The 2020 Ducati Streetfighter V4 is a premium super naked with the engine from the Panigale V4 superbike. It's seriously fast and rather expensive too, and is the speed-crazed wheelie monster you’d expect it to be, but it also has a surprisingly grown-up side.
Friendly at low speed and perfectly happy to accelerate hard with both wheels on the floor, it’s far calmer than its V-twin predecessor and its supermoto-like riding position is less extreme, too.
Some cheap plastics parts aside it’s beautifully built, finished and equipped, but it’s a heck of a lot of cash, making this a super naked for well-heeled thrill seekers only.
Related: Ducati Streetfighter V2 review
Ducati’s original 2009 Streetfighter 1100 was a bit of a one-trick pony – it loved to wheelie and that was about it. Some loved it for that, but most didn’t and liked its extreme, supermoto-like, dangled-over-the-front riding position even less. No surprise, then, that during its six-year life it was never a big seller... so read on to find out what the 2020 Ducati Streetfighter V4S is really like in our in-depth review.
We ran a Ducati Streetfighter V4 on the MCN long-term fleet during 2020 - we took it on track at Brands Hatch and Donington Park, plus put thousands of road miles on the bike.
Our Chief Road Tester Michael Neeves was running the bike, and said it's a hugely versatile machine thanks to its epic performance and suite of riding modes, which allow it to have multiple characters.
If you're keen on this bike and fancy meeting likeminded people, there's a great online community at Ducati Owners' Club GB.
Less than 12 months after it was launched the Ducati Streetfighter got its first update, mainly to satisfy Euro5 regs, but also to add extra excitement lower in the revs. And if it didn’t look mean enough already, the 2021 Streetfighter V4 is also available in satin black.
It never lacked drama to begin with, but with the meat of its torque delivered at such screaming revs, the peakier 2020 Streetfighter V4 lacked the immediacy of its gruntier rivals.
It still has a voracious appetite for revs and hasn’t turned into a Super Duke or Tuono overnight, but now more if the V4’s good stuff is delivered at lower speeds, which makes it even more exciting, more of the time and the riot a bike with over 200bhp really should be.
Extra oomph aside it’s much the same as before: a hugely refined, impressively technical and blisteringly fast superbike with straight bars.
Stealth fighter: Ducati Streetfighter V4 S now available in black
Ducati have announced that from 2021, the Streetfighter V4 S will be available in a Dark Stealth black paintjob as well as the existing Ducati red option.
From 2021 on, the Streetfighter will also be fully Euro5-compliant. This has meant some slight changes to the way the exhaust is routed, new lambda probes (one for each cylinder) and larger catalyst internals but Ducati are still claiming the same power output.
What has changed though is that peak power now comes at 13,000rpm (250rpm higher than before) while peak torque comes a whopping 2000rpm sooner at 9500rpm. If this means more grunt at lower revs (9500rpm is well beyond legal road speed even in first gear) than it would be an improvement for road riding.
The bike also gets new front brake pumps and a self-purging clutch, both lifted from the £86,000 Superleggera V4.
The Dark Stealth paint option is available in the Ducati configurator now and costs £300 more than the standard red model.
Ducati Streetfighter V4: Further updates for 2023
For 2023 Ducati have turned their focus on making the Streetfighter V4 S easier to manage with a sack-full of electronic upgrades, plus a few nips and tucks elsewhere and it’s worked. That said, a 205bhp super naked with a stiff superbike chassis is still physically and mentally challenging to ride quickly on track.
But once you’ve acclimatised to its brutality you can lean on its polished new electronic rider aids and trust them to help you go faster with a bigger safety margin. We still reckon 170-ish bhp is still the super naked sweet spot, but the Ducati is still endlessly impressive and won’t fail to make you fizz every time you open the garage door.
