Rumours suggest that Ducati will be renaming the 1098R in 2010


Ducati's 1098R has never actually been a 1098, it's actually 1198cc, so rumours that Ducati will be removing the 1098R from its range and replacing it with an 1198R sound probable.

If they do change it to an 1198R, you heard it here first.

Source: Visordown

The train spotters amongst you may have noticed that the factory Ducati 1098R F09 Superbikes as ridden by Messieurs Haga and Fabrizio have 1198 boldly plastered on the side of the fairing, not 1098R like the top flight streetbike. There is a good reason for this of course, since from this year, the entire family of liter class V-twins have had an engine displacing 1198cc. So it comes as little surprise that next year Ducati will formally drop the 1098 moniker as the 1098R becomes the 1198R.

The 1098 name has outlived it’s usefulness and in order to maintain the premium status of the largest engined testastretta evoluzione powered machines from the mere 1098 based Streetfighter and impending Adventure Tourer / Strada Aperta / Multistrada replacement (delete not applicable) a name change for the ‘R’ was inevitable.


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