Coming soon: Ducati’s all-new V2 engine

Motorcycle manufacturers across the board are modernising their engines to cope with ever more stringent emissions and noise regulations, many settling on varieties of parallel-twins that do the numbers but can be lacking that all-important charisma factor. Enter Ducati, with an all-new engine for the crucial mid-size bike sector that does everything a modern motor needs to do while sticking by the 90-degree V-twin format fans have long loved.
Displacing 890cc and available in two states of tune for different applications, the liquid-cooled unit is claimed as the lightest V-twin Ducati has yet built and positively bristles with trick features to nail both the power figures and the all-important regulatory ones in the latest Euro5+ emissions rules.

For the number nerds out there Ducati hints the 96x61.5mm bore and stroke should mean a character mid-way between the existing Testastretta engine used by bikes like the Monster and DesertX and the sportier Superquadro found in the Streetfighter V2, Panigale V2 and others. To those ends Ducati will offer the new V2 with 115 horsepower or 120 horsepower depending on the type of bike it’s fitted to, both figures coming at a 10,750rpm, or just shy of the 11,350rpm rev limiter. With a sports exhaust system Ducati says as much as 126 horsepower is possible, which is still some way short of the 155 horsepower of the existing Superquadro twin. Torque is meanwhile a healthy 93Nm, or 92Nm for the lower powered version which also has shorter gear ratios in first and second while burlier con-rods and flywheel increase its inertia to improve low-speed smoothness.

The 54.4kg all-up weight is lighter even than the air-cooled Desmodue engine in the Scrambler, ride by wire controlled throttle bodies meaning four rider modes and compatibility with Ducati’s latest quickshifter system. Valve timing is variable on the intake side, with conventional spring actuation rather than the traditional desmodromic system traditionally used on Ducati twins. This contributes to service intervals 15,000km (just over 9,000 miles) for a basic oil change, with valve clearance checks ever 30,000km (or around 18,000 miles) after that. Even aesthetics have been considered, the positioning of the water pump on the head of the front cylinder minimising the amount of exposed hosing on naked models and teasingly opening the possibility of what Ducati describes as “more compact motorcycles” thanks to the reduced size and weight.
We won’t be waiting long to find out what that means, with the first models using the engine to be confirmed imminently.