2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4 S Review | Motorcycle Test

2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4 S Review

With Rennie Scaysbrook, Photography by Ducati

Being a bike journo is hard. You have to ride all these new bikes, travel the world, eat great food and hang out with your friends in strange countries, and punch out a few words at the end of it all.

I know. Bloody hard existance. Boo hoo.

All jokes aside, the reason being a bike journo can be a hard gig in the current climate is unless you’re testing something on the low price end of the scale, finding genuine critiques of certain motorcycles can be a rather difficult task.

Case in point being the grey and black 2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4 S I’ve just ridden around the Andalucía racetrack in southern Spain. I’ll be honest and save you the reading time and say there’s very, very few things I did not love about this naked monster.

Its 153 kW/208 hp V4 motor, a chassis so agile it should have ballerina slippers, and rider electronics so damn good at what they’re designed to do — that is, saving you from yourself — make this a bike so tough to throw shade at I’m struggling to do so as I write this.

“You call yourself a journo?” laughs the Streetfigher at me, who’s LED face is inspired by The Joker from Batman. I should hang my head in shame.

Ok, for those wanting a more in depth analysis, read on.

The $39,000 2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4 S isn’t terribly different to what came out a couple of years ago. Ducati got the original V4 nakedbike pretty much spot on that there wasn’t a great need to reinvent the wheel, so the majority of the changes centre around swiping the rider electronics off the Panigale, something the Streetfighter is rather adept at.

At its core, the Streetfighter V4 S is a Panigale V4 S just without the fairings and a much more comfortable 60 mm thick seat.

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The Panigale donates the 1103 cc V4 Desmosedici Stradale V4 motor with that monster 208 hp taken at 13,000 rpm with torque coming in at 123 Nm at 9500 rpm, as it does the aluminium Front Frame chassis, the electronic Ohlins suspension, the Brembo Stylema brake calipers, and the electronics suite.

The motor is unchanged for 2023, which is plenty fine for me. This thing is so quick it’s quite tiring to ride for any great length of time at speed, especially when you’ve got everything turned up to 11 via the new-for-2023 Full power mode.

Full power mode takes over from High power mode as the big daddy of the performance family. However, even in Full power, which is accessed in the Race ECU mode via the revised dash board, you won’t get the full whack of the motor in first gear.

Like the Panigale, the Streetfighter V4 S now has torque metering for each individual gear, with first gear’s torque delivery metered the most, while every proceeding gear gradually gives the rider more and more torque.

Previously, the torque metering was done in gear groups (first and second, third and fourth, fifth and sixth).

“Making a high-performance bike is not easy because a lot of power is not manageable by a lot of people,” says Ducati’s Vehicle Testing Department Manager, Luigi Mauro. “You also have to consider this aspect. We don’t make a bike only for professional riders. Alessandro (Valia, Ducati’s Lead Test and Development rider) is happy without the torque reduction, but he is different to most riders! I am happy with torque reduction.

“Depending on your riding ability and depending on the confidence you have on the track and with the bike, you can change this mode during the day. At this Andalucia circuit, I can also ride with the Full power mode, but in many tracks, for example when I ride at Vallelunga in Rome, a track I use a lot, for me, riding the Panigale with the Full mode is too much. My lap time is slower because it’s too hard to manage. I can ride only for two or three laps very fast, and then the lap time increases because it requires too much effort in riding.

“When I use the power mode with the torque separation, everything becomes easier. I can ride six, seven laps with the same lap time. I’m more constant. I’m more concentrated on the track, and my lap time is a little bit lower. So, everything is easier.”

I will be honest and say I didn’t feel the difference as I’m not good enough to really tell, especially without riding the old bike and this new one back-to-back. What I can tell you is power delivery in all but the highest power mode is exceptionally smooth, especially when you consider the amount of power on tap, and it gets gradually more violent the higher up the scale you go.

There’s an enormous spread of performance with the Streetfighter and the electronics with IMU-controlled wheelie and traction control, engine brake control, slide control, make a cappuccino control, are such that your ride can be as sedate or as hardcore as you like. However, the bulk of the performance is in the higher rpm ranges, where the superbike genes of this nakedbike come to the fore.

Spend any great deal of time above 9000 rpm and things happen very quickly on a Streetfighter. The lack of wind protection from the absent bodywork only amplifies the situation as the V4 rockets you into your very near future with exceptional force.

When it’s time to slow, the Stylemas have you covered, as does that excellent Ducati Quick Shift system that lets you ram back through the gears without touching the clutch lever at high rpm ranges that most bikes would simply refuse to play along with.

This year’s Streetfighter frame gets the 4 mm taller swingarm pivot height change implemented on the 2022 Panigale to aid the anti-squat behaviour of the chassis. This will in turn help reduce understeer and allow the rider to dial in more go juice.

There’s subtle changes to the bodywork as well, namely in the fuel tank design that takes cues from Ducati’s racebike where part of the fuel tank extends under the seat to aid in mass centralisation.

The tank is one litre larger (a great thing when you consider the V4 motor drinks fuel like champion), and the design is slightly rounder at the base with larger indents to lock your knees in at the top. It’s a small change, but, all in the name of progress.

You notice more the indents at the top of the tank thank anything else while riding. If you’ve got longer legs than average this will be a welcome addition while on full lean, as you can hustle the chassis through corners with a little more control than before.

The tank shape goes hand in hand with an overall large chassis for a modern nakedbike, which is probably my favourite feature of the Streetfighter. This is a chassis designed for ‘normal’ people, not the Dani Pedrosas of the world, and the ergonomics are such with its 845 mm seat height you can ride this thing all day (or as long as it’ll take before you rip through the 17 litres of fuel, which, if on track, won’t be long).

Mated to the Ohlins Smart EC2.0 event-based suspension with its NIX30 fork, TTX36 shock and myriad of settings, the Streetfighter is infinitely adjustable and can go from street cushy to racetrack stiff in an instant.

The Ohlins dynamic electronic system is so good these days that after one session at Andalucía I commented to Ducati’s lead test rider, Alessandro Valia, I could easily race this without needing to put it in manual suspension. Just rip the lights off and go. Castrol 6 Hour style.

However, there’s so many other safety nets such as multi-stage wheelie, traction, slide and engine brake control, that to highside such a bike is absolutely impossible with them all turned on. Turn them off, however, and your ambition better not outweigh your talent…

Everything is adjusted through the revised dash that, again, comes off the Panigale. When the Superleggera came out back in 2020, we got the “Dovi dash”, named so as it was the preferred layout of the company’s then lead MotoGP rider, Andrea Dovizioso.

Dovi liked his gear position big in the center and all his parameters on the right side if the dash, so Ducati copied it, put it in the Superleggera, then the Panigale, and now the Streetfighter V4 S.

Inside the dash also sits a GPS lap timer, so you needn’t worry about flicking the high beam switch each time you cross the stripe. This, I assure you, is a very good thing, because the ride is so involved on a Streetfighter that you need every ounce of your mental capability just to stay on the straight and narrow.

I love bikes like the Streetfighter V4 S. It is so far removed from what I can pull as a rider as to make me feel downright inferior. I’m sure I’d be faster on something with 50 less horsepower, but I wouldn’t be having as much fun.

The Joker and I have become friends, laughing our way to the apex then leaving black signatures as we make out escape.

2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4 S Specifications

For more information see the Ducati Australia website (link).