Ducati Panigale V4 S vs. BMW S 1000 RR vs. Aprilia RSV4 1100 | Superbike Comparison

We put the three class-leading superbikes head to head at Thunderhill Raceway Park to decide the 2019 Cycle World Superbike Shootout winner. Will the 2019 Ducati Panigale V4 S retain it's edge in the category? Or will the all-new 2020 BMW S 1000 RR or big-bore 2019 Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory take the crown?

All bikes fitted with - Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SC

Arguments will be made for other categories of sportbikes, but nothing delivers the emotion-evoking exotic personality and outright performance like a modern-day superbike.

Each is a brutally fast piece of industrial art optimized with everything it needs to strive for the fastest lap time and nothing it doesn't. Superbikes are simultaneously raw yet refined. These machines are built solely to push the boundaries of pure performance, but addictive personalities beware: Superbikes can and will induce obsessive horsepower highs.

So, while there are a number of sportbikes on the market that mix in more practicality and comfort at a more affordable price, the open-class superbikes here—the Aprilia RSV4 1100 Factory, BMW S 1000 RR, and Ducati Panigale V4 S—represent the pinnacle of motorcycle performance. With these machines, a combination of mass horsepower and knife-edge handling makes previously unthinkable lap times easily obtainable, while a rock-solid chassis begs to push the limit a little further. Of course, pushing the envelope means increasing the consequences, but sophisticated rider aids have made this level of superbike performance more accessible than ever.

Accessibility of raw capability is one thing, but cost of entry is something entirely different. Each bike being priced at roughly $25,000 makes for an exclusive owner's club. But what you get with any of these motorcycles is racing DNA drawn from the front lines of MotoGP, and they also form the basis for cutthroat World Superbike competition—right down to the winglets. Buying a modern superbike has moved beyond just buying the bike with the most horsepower; it has become about owning exoticness, and getting the best a manufacturer has to offer.

And in the case of Ducati, this means the Panigale V4 S, which claimed Cycle World's Best Superbike title in our 2018 Ten Best Bikes voting. Sure, there is the FIM-homologation-special Panigale V4 R with its superbike-legal 998cc, but comparing the rest of the current crop of literbikes to the class-leading street offering from Ducati with its burlier 1,103cc engine is only sensible.

Aprilia's best? The big-bore RSV4 1100 Factory. Updated with an additional 79cc, top-shelf braking components, and MotoGP-derived aerodynamic winglets, this is a refined version of an already-potent platform—and stiff competition for Ducati.

BMW has something to say to its rivals, redesigning the 2020 model-year S 1000 RR from the ground up with a revised inline-four, a narrower and lighter chassis, and more sophisticated electronics. Oh, and the up-spec M and Select packages (an additional $3,700 and $1,400) come equipped with carbon-fiber wheels and semi-active electronic suspension. Thankfully, we were able to get ahold of one, much thanks to San Jose BMW employee and local racer Cory Call, who loaned Cycle World his privately owned M model for the track test.

We also requested the multitime Ten Best Bikes-winning YZF-R1M for the fun, but Yamaha declined. With updates made to the forthcoming 2020 model, the company decided to wait for next year's shootout, which is already shaping up to be an even higher-speed showdown.

The Test
Exploiting absolute open-class performance requires worthy testing grounds, and for the 2019 Cycle World Superbike Shootout, it meant Thunderhill Raceway Park's 3-mile road course for two full days of private testing. Thunderhill's variety of fast sweepers, hard-braking zones, dramatic elevation changes, and fifth-gear straightaways puts each bike to the detailed scrutiny of our testing staff, which included current licensed professional roadracers, longtime moto journalist and motorcyclistonline.com editor Adam Waheed, Red Bull stunt lunatic—I mean, street freestyle motorcycle artist—Aaron Colton, and legendary CW road test editor emeritus Don Canet.

Our vote for equal and abundant grip came by mounting Pirelli Supercorsa SC race rubber to each contender. (It is important to note Ducati’s stock rear-tire spec is a 200/60, but only a 200/55 is available in this tire.) Then we weighed, measured, and ran the bikes on the Cycle World in-house dyno.

At last, it was time to inject our veins with superbike stimulants.

To see how each bike compared, read the full story on Cycle World: https://www.cycleworld.com/aprilia-rs...

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