Good news, everyone! If the Ducati Hypermotard 950 Concept unveiled at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in May, 2019, was totally your jam, you’re in luck. Those graphics are now available straight from the factory in the form of the eye-catching new Ducati Hypermotard 950 RVE.
While it appears most of the design cues made it through intact, from concept to production bike, unfortunately one major element did not. Alas, that gorgeously exposed dry clutch does not peer out at you from the side of the transmission on the production version. Maybe it would’ve been too expensive, or too distracting, or some combination of the two for it to have been the design choice someone made. In any case, it didn’t make the leap from page to production.
Time To Get Hyped:
Still, despite that particular change from the concept, most everything else appears to be intact. Graphics are the same, red and black wheels are the same, and if the standard Hypermotard 950 is just a bit too plain for your tastes, and you aren’t looking for the Marchesini forged wheels and carbon fiber bits on the SP, the RVE could be your Hypermotard weapon of choice.
Gallery: Ducati Hypermotard 950 RVE
Is the RVE just a graphics package? It does offer one nice performance feature over the base Hypermotard 950. The RVE gets the Ducati Quick Shift (DQS) Evo up/down unit that was previously only available on the SP version. I look forward to seeing one of these in person and being able to examine that paint up close, though, as I’m sure photos alone probably don’t do it justice.
Is this a solid Ducati shot across KTM’s bow? Everything about it certainly appears that way, especially when you take this launch video into account. Music bed, editing, overall style feels much more reminiscent of something KTM would do, only in red and black and white instead of orange. Now it’s up to you whether you choose to get hyped, get duked, or both. It’s available from Ducati dealerships starting in July 2020.