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Ducati's Upcoming 959 Panigale Is Another Step Away from the Middleweight Class

A new, 955cc Ducati sport bike appeared in the official CARB (California Air Resources Board) and it is rumored to be unveiled on November 16th in Milan, with the 959 Panigale moniker. The CARB also reveals that it is a 2016 model year, so we have all the reasons to believe we'll meet it in two months' time at EICMA.
Ducati 899 Panigale 1 photo
Photo: Ducati
It looks like more and more manufacturers are slowly shifting their sport bike production from the middleweight area, and Ducati is no exception. The "displacement wars" in the sport-adventure and even superbike classes are somehow easier to understand, and seeing the engines grow by the year is no longer a surprise.

Even Ducati upgraded the 1199 Panigale to 1299, leaving the former engine as a basis for World Superbike homologation and offering the road going bike under the blunt but racey Panigale R badge.

While a lot of riders enjoyed the ascent of the 899 Panigale and were thrilled to be able to take home a cheaper and more manageable version of the superbike, it looks like this model may have had a rather short life.

Even if Ducati hasn't provided official info on the potential phase-out move for the 899 Panigale, some believe that the model is thru and will be replaced by the 959 Panigale. Likewise, most of the rumors seem to indicate that the engine might be derived from that of the 899's, but this will surely be cleared out in the next weeks or so.

Do Euro 4 standards have a say in Ducati's move?

Starting from 2016, the new motorcycles sold in Europe will have to comply with the Euro 4 emissions standards, and this will trigger a lot of changes in the engine department.

That is because fewer emissions standards are hard to comply without altering the engines' mapping and this leads to producing less power. To compensate for the missing power, manufacturers can decide to increase the displacement of these engines, hence a new wave of slightly bigger motorcycles.

This might be the case of Ducati, too, as simply replacing the 899 Panigale just for the sake of novelty doesn't seem to be their thing. We already speculated that slightly bigger engines may be quite fashionable this fall, but it will be interesting to see what the manufacturers will bring at EICMA in November.
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