There are product launches, and then there are moments. Ducati just delivered the latter.
To mark 100 years of Borgo Panigale, Ducati didn't just release a bike. They released six new models, in what was one of the most impressive brand statements I've seen in a long time. If you needed any reminder of why Ducati sits in a category of its own, this was it.
One hundred years is a long time in any industry. In motorcycling, it's an eternity. Ducati has spent that century doing things their own way, louder, faster, and more Italian than anyone else in the room, and the 2026 model year launch feels like a deliberate celebration of exactly that. It's a statement. And the fact that one of those six is a new Monster, the bike that arguably saved the company in the 1990s, makes it feel even more deliberate.
The Six Bikes
Panigale V4 R
Let's start at the sharp end. The Panigale V4R is, in every measurable sense, a road-legal race bike. The 998cc desmodromic V4 with counter-rotating crankshaft produces 218 horsepower at 15,750 rpm, backed by 114 Nm of torque. Fully adjustable Öhlins suspension front and rear, Brembo Hyper 4 piston calipers, and a spec sheet that reads like a World Superbike homologation document, because that's essentially what it is.
Is it for me? Probably not. But standing next to it in that room, I completely understood why it exists. Some bikes aren't meant to be practical. They're meant to be the absolute limit of what's possible.
Multistrada V4 Rally
The Multistrada V4 Rally is the bike for people who want to do everything. And I mean everything. The 1,158cc V4 Granturismo engine makes 170 horsepower, it carries 30 litres of fuel, and the suspension travel and electronics package means you can genuinely take it off-road without feeling like you're doing something stupid. Seat height adjusts between 805mm and 905mm depending on the accessory seat you choose, and the fully adjustable 50mm Marzocchi USD fork means it can be set up for tarmac or dirt depending on what the day calls for.
The new Rally looks great. It's a serious machine for serious distances, and if long-haul adventure riding is your thing, this is a very compelling option.
Hypermotard V2
The Hypermotard has always been the wild one in the Ducati family. The new V2 version keeps that spirit completely intact. The 890cc V2 makes 120 horsepower at 10,750 rpm, weighs 180kg wet, and sits on a 880mm seat height. Kayaba 46mm fully adjustable forks, 320mm discs , and Ducati's full electronics suite including power modes, DTC, DWC and engine brake control. It's a supermoto with a Ducati badge, which means it's completely impractical and completely brilliant.
Not my kind of ride, but I have enormous respect for what it is.
DesertX
The DesertX continues to be one of the most interesting bikes in Ducati's range. The 890cc V2 with variable valve timing makes 110 horsepower and 92 Nm of torque, and it rolls on 21-inch front and 18-inch rear Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR rubber. Kayaba fully adjustable suspension, 18 litres of fuel, and a 880mm seat height. It's a proper adventure bike that doesn't pretend to be anything else.
Monster V2
Now we're getting somewhere.
The new Monster with the new V2 engine is, for me, one of the most significant bikes in this entire launch, not just because of what it is, but because of what it represents. The Monster is the bike that changed everything for Ducati. When Miguel Galluzzi's original design landed in 1993, it didn't just sell motorcycles. It redefined what a naked bike could be. It brought a generation of riders to the brand. It saved the company.
So seeing Ducati put their new V2 engine, the brilliant 890cc unit making 111 horsepower at 9,000 rpm with variable valve timing, into a new Monster in their centenary year feels exactly right. I rode the Panigale V2S on track the night before this launch, and that engine is genuinely exceptional. Smooth, responsive, with a character that's distinctly Ducati. The fact that it's now in the Monster, a bike built for the road and for real riders, makes me very keen to get on one.
175kg wet. 815mm seat height. Brembo Monobloc calipers. Full electronics package including cornering ABS, DTC, DWC, and quick shift.
The Monster's return with the new V2 engine in a centenary year feels like a full-circle moment, a nod to the bike that built the brand, updated for the next hundred years.
The One That Stopped Me in My Tracks: Diavel V4 RS
I've been trying to find the right words for this since I left the showroom, and I keep coming back to the same ones: it doesn't make sense, and that's exactly why it's brilliant.
The Diavel V4 RS is, on paper, a cruiser. Low seat height of 790mm. Relaxed riding position. The kind of bike you'd expect to see rolling slowly down a boulevard somewhere warm, looking good and going nowhere fast.
Except Ducati didn't build that bike.
They took the 1103cc V4 Desmosedici engine, the same unit that powers one of the most capable adventure bikes on the market the Multistrada V4RS and dropped it into an aluminium monocoque chassis with 48mm fully adjustable Öhlins forks, a fully adjustable Öhlins monoshock, with a stunning single sided swinger. The result is a cruiser that makes 182 horsepower at 11,750 rpm and 120 Nm of torque at 9,500 rpm, in a package that weighs 220kg ready to ride.
That is not a cruiser's spec sheet. That is a performance motorcycle wearing a cruiser's clothes.
And the way it looks. I've been around a lot of Ducatis. I've stood next to Streetfighters and Panigales and Desmosedicis. The Diavel V4 RS stopped me in a way that very few bikes have. The proportions are extraordinary. The aluminium monocoque frame is a design statement in itself. It looks muscular and elegant at the same time, which is a very difficult thing to pull off, and Ducati have done it completely.
Ducati Power Launch, cornering ABS, DTC, DWC, full LED lighting, the Ducati Multimedia System, the electronics package is everything you'd expect from a modern Ducati flagship. But none of that is why I want to ride it. I want to ride it because I genuinely don't know what it feels like to have 168 horsepower in something that sits that low and looks that good.
That's the bike. That's my pick. One Hundred Years, Six New Bikes, and No Signs of Slowing Down