2018 Honda CBR500R.

KTM updated this little rascal for 2017, but we’re just now getting our hands on the new bike. Basically it’s got even more of the things we liked and less of the ones we didn’t – more accel and decel, and therefore the RC’s an even bigger bargain than before if minimalist corner-carving is your thing.

2018 Lightweight Sportbikes Shootout

It’s getting to be a bit silly what’s passing for a lightweight sportbike these days. In the beginning, it made sense: You had the Kawasaki Ninja 250. And, well, that was it. It only took twenty-odd years, but the other manufacturers eventually took notice that building small bikes to entice new or returning riders was probably a good thing for the industry, and hence, started building little bikes of their own. Honda came around with the CBR250R…just as the competition upped the ante again. Kawasaki pushed the bar with the Ninja 300, then Honda made a weak attempt to follow suit with the 286cc CBR300R. Yamaha then jumped in the game, shoving displacement rules out the window with its 321cc R3 – but not to be outdone, the brash Austrians (via India) at KTM one-upped all of them with the 373cc RC390.

Today, Kawasaki is throwing convention out the window yet again, shelving the Ninja 300 (at least in the U.S.) and giving us the all-new Ninja 400. So it’s only right we at Motorcycle.com put it up against some worthy contenders. If this idea sounds vaguely familiar to you, it’s because we last put the crop of little bikes (not to be confused with liter bikes – very different) together in 2015 in our Beginner-ish Sportbike Shootout. There we had the CBR300, Ninja 300, RC390, and R3 fighting it out, with the Kawasaki narrowly beating the Yamaha for the top spot.

Why don’t we go to Baja more often? Well, one reason is the manufacturers want us to get special dispensation before we take their bikes to a foreign country, you need to buy Mexican insurance, everybody speaks a weird language down there, you can’t drink the water… those are all really easy obstacles to overcome, and I’m told you can drink the Baja water now.

Husqvarna, a company better known for its off-road bikes – or chainsaws, depending on who you ask – made big waves in the motorcycle world three years ago when the Austrian-owned Swedish brand announced it would enter the street bike market with concepts of its Vitpilen and Svartpilen models. Fast forward to EICMA last November, and there they were, in the flesh and on the floor – real motorcycles.

It’s finally here, folks. The 2018 Husqvarna Vitpilen 701. Since its concept was unveiled at EICMA in 2015, the 701 has been a highly anticipated model throughout the world. From the farthest stretches of the internet, comments have asked when, if, and where the Vitpilen 701 would be available – with some giving up hope as to whether it was ever going to be produced at all. MO is happy to announce that we have had the chance to get the Vitpilen 701 in our garage and to test on our home roads. Although our time with the Vitpilen 701 was brief, we made good use of it.

It’s funny how time’s arrow flies. Seems like only yesterday we were in a chill and rainy Milano for the big international motorcycle exposition, drooling over the showstopping new Ninja H2 SX SE with Sean Alexander and Brent J., knocking out non-award-winning videos and wondering what Kawasaki could possibly be thinking to produce such an outrageous motorcycle? Shirley it will be way expensive and unobtainable like the other H2s?

Billing yourself as a boutique manufacturer of motorcycle art invites intense scrutiny and whether fair or unfair, a cosmetic blemish or performance shortcoming when found is profoundly magnified. It’s the cross MV Agusta must bear, along with its tumultuous history of financial liquidity as well as its family history of adopted ownerships. Regardless the burden, MV remains relevant by ceaselessly pushing the boundaries of motorcycle design by offering enthusiasts something more than a two-wheel commodity.

From the moment I thumbed the starter button, I knew I was going to like the 2018 Yamaha Star Eluder. The exhaust note just hit me in the right place and made me smile. Now, the Yamaha product development folks would say that it was because the dual mufflers were tuned to slightly different notes so that they would harmonize, creating a more pleasant tone. Whatever, it worked. And then I got to let out the clutch and pull away from the curb.