New suspension
Öhlins have been working with Honda throughout the development of the new bike and will be providing the latest specification of the Smart EC semi-active suspension which was first seen on the Ducati 1299 Panigale S but is understood to be an even more advanced version on the Fireblade.
The Öhlins semi-active suspension works to try and keep the bike as stable as possible under braking and acceleration, and works with the IMU to link the front and rear damping, while the electronic steering damper also reacts to the road surface and rider inputs, too.
On the Ducati 1299 Panigale S there are two modes; fixed and semi-active. Fixed allows the rider to set specific levels of front and rear compression and rebound damping, along with the steering damper settings, as pre-defined options.
There is also the ‘event-based’ setting, which is semi-active and can range from hard to soft with the bike dynamically adjusting compression, rebound and the damper setting to keep the bike as close to the chosen setting as possible.
New styling
The overall look of the Fireblade is going to be an evolution rather than a revolution of the current bike but there are still going to be some big changes to bring it a little bit more up-to-date.