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The Ducati Streetfighter V4 is already a pretty bonkers machine when it comes to “daily riders” that are just as comfortable on the street as they are on the track.

The 205hp on tap seems to come in waves as the V4 engine revs and revs and revs, as you hold onto dear life from the sheer wind force hitting your body.

If you have never experienced this, we recommend it as one of life’s simple pleasures. Like drinking an ice cold Mountain Dew on a hot summer’s day. But we digress…

How do you take a potent machine and crank it up to 11? You give it the “SP” treatment, in the form the 2022 Ducati Streetfighter V4 SP.

A bike we have suspected from Ducati ever since the Multistrada V4 debuted, the Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak continues a long tradition from the Italian brand in making a sportier adventure-tourer.

That ethos gets taken to another level with this incarnation though, thanks primarily to Borgo Panigale positioning the base Multistrada V4 as a more all-round ADV bike, with its 19″ front wheel and double-sided swingarm.

Returning the Multistrada to its 17″ ways, the 2022 Ducati Multistrada V4 Pikes Peak features not only a smaller front wheel, but also a single-sided swingarm and other sport-focused choices.

For the motorcycle industry, 2021 is turning into a banner year, as motorcycle sales are booming across all segments. So, it shouldn’t surprise us too much to hear of record sales and standout quarters from motorcycle sales reports.

Here’s an interesting one for you though: Ducati sold more motorcycles in the first nine months of 2021 than it did in all of 2020 (which was 48,042 units).

Now granted, 2020 was an abysmal year for selling motorcycles, but even compared to 2019’s figures, the Italian brand is firing on all of its desmodromic valves.

Of necessity, the past two MotoGP seasons have seen races repeatedly run on the same race track. 2020 was a succession of back-to-back races at the same track: Jerez 1 and 2, Austria 1 and 2, Misano 1 and 2, Aragon 1 and 2, Valencia 1 and 2.

With a better grip on the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 was much better: the first 15 races have been at 13 different tracks. So far we have only had Qatar 1 and 2 and Austria 1 and 2.

The next three rounds will see MotoGP visit just one new circuit. We have the Gran Premio Nolan del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna, or Misano 2, the Grande Prémio do Algarve, or Portimão 2, and then Valencia.