The 1098 immediately strikes you with its purposeful, no-nonsense attitude. Performance is first and foremost in every detail.

Trademark Ducati features like the high tail section and compact front-end meld with twin under-seat silencers and single-sided swingarm to express its aerodynamics and agility. Add the new Testastretta Evoluzione engine at the heart of the machine and you get an all-out performance Ducati Superbike that seems to be moving fast, even when at rest.

The 1098 introduces a number of ‘firsts’ for Ducati and production sport bike design. The 1098 is the first production motorcycle to have the amazing stopping power of Brembo Monobloc brakes, the first to have a data acquisition system integrated as standard equipment and the first to use an ingenious construction method for its weight-saving single-sided swingarm. More ‘firsts’ for a road-going Ducati include the direct application of MotoGP technology, like the power producing GP6-derived elliptical throttle bodies and the use of the information-rich instrumentation originally developed for the new Desmosedici GP7.

The 1098 has the soul of a race bike, pure and simple. The riding position encourages the rider to mould to the sleek lines of the tank and seat: man and machine are made one. It transmits the quality and character of contact between road surface and tyre, it signals the way the chassis will react next and responds instinctively to rider commands.