20 YEARS AGO, BAYLISS REIGNED SUPREME WITH DUCATI: NOW, A MOTORBIKE CELEBRATES HIM

12/29/2021

Ducati has created a motorbike to celebrate Troy Bayliss' first Superbike World Championship won 20 years ago with the Borgo Panigale's Rossa.

There are many ways to celebrate a sporting legend who made history in his discipline.

The senior management team at Ducati have decided to create a new motorcycle in homage to Troy Bayliss:the Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary. A rare jewel set to delight a select number of passionate fans, produced in a numbered edition with a special livery and autograph on the tank, available on the market from the end of September for EUR 20,990.

The legend of Bayliss can be summarized in just a few numbers: 3 times Superbike World Champion, a category in which he won 52 races, ending up on the podium a grand total of 94 times, at a time in which there were only two weekend rounds (not three as there are currently). And as if that were not enough, the Australian is the only person in the world to have won a MotoGP and World Superbike Championship in the same year.

He roared to success at the Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix on the Ducati Desmosedici GP6 in 2006, in his only appearance that season in the premier class. In addition, in the Superbike, Troy remained faithful to Ducati, taking home the incredible list of prizes mentioned above between 2000 and 2008.

Having won the first races of the World Championship in 2000 with the 996, Bayliss was crowned World Champion the following year too, with a booty of 6 wins and 15 podium appearances, once again on the 996 "Testastretta". This revolutionary bike featured Brembo radial calipers, first introduced on the 996 ridden by Fogarty and Corser in 1999, which were a little-known technology in the Superbike world until that point.

The braking system was completed by a 320 mm double front disc and a 220 mm single rear disc, all crafted from steel (carbon had already been banned in an attempt to keep costs down), bearing the Brembo brand. Also of particular note were the new 5-spoke light alloy wheels manufactured by Marchesini, a company that joined the Brembo group in March 2000.

And in order to celebrate this pairing, which made its mark on the history of production-derived bikes, the company conceived, designed and then finally constructed the Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary. As the name suggests, the bike is driven by a twin-cylinder 955 cc Superquadro engine - an icon for long-time Ducati fans - which delivers 155 hp and 104 Nm of maximum torque.

In addition to the engine, the aesthetics and the cutting-edge electronics package fitted on the bike, the Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary also stands out from the competition with its incredible chassis, built around an aluminum alloy monocoque frame, which facilitates the ride, both on the road and between the curbs.

The Brembo braking system is a key contributor to this, and is composed of radial-mount 4-piston monobloc M4 32 calipers at the front, which engage with a pair of semi-floating 320 mm diameter discs; at the back, meanwhile, is a 2-piston caliper with a 245 mm disc.

These solutions are now firmly established, in part thanks to the on-track trials to which Bayliss himself contributed in the World Superbike Championship: the 4-pad calipers made their debut on the Ducati 999, on which he won the World Championship in 2006, and feature one pad per piston; at the time, the 4-piston calipers used by the competition had just 2 pads.

Two years later, Bayliss won his third World Championship on the 1098, thrashing his closest rival Troy Corser, who was on a Yamaha, by 118 points. The 1098 was also equipped with 320 mm steel discs and 4-piston monobloc calipers (34 and 38 mm in diameter), machined from solid billet with radial mounts.

Some love never dies, but simply takes the long way round before rising again.

And if you love Troy and Ducati, you'll be able to get a taste of the legend for yourself, even completing a few thrilling laps on the track thanks to the Panigale V2 Bayliss 1st Championship 20th Anniversary.