Writing about Ducati’s 2023 Streetfighter V4S is nice and all, but while at the Andalucia racetrack riding the bike, I also attached a GoPro to my helmet and spun some laps. This happened for a few reasons: first was so you, the viewer, could hear the amazing roar of an 1103cc V4 at 13,000-plus rpm. Next was to get an idea of the different challenges the Andalucia track poses. The camera doesn’t quite do it justice, and I never did figure all of them out, but the experience reaffirmed just how remarkable the 2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4S really is.

2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4S Review – First Ride



After hopping off the bike and collecting my thoughts, an actual professional camera crew was gracious enough to put me in front of their expensive equipment, attach a lavalier to my collar, and have me attempt to talk about the bike and my experience. So, if you want a raw and unfiltered view of the new Streetfighter V4S after a day of riding at the track, I suggest you watch the video above. Ray Gauger did an excellent job editing this video to make it seem as if I’m talking from a continual stream of consciousness, but behind the scenes, I really had to think about it because there really was a lot to take in – that V4S is capable of so much.

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Crashing sucks, but getting hurt because you weren’t wearing the right gear stings just a little bit more. You all know to wear your helmets, jackets, pants, gloves, and boots – but what are you wearing under all that? If you’re not wearing at least a back protector then you’re missing out on a relatively inexpensive piece of kit that can make a big difference. Add in a chest protector, and you have two components that can further absorb some of the impact energy of hitting the ground before your body does. 

If you aren’t familiar, back and chest protectors are basically plastic exoskeletons with multi-density, impact-absorbing padding. Back protectors look similar to an armadillo’s shell, with numerous layers that articulate with the movement of your back, but also are difficult to hyperextend or bend backward. Chest protectors are basically trapezoidal pads that rest between your jacket and chest.    

Here, we’ve compiled a list of back and chest protectors you might want to consider before your next ride. While these products are highly rated, they are just a sample of what’s out there. Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that, if you have the means, we recommend wearing an airbag vest instead of a back and chest protector. The level of protection from an airbag is far superior. We made an airbag buyer’s guide to show you what options are currently on the market if you’re interested. Can’t pop for an airbag right now? No problem. Here’s the next best thing.

While in Spain on the 2024 Triumph Street Triple R/RS intro, I crashed during the street portion of the ride. As much as I’d like to let this mishap go down the memory hole, it gave me the opportunity to abrasion and impact test some gear. Let’s set the stage, shall we: By making a series of small mistakes in an S-bend that combined to tuck the front end and put me on the ground at about 60 mph, I landed on my left knee and hip, followed by my torso and the underside of the left arm – all fairly typical of this type of crash. In those few seconds of sliding, the Alpinestars Caliber Jacket did its job of protecting my hide by sacrificing its hide. I won’t get into the specifics of the Alpinestars Caliber Jacket’s construction in this review. You can read about it here. What I want to focus on is how it performed in the crash, how much damage it sustained, the repair process, and why I decided to have it repaired.

MO Tested: Alpinestars Caliber Jacket Review

Crash Tested: Alpinestars Copper 2 Denim Pants Review

Typically, when journalists crash test gear, how well it worked in the incident gets written up, and then, the gear is never seen again. The reasoning is simple: The gear manufacturers want us to show their products in their best light. Yes, they love positive write ups when the gear works in a crash (not so much when it doesn’t), but they’d really prefer that we not show their products in anything but pristine condition. After all, us wearing their gear is a form of advertising. The reality of all but the most well-heeled riders is really quite different. We don’t generally replace damaged gear that isn’t totaled just a couple months after acquiring it. I wore my first jacket for years with the brown scuffs of shame on the arm and torso of the black leather. What I didn’t know at the time was something most racers get familiar with at some point (just ask Troy), gear much more thrashed than mine can be brought back to almost new for significantly less than replacement.

Polaris has launched a new online marketplace for buying and selling Indian motorcycles and other Polaris products. The Polaris Xchange portal allows customers to do all of their shopping online, with access to thousands of powersports vehicles across a network of participating dealerships. The Xchange also includes products from across the company’s powersports portfolio, including Indian, plus Polaris’ ATVs, side-by-sides, snowmobiles, and Slingshot auto-cycles.

