No One Knows if Michael Dunlop Will Ride Ducati or Honda for the Senior Superbike IOM TT Race

With just three days to go before practice starts for the 2026 Isle of Man TT, nobody knows what machine Michael Dunlop will ride in the Senior Superbike TT race. But it'll be a Ducati or a Honda.

By: Robbie Bacon

May 24, at 8:28am ET

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If you were under any illusion about how different the sports of road racing and short circuit racing are, this story will further illustrate how different the two worlds are. Could you imagine Marc Marquez pulling up to the Mugello GP next weekend, still unsure whether he's going to ride a Ducati or a Honda in the main race? Of course, that would never happen, but it can, and is happening at the Isle of Man TT in 2026.

Unlike MotoGP riders, who generally have a rise and fall in terms of competitiveness, it's much harder to tell when a great TT rider has won his last race. Take Joey Dunlop winning at the TT in 2000, at 48 years old, after seemingly being in decline since the early 90s. With that in mind, it's not hard to understand why all eyes are on the winningest TT rider of all time, Michael Dunlop.

Every win Michael takes etches his name further into the TT history books, and the 37-year-old has shown no signs of slowing down. Every race at the TT counts, but none carry the same weight as the Senior TT, which takes place at the end of the week. As of the time of writing, nobody knows what bike Michael will race in the main event; we just know it'll either be a Honda or a Ducati.

What do you think?

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Michael raced a Ducati Panigale V2 for the first time during the 2025 TT and won both Supersport races, handing Ducati its first TT win in 30 years. From there, Michael's journey with Ducati grew legs, and he tested the Panigale V4 R during a British SuperBike test at Oulton Park this past April, with the view to race it in the Senior TT race. Very exciting times for Ducati, at least it would be if there was any confirmation that this was definitely happening.

I recently spoke with executives from the Borgo Panigale brand who were still totally in the dark about Michael's superbike choice for 2026. The longer there's no confirmation regarding what bike Michael will ride, the more the public thinks he'll use the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP that he rode in the 2025 Senior Suprerbike TT. Cast your vote on whether Michael will swing a leg over a European or Japanese machine now.