Ducati Hypermotard V2 SP (2026) review

With a lineage that stretches back two decades, it’s hard to argue that Ducati didn’t hit the jackpot when the Hypermotard family was born. It took what Ducati had already been doing very well for several years – building fast, premium bikes – then added a wild side the likes of which the Borgo Panigale had never seen before.

Thankfully, Ducati’s wild side is still very much alive and kicking, and to keep the Hypermotard fresh and current, a new V2 version has been launched. To find out more about it, and most importantly, how it handled on the track, Ducati flew us to the brand’s hometown of Bologna. Here we had around six sessions on the short but incredibly demanding and entertaining Modena circuit.

What’s new with the Ducati Hypermotard V2 SP

At the heart of the new Ducati Hypermotard V2 SP is Ducati’s latest 890cc V2 non-Desmo engine, featuring Intake Variable Timing. On paper, it makes a claimed 120 hp (118 bhp) at 10,750 rpm and 69.3 lb-ft at 8,250 rpm, with Ducati saying 80 per cent of that torque is available from just 4,000 rpm. In practice, that should translate to a broad, flexible delivery, something that matters far more on a bike like this than outright peak numbers. Over and above the other bikes in the V2 family, the Hypermotard gains its own ECU and electronic settings to suit the more playful nature of the bike.

If you’re chasing a bit more from your motard, there is the optional Termignoni exhaust system, which adds just under 4 bhp while shaving around 4 kg from the bike's weight. Not essential, in my eyes, but very on-brand – and it does look and sounds incredibly good!

The chassis has had just as much attention. There’s a new monocoque frame paired with a trellis subframe, the latter being a nod to tradition. It’s a setup similar in principle to the Ducati Streetfighter V2 and Ducati Panigale V2, but adapted for the Hypermotard’s more upright, aggressive stance. The frame alone is 4.6 kg lighter than that found on the outgoing 950 Hyper, contributing to a claimed dry weight of 177 kg.

There’s also a new dual-sided swingarm with revised rigidity, fully adjustable Öhlins NIX30 forks and an Ohlins STX46 rear shock, and lightweight forged wheels at both ends. The seat height sits at a lofty 880mm, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about its intentions.

The electronics are, unsurprisingly, comprehensive, with a full IMU-backed suite that includes traction control, wheelie control, engine brake control, a quickshifter, launch control, and a pit limiter. And then we get to the standout feature, Ducati’s Slide By Brake system. This technology actively manages rear-wheel slip under braking, helping you to back the bike into corners with a safety net for if things get out of hand.

Price, colours, availability

The new Hypermotard V2 will be landing in UK dealerships priced at either £17,295 for the SP, or £13,495 for the base model. The base will be available only in Ducati Red, while the SP has its own dedicated ‘SP’ colour scheme. Bikes will be arriving in UK dealerships from April.

Compared to the SP, the standard model pares things back with KYB and Sachs suspension, Brembo M4.3 calipers, and cast wheels. It also loses the pit lane speed limiter and launch control, although both can be added as an option. It also relies on a traditional lead-acid battery, not the lightweight lithium-ion item found on the SP.

2026 Hypermotard V2 SP review

From one track launch, the Yamaha R7 to another, but this time the setting couldn’t have been more different. Instead of a technical learning curve of a track that was the Circuit do Sol, the Hypermotard made its bow at the Modena circuit, a venue used by nearby automotive heavyweights like Ferrari and Lamborghini. It’s fast, flowing, with a couple of heavy braking zones and lots of rapid direction changes. Best of all, though, it is very easy to learn! Pretty much ideal territory for a big-bore supermoto.

It only took a handful of laps to figure out where I was going, and then I could crack on with the job at hand: learning about the bike. And that’s when the first thing hits me: just how physical this bike is. Ducati talked a lot about accessibility and how easy it is to ride this new bike in the briefing. And compared to previous Hypermotards, that may well be true, but riding it flat-out on track was still a proper workout. It’s tall, it’s lively, and it demands input. You don’t so much ride it as throw it around in the bends. And when you get to the next long straight, all you can do is feed it gears and hang on.

The flip side of all that is that it’s enormous fun. The way it changes direction is borderline ridiculous; it’s quick, light, and seems to react to inputs through the wide bars instantly. It felt totally at home being through Modena’s tighter sections, and was still pulling hard past 140mph at the end of the 400 metre straight.

The front end, though, does keep you honest. Even with the suspension stiffened up from the stock settings, there’s still a little bit of movement under hard braking and aggressive direction changes. Had I had more time, some tweaking of the suspension would have probably helped a little, but for me, it never got to the point of feeling too wayward.

We were also running on the stock Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa IV tyres, not the slicks we normally see on a Ducati track launch. We did have warmers on before the sessions, and while slicks would have offered more short-term grip, it was still impressive to see how well the bike performed in stock trim. The front-end grip, for a bike being ridden hard on stock tyres, is very good, with the Hypermotard feeling nicely planted, to the point where the movement I’m feeling isn’t coming from the tyre, but from the chassis working beneath me.

The rear, on the other hand, is where things get interesting.

