If you follow motorcycle racing you’ve probably noticed the prototype race bikes have acquired wings or winglets to help with down force over the last few years. Some people like them while others hate them. Many in the moto world speculated that it was only a matter of time until those wings found their way on a street bike.

I always wondered how fast you would have to be going to actually notice any benefit from those winglets Thanks to Ducati & an MCN editor I now know the answer, apparently 150 mph is when you begin to notice the difference. I wish I could post the video but it was on social media and I haven’t found a shareable vid yet. It was great review though. The new Ducati naked super bike puts down 186 hp AT THE WHEEL (100% stock) on the dyno.

I’m loving everything about the new Street Fighter except for the headlight. The previous Street Fighter has a better head light/ front end and looked more mean in my opinion.

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I always wondered how fast you would have to be going to actually notice any benefit from those winglets Thanks to Ducati & an MCN editor I now know the answer, apparently 150 mph is when you begin to notice the difference. Eek

Wait until some bright spark realizes that they can be used for additional coolant or air cooling (or, I suppose, both) capacity. At that point the pressure on the designers to make wings that take up a larger area will grow and they may develop the surface area to make them useful at lower speeds without making the bike ungainly.

Ducati makes great bikes but that is way too much ball for my alley!
186 HP at the rear wheel? Amazing!

Fine looking bike, even with the winglets.

Bit too much $ and power for me. I'd be happy with just a Monster.

186 hp with no aerodynamic fairing to cut the wind seems like a waste of hp.

I’m not sure it really needs more aero that it has. That bike with almost identical aero was on pace to shatter the Pikes Peak hill climb motorcycle record before tragedy struck. Four time Pikes Peak hillclimb winner Carlin Dunne crashed a prototype of this bike and died very close to the finish line.

The lack of a fairing is part of what makes naked bikes (especially those based on super bikes) so much fun. Hello wind blast!!!

That is an evil looking machine. Only 186 horsepower?! I'm happy with half that.

I had a Hyundai Sonata (full sized car) that had 185 hp at the crank... not the wheels.

I cannot even imagine how powerful and fast that bike is. I certainly wouldn’t ride it to find out.

My little air cooled Monster sits at 100hp and it is more than enough to get me into trouble. Nice looking bike, but way too much for me these days.

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Originally posted by dking271:
My little air cooled Monster sits at 100hp and it is more than enough to get me into trouble. Nice looking bike, but way too much for me these days.

The Vulcan S in my garage puts out 55hp/43tq & is plenty to break speed limits without going 100% throttle.
For my ~2 years experience, it's been plenty for me, for now.

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Originally posted by stickman428:
I’m not sure it really needs more aero that it has. That bike with almost identical aero was on pace to shatter the Pikes Peak hill climb motorcycle record before tragedy struck. Four time Pikes Peak hillclimb winner Carlin Dunne crashed a prototype of this bike and died very close to the finish line.

The lack of a fairing is part of what makes naked bikes (especially those based on super bikes) so much fun. Hello wind blast!!!

It's also why I will never buy one. Even this Ducati, at highway speed, on a windy day, is a sore ass neck. Fairings cut the wind.

This is merely marketing. The winglets first made their debut with Gigi @ Ducati (MotoGP) and everything since, for production bikes, is pure marketing.

Of course it’s marketing. How many people are going to stay north of 150 mph on their street bike for any length of time? (unless they are doing a track day session)

The MCN editor said he could notice them making a difference once he got above 150 mph. While there certainly is a marketing aspect to putting winglets on a bike I don’t think Ducati would do it if there wasn’t some kind of benefit to performance.

For the naysayers, they are easily removed with a torx screwdriver.. well it looks like a torx...

MV and Ducks are cool, although I'm not built for humping a gas tank, and prefer cruisers these days, they are great looking machines.

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Originally posted by stickman428:
Of course it’s marketing. How many people are going to stay north of 150 mph on their street bike for any length of time? (unless they are doing a track day session)...

That's what I mean, 120+ mph on a naked bike with the rider as a drag sail seems like it'd be uncomfortable just hanging on. And much worse at 150.