SO YOU WANT MORE REVolutions?

I freely confess that I’m a bit jaded and cynical these days. It takes a lot to impress these old bones, and while I’m all for new bikes, it seems that when the Milan show circus comes round, I find my gast is less and less flabbered every year. Luckily for my mojo, that wasn’t true at last winter’s showcase, and that’s mostly down to one bike – the new Panigale V4R. Okay, the carbon wings are pretty, and the new Öhlins NPX25/30 forks will please the suspension nerds, while much of the rest of it is familiar from the also-incredible Panigale V4S. It was one part of the spec sheet, however, that really smacked my gob, concerted my dis, and founded my dumb. It was the peak power output, and more specifically, the revs at which it made said power. A brain-frying 221bhp, at 15,250rpm. Yep, fifteen thousand, two hundred and fifty revs. Every minute. That’s in road trim. The actual redline is even higher! The limiter kicks in at 16,000rpm in gears one-five, but in top gear (sixth),