The marketplace reflects evolving shopping habits that sees consumers do more and more of their research online. Through the Polaris Xchange, customers can search for a vehicle, pull up history and condition reports on pre-owned models, shop for accessories, determine trade-in value, and prequalify for a loan, all online without having to set foot in a dealership. All that needs to be done in person is signing the paperwork. Customers can then arrange for the vehicles to be picked up at the dealership, or have it delivered (though the delivery option is dependent on local laws and dealer participation).

“We are constantly infusing new ways of thinking and using our knowledge of the powersports customer to help advance our industry, introduce new people to powersports and enhance the experience for our owners and riders, and Polaris Xchange is another example of that industry leadership,” said Vic Koelsch, senior vice president, chief digital and information officer at Polaris. “Polaris Xchange simplifies the shopping process for customers, allowing them to do most of the process online before visiting their local dealership to sign the paperwork.”

The Polaris Xchange is a response to Harley-Davidson’s H-D1 Marketplace, but it takes the idea a few steps further. Launched in 2021, H-D1 is Harley-Davidson’s portal for shopping for pre-owned motorcycles, offering a wide selection of listings by accessing the inventories of hundreds of participating dealerships across the U.S.

Because supermoto stories are always a lot of fun, this week we bring you our pal Gabe’s story on taking his 2006 KTM 950 Supermoto out for a spin in the California Bay Area. If you know Gabe, then you’re familiar with his excellent storytelling. If you don’t, well let this piece introduce you to the wonderful mind of one of MO’s alumni. Of course, a great story deserves a great subject, and the 950 Supermoto was all about hooliganism before that was really even a thing. We’ll let Gabe take it from here.

2006 KTM 950 Supermoto Quick Ride

This is a competition motor that is just civilized enough to be ridable

The first step in getting more performance out of an engine is to let it breathe easier, and if there’s one thing Harley-Davidson owners like, it’s the distinctive sound of their V-Twin rumbling beneath them. Achieving that sound and performance requires replacing a combination of parts, mainly the stock air cleaner and exhaust.

Here, we’re going to focus on the first part of that equation: a Stage 1 air cleaner (also known as an air intake). A Stage 1 air cleaner typically is best for an otherwise stock Harley with no internal modifications done to the engine. Once you start modifying your engine in search of maximum power, then moving to higher stage components might be in order – but that’s beyond the scope of this list.

Below, we’ve listed some top air cleaners for Harley-Davidsons. Since there are so many types of Harley engines spanning back through the years, it’s best to take advantage of the model finder in the links below to see if there is something applicable for your bike. The selection below is far from exhaustive, as there are tons of models that aren’t on this list. This is more of a representation of what’s available on the market. From round elements to conical, there are a plethora of different designs to suit nearly everyone’s tastes.

You’ve read the review (maybe), now watch the video! Skirting through beautiful twisty bits of tarmac intertwined with rocky fire roads, the Suzuki V-Strom 800DE’s excellent new Parallel Twin engine is a peach. On road, the Twin powers out of corners with all of the punch expected of a 776cc 270-degree crank-driven Twin. Suzuki tells us the new engine puts out 84 hp at 8,500 rpm and 57.5 lb-ft of torque at 6,800 rpm. Off-road, the new power plant puts traction to the ground smoothly via the RbW throttle and is easy enough to modulate that traction control can easily be flicked off and forgotten about. The engine is the star of the show, but the V-Strom 800DE is an excellent sum of its parts and is the most off-road focused ‘Strom yet – this excites us (me).

2023 Suzuki V-Strom 800DE Review – First Ride

There’s not much point going into too much detail with words here, as we’ve already done plenty of blabbing over on that other page. Give the video a gander and let us know what you think. Share it with your friends and family, on your social profiles, with people you don’t even know! Take to the streets, spread the good word!

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It’s posts like these that helped spawn the idea for these Friday Forum Foraging posts in the first place. This particular one comes from one of our sister sites, NinjaH2.org. We don’t know the seller, nor do we know the life circumstance that has caused them to sell this basically new 2022 Kawasaki H2 Carbon with only four miles on it, but this is definitely out of the ordinary. And that’s what we like around here.

