Ducati’s Supersport family has served the Italian company very well for a long time now.  However, over the last decade the 900SS had fallen well behind the times. A rather asthmatic and fairly uncivilised engine never won my heart. Combine that with a fairly extreme riding position, and the ingredients mixed to make a recipe that provided a sometimes objectionable ride.

We are very pleased to say the menu has changed for the better with the arrival of the new 1000SS. The machine is improved in all areas, the biggest enhancement coming from a change in the engine room.

Residing between a trademark Ducati steel trellis frame is the all new 1000 Dual-Spark engine.  We found around a 15% improvement right through the rev range when compared to a previous 900SS on the dyno. The still reasonably tight 1000 made nearly 83hp on the dyno which compares favourably to the 73hp we recorded from a 3,000 kilometre 900SS. Torque is up from 74N-m to 86N-m, but more importantly that significant margin of advantage is apparent from idle.

These are bigger improvements than Ducati actually claim for the new engine. But the added grunt is not what has completely changed our opinion of the SS. It is instead, the fluid way in which it is delivered.

Drive everywhere in the rev range from the new engine is seamless and beautifully smooth. In this regard it is simply light years ahead of the previous motor. Right from idle it grunts quite hard, but most impressive is the level of refinement it displays.

People love twin cylinder engines because of their strong mid-range and significant torque in the lower rpm ranges. Unfortunately, a lot of them go in to convulsions when asked to use that bottom end, especially in gears any higher than second. I have covered over 20,000km in recent years aboard sporting twins from various manufacturers, but it is this trait that simply made them too painful on the road for them to enter my mind as a serious buying proposition.

Now, I actually find myself lusting over the 1000SS. Did I expect this before riding the machine? Definitely not.

And the key to the matter is that engine. It is the best road going twin cylinder engine I have ever used. Of course, it makes a lot less power than Ducati’s own Superbike level 998 or 999 machines, or the comparable models from Aprilia and Honda. In the numbers it also falls well behind the SV1000 Suzuki or Honda Firestorm, but on the road this engine is an absolute pearler. Positive proof that the mettle of an engine for the road is found by covering plenty of kilometres on the road, and not by just looking at dyno charts.

I can't imagine anyone test riding the 1000SS to not be immediately impressed by the engine.  From a tick over 2,500rpm in first gear, only the slightest whiff of throttle sees the front wheel rise gracefully in to the air.  It really is nearly child's play to keep this machine up on one wheel through the first few gears, or for as long as your game.  Definitely not too licence friendly, but immensely enjoyable all the same.

I am sure that precise mapping of the new Marelli 5.9 electronic central processing unit (same as that seen on the Superbikes and the ST4S) definitely contributes to this beautifully smooth pull from low down in revs. But that alone could not have provided the improvements found with this new model.

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