Ducati’s Slide By Brake system is, quite frankly, a bit of a cheat code. Charge into a corner hard on the front brake, introduce some lean angle and the rear brake, and the system meters the rear ABS to let the back wheel step out in a controlled and predictable way. It’s backing-it-in made accessible, and still with a sizeable safety net built in.

There is a catch, though, in that it only works if you brake in the way the system expects you to. Get it wrong, by not braking hard enough initially to trigger the electronics, and you’ll only get standard ABS, which can lead to the odd run-on if you’re not ready for it. But when you get it right, it’s incredibly addictive, and not a million miles away from the wheelie control found on the latest generation Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS and RX. On those bikes, the wheelie control actively helps you unlock a new level of riding, and not just to enhance performance or increase speed. Purely and simply for the fun that can be derived from using the system. More of that, please.

The Modena circuit includes two heavy braking zones, the first into turn one, where I’m scrubbing off around 100 mph, and the second into turn seven, which is a downhill braking zone where I’m dropping from around 90 to 40 mph. Both are a decent test of the Brembo M50 calipers, which are, as you’d expect on a bike weighing less than 200 kg, incredibly powerful. Backed by a Brembo radially-mounted master cylinder and braided lines, the lever feel was impeccable, and over the course of the day, the lever remained consistent, with not even a hint of brake fade to be noted.

The rest of the riding experience is dominated by the riding position. There is no getting away from the 880mm seat height, and, compared to most of the other bikes I’ve tested on track, the upright riding position is probably the thing that took the most time to get to grips with. It takes a while to get into the right shape, and while my stumpy little legs are still some way off full knee-down action, by the end of the day, I did feel perfectly at home on the new Hypermotard. Will the 880mm seat put off some shorter riders? Probably, but it’s no taller than the competition from KTM and Suzuki, and given how light the bike is, it’s actually fairly manageable for shorter riders.

Then there’s the engine.

Over the course of the day I bounced between the Sport and Race riding modes, although I adapted the latter to still include the Slide By Brake function – Race mode would ordinarily turn off the rear wheel ABS altogether. The difference between the two modes is fairly subtle, and while there would probably be little lap time difference between the two (when I’m riding, at least), Race did feel the more direct of the two, with less intervention from the electronics. And I could tell that, because I could see it while I was riding.

One trickle-down of tech from the Panigale family is the inclusion of indicators on the right-hand side of the TFT, which highlight the relevant electronic system when it is triggered. The ABS is fairly easy to feel as it pulses away beneath me, but the Ducati Traction Control is more subtle, meaning the blinking indicator on the TFT was really the only clue to it being triggered. And while it sounds silly to say that I could see the dash while riding flat out around a track, you actually can. The five-inch TFT is super clear and very high resolution, and from time to time, you do manage to see what is going on while you ride. That gives you the chance to either reduce or increase the intervention on the next straight – something I was able to do a couple of times during the day. Creating a system and the switchgear that allows a mediocre track rider like me to change settings mid-lap is a big deal. Credit to Ducati for absolutely nailing it.

Having now ridden Ducati’s latest V2 engine platform across multiple bikes, what stands out most is how different it feels in each one. Here, in the Hypermotard, it makes absolute sense. The torque is immediate, the delivery is lively, and the throttle connection is direct and crisp. The new V2 suits the bike’s playful yet aggressive nature perfectly. It’s less about chasing the redline and more about driving hard between corners, exactly what you want in this kind of machine.

Previous V2 gearbox glitches were nonexistent

In my previous reviews of the other V2 models, I noted a strange gearbox/quickshifter behaviour, which could make going up the gears feel cumbersome. On those other bikes, it felt like a hesitation before the gear would engage, not all the time on every shift, but enough to notice. But on the Hypermotard V2, I never experienced it once after six full sessions on the track. Overall, the gearbox felt super slick and very accurate. The clutch is a little on the heavy side, but not so much that it would cause too much grief while riding around town.

Verdict

The new Ducati Hypermotard V2 SP is fast, physical and unapologetically playful. It’s a bike that leans hard into its supermoto roots, but backs it up with a level of electronics and chassis sophistication that makes it far more accessible than you might expect, whether you’re riding on the road or the track.

And herein lies the issue: Supermotos are always single-minded bikes, meaning they are not the kind of machine to pick for everyday duties. Add in the £17k-plus price tag of the SP version, and that decision to buy one purely as a toy is a tough purchase to justify – to yourself and your other half! As a weekend weapon or occasional track day tool, though, it makes a lot more sense. And if that figure feels a stretch too far, the standard version offers a more attainable route into the same experience, albeit without quite as much high-end kit and bling.

Ultimately, this is a bike bought with the heart and not the head. You don’t really need the SP and its full suite of bells and whistles to enjoy what the Hypermotard does best, but it certainly makes the whole thing a lot more appealing. Supermotos aren’t practical, sensible, or the kind of bike that lives alone in a garage as your only form of two-wheeled transport. But adding one alongside a more sensible bike, that’s where it starts to make perfect sense. As a second bike that exists purely to remind you why you fell in love with riding in the first place.

Ducati Hypermotard V2 SP specs