For those who don’t know, the Kawasaki H2 Carbon is basically Kawasaki’s road-legal land missile. Built to go fast in a straight line, the aggressive and streamlined looks are only topped by the 1000cc four-banger strapped with a supercharger. The H2 and its variants are completely wild, and that supercharged engine is one of the coolest powerplants ever to grace a production motorcycle. If the urge to own one speaks to you, and you’re anywhere near Orlando with 35-large in your pocket, maybe give this person a call. His (or her) full listing is below, but follow the link at the bottom for two more pictures and contact information.

2022 H2 Carbon, has 4 miles on it. I purchased it and garaged it at my parents house and flew back to NY for work. I’ve never rode it. it’s basically brand new. I had it transported from the dealer to my mom’s garage. 2 keys included 1 open the other still in blue wrapping Extended warranty included. $35,500

See the post at NinjaH2.org.

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Alan Cathcart’s conversation with Stefan Pierer continues, as the PIERER Mobility president and chief executive officer discusses electrification and other future technologies. —ED.

Interview with KTM’s Stefan Pierer – Part 1
Interview with KTM’s Stefan Pierer – Part 2

Alan Cathcart: Looking at PIERER Mobility’s electric model development, GASGAS already has its own electric Trials bike, but to what extent will other brands within the PIERER family go electric as well? So will KTM ever have a mainstream electric model, like a scooter?

Stefan Pierer: Well, we have already an electric model, the Freeride, plus all the kids’ bikes. You know KTM’s chosen field for product development. If you stop in front of a restaurant or beer garden, riding an E-bike, you take off your helmet and everybody is looking to you, and you’re proud to be riding a silent electric motorcycle – but if it’s a scooter, it’s different. Very different! So that’s the reason we don’t have any KTM E-scooters. That’s Piaggio’s job, not mine – they make them very nicely, big respect.

For miles, we rode into a dense cloud of ruddy South African dust. Those dusty roads connected rocky trails and choice stretches of pavement like the famed Franschhoek pass which, on a Saturday, was reminiscent of California’s own Angeles Crest Highway. We watched eclectic groups of open topped roadsters interspersed with an equally varied slew of two-wheelers strafe from apex to apex while we made photo passes. Husqvarna had invited the world’s press to experience the new Norden 901 Expedition amongst epic terrain at the southernmost tip of the African continent.

Editor Score: 92%

The Norden 901 Expedition is little more than the base model with bolt-on bits from the accessory catalog. The thing is, that “little more” makes a big difference. Since its inception, I’ve been a fan of the Norden, in theory anyway. Admittedly, I hadn’t spent much time on the bike ahead of this trip. That said, the Norden is heavily based on the existing KTM 890 Adventure platform which I’ve spent a lot of time with and find myself gravitating toward as a fan of the pointedly off-road end of the ADV spectrum. When reading Scott Rousseau’s (former EiC of Dirtbikes.com) tongue-in-cheek “letter” to me/review of the Norden 901, his words “gentlemanly character” struck me the wrong way. A gentleman, I am not. Word of the WP Apex suspension’s limits off-road spread and my interest feigned. A fantastic street bike with a proven foundation and its own unique style, undoubtedly, but a redressed base 890 Adventure simply didn’t sway me. 

2022 Husqvarna Norden 901 Review – First Ride

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but we’re big fans of the Ducati Streetfighter V4 around here. The do-it-all naked bike is fast as hell when you want to get crazy, but as docile as a puppy when you don’t. For years, fans of naked bikes have yelled to the hilltops for a manufacturer to build one that was a sportbike without fairings. No neutering, no “re-tuned for torque” BS, just pure naked power – and a handlebar. Ducati has firmly delivered with the Streetfighter V4 and we’ve sung its praises endlessly. Which begs the question: what on earth could Ducati possibly do to warrant yet another press intro and new model launch?  

Editor Score: 90%

The answer: make it even easier to ride. Ducati, like nearly all manufacturers of big-engined superbikes, understands the rat race to make big power and impress on the dyno sheet, but they also understand that today’s era of 200-plus horsepower motorcycles are a handful to ride. Making them easier to tame will result in not only being able to go faster, but more people being able to go faster, consistently. And when things are easy, people are happy. 

As the old adage goes, power is nothing without control, and Ducati has taken this to heart. Now it employs a different approach to all its models, but especially its high-end superbikes and super nakeds. Chasing power is one thing, but the big push is to make it easier for the rider to get the most out of them. This, of course, comes down to electronics. And, right now, Ducati is the best in the game.

