The Diavel's in the detail

With more power, less weight and better brakes than the previous brilliant V-twin version, It’s a winner

- GEOFF HILL

Ducati Diavel V4

Since this is a bike review, let's talk about chocolate. A pinch of sea salt in a chocolate bar, cooking chicken with chocolate or adding a teaspoonful to spaghetti Bolognese shouldn't work, but they do.

Which brings me, naturally, to the Ducati Diