Another V4 Coming?

Not a Honda, blah, blah. Maybe the drive to compete will force more to follow suit.

http://gearheads.org/confirmed-ducati-are-working-on-a-v4-superbike-for-the-masses/

Would be very cool!

This probably translates to them wanting to put a V4 into WSBK. The Ducati fans though are extremely loyal to features like the V2, so I wonder if it'll be a hit with the die hards.

That's what the article hints at, and why I think it may cause a shift away from I4s. Japanese 1000s are already at prices that only the high-spec Italians were at a few years ago, so I don't know if I'd be in the market.

The Ducatista seem to be quite open to the idea of a V4 roadbike (but they'd expect Ducati to continue to build sporting V2s as well).

I find it incredible that Ducati actually built their first V4 a good 6 years before they built their first V2!

[image: Ducati-1964-Apollo-v4.jpg]

It's a damn shame that Honda gave up on the RVF bikes.  After all the time and development put into it they should have made the highest level bike available and RVF then you could get a Fireblade for the normal person that doesn't really care about racing.  But Honda has lost itself and continues to think that it knows what bikes we want.  Maybe one day a CEO will come up like Soichiro Honda that wants to make interesting bikes, not just build appliances.   It would also be nice if the new guy in charge at HRC thought that production based racing was worth the money.  If they Nakamoto San would have focused some more attention on WSBK and WSS we would still have a CBR600RR and maybe would have had an updated Fireblade a long time ago.

The only production-based racing that Honda has ever truly cared about is the Suzuka 8 Hour. WSB has always been a side-project really - compared to GP. Remember how Honda went all-out in GP back in the sixties; that pretty much set the tone for their racing DNA. Top level gets the cream of the Honda engineering might, and anything else is a bit player.

Unfortunately it seems the "Bean Counters" outnumber the "Gear Heads" at Honda. They are happy to make appliances, since they will boost corporate profits. If they come out with a V4 that is worthy of the RC30, RC45, and RC51  lineage, (I know not a V4, but still a bad ass machine even today) and is not $40K or more, I would buy it. I won't hold my breath though.