This brings us to the 2023 Ducati Streetfighter V4S.

The opinions expressed by Mr. Allen do not reflect the views of the editorial staff here at Motorcycle.com. In fact, we would be surprised if they reflect the views of anyone remotely familiar with the sport.

Grand prix motorcycle racing – MotoGP to aficionados – is a Eurocentric parlor game for the rich and not-so-famous. It involves undersized riders holding on for dear life to 1000cc bikes with astonishing power-to-weight ratios on road courses at venues on four continents, several of which are in countries one is not anxious to visit. It is almost impossible to find on American television. Riders receive trophies for finishing third. It is the little brother of F1. It is NASCAR’s mentally challenged foreign cousin.

However, for the few of you still reading, at its best, MotoGP is the best racing on the planet, a series of hair-raising encounters between riders and machines traveling at well over 100 mph in unbanked turns, separated by inches, with the difference between winning and not winning often measured in a few thousandths of a second. (By comparison, the autonomic blink of an eye takes around 100 milliseconds.)

These guys are fast. Ridiculously fast. Incomprehensibly fast. The engines on the big bikes retail for around a million dollars per, rotate at, like, 17,000 rpm, and are built to tolerances that defy description, at least with the few words in my vocabulary. The noise they make is equally difficult to describe, resembling, in my mind, the sound a nuclear-powered pencil sharpener might make.

Remember when Honda built a 1000cc V-Twin and put it in something sporty to go against Ducati and the 916? Then do you remember how Honda only half-committed to building a Ducati beater and the bike really wasn’t a match for the 916 at all? If you do, then you remember the VTR1000F Super Hawk, also lovingly known as the Super Chicken. Before Honda got serious and built the RC51 (or the RVT1000R or VTR1000 SP1 in other parts of the world), it built this.

The Super Hawk had some similarities with the RC, like the V-Twin engine and side-mount radiators, but when it came to the performance metrics that really matter, the Super Hawk was no match for its Italian rival. Still, for those folks who like the thought of a more comfortable RC51-esque Honda V-Twin from the late 90s, the Super Hawks are fun bikes that can be found for cheap these days. Here’s our review of the bike from its introduction in 1998.

Honda VTR1000F Super Hawk

Big Red Introduces Their Sporting V-Twin to America

Alan Cathcart’s conversation with Stefan Pierer continues, as the PIERER Mobility president and chief executive officer discusses his motorcycle brands (namely, KTM, Husqvarna and Husqvarna), and some of their competition. This includes MV Agusta, of which PIERER gained a stake in 2022. —ED.

Interview with KTM’s Stefan Pierer – Part 1

Alan Cathcart: Let’s talk about MV Agusta, where last November you purchased 25.1% of the equity from its present owner, Timur Sardarov. What is your future strategy for your involvement in the brand?

Stefan Pierer: As part of that 25.1%, it’s taking the first step of working together very closely on current production models. So we’ll take care of the whole supply chain, we’ll buy all the parts needed for MV Agusta’s production for the coming year, and then, after finalizing that, we’ll take over worldwide distribution of the finished product. This is the first step to help them make their entire operation profitable as a company.

You might be familiar with Bring a Trailer for its selection of cool cars that are up for auction, but did you know BaT also has a motorcycle page? Just as with the cars, the moto page is filled with cool and interesting submissions, including this 1958 BMW R/60 modified to accept a Geko sidecar and PAV single-wheel trailer.

As we can tell from the description, the bike was given a full restoration in 2008 and it sounds like no bolt was left untouched in the process. The engine, transmission, electrical, brakes, and suspension all got a full makeover to perform as good as, or better than, new. As you can see, there are not one, but two distinguishing features – those being the sidecar and the trailer.

The Geko sidecar got a full restoration along with the rest of the bike, with choice accessories like a windscreen and tonneau cover among the changes. Conveniently, the wire wheel on the hack is interchangeable with the wheels on the bike itself. Total miles on the bike haven’t been confirmed, but the odometer reads less than 3800.

And as if a vintage BMW with a sidecar wasn’t rare enough, this one also comes with a PAV single-wheel trailer that connects to a custom hitch. Because even though you have a sidecar, sometimes you just need more carrying space.