There's just so much to talk about with the new 2025 Ducati Panigale V4, I honestly don't know how Robbie condensed its 20-plus-page info dump into a single article last week.
There's the death of the single-sided swingarm (RIP), the increase in horsepower, the insane aerodynamics, and a litany of small and large changes across the motorcycle that culminate in something that's out of this world.
Yet, the stat that struck me as the wildest among them all was something that likely seems inconsequential to most folks but beggars belief. No, it's not the horsepower increase despite being Euro5 compliant, the weight loss on an already light motorcycle, or the MotoGP-ness of it all. It's the Panigale V4's technology, specifically the sensor suite which can "simulate" over 70 different sensors across the bike.
The Panigale has so many sensors, it even knows when you fart. Probably. I don't know. It probably doesn't. But what else are those sensors going to sense? Well, let's talk about it.
Sensors have a variety of responsibilities on modern motorcycles, as they can detect normal things like engine and oil temperatures, oil pressures, what's left in your fuel tank, wheel spin, and even tire pressures. And on superbikes like the Ducati Panigale V4, you'll also find the standard affair of yaw, pitch, and roll sensors, coupled with wheelie controls, launch controls, brake sensors, and other race-spec sensors to help the bike's electronic brain get you through a race without crashing head-first into a barrier.
But the new Panigale V4 takes all that a step further, adding MotoGP-derived technology to a street bike.
"To support its controls, alongside the six-axis inertial platform from which the control unit receives roll, yaw and pitch values, Ducati has [enhanced] the DVO functionality, capable of simulating the input of 70 sensors," says Ducati in the press release. DVO stands for Ducati Vehicle Observer, which is the company's language for the bike's ECU.
However, unlike other superbike ECUs, DVO learns.
"This algorithm allows an instant estimate of physical, kinematic and dynamic quantities that cannot be measured in practice, which impact the ground forces, accelerations and maximum torques that the vehicle can bear in various riding conditions. The system effectively simulates the presence, on the new Panigale V4, of sensors capable of measuring seventy physical quantities in addition to those detected by the inertial platform, allowing a precise estimate of both the operating thrusts and the maximum forces that can be tolerated by the bike at that specific moment."
In other words, using an algorithm Ducati came up with, along with a handful of physical sensors it does have on the bike, it can simulate a handful more to better get the bike to move under the ride. And with those simulated sensors, the bike figures out how it can be faster, doling out more power, less slip angle, more traction control, less engine braking, and more as you wring out its neck.
You might as well accept that this motorcycle is likely smarter than both you or I, because it absolutely is.
So no, Ducati doesn't admit that the new Panigale V4 can sense when you fart, but come on, you don't think one of those simulated sensors is a fart detector? I mean, it could offer further propulsion depending on whether or not you ate that entire burrito last night.
The beans could make you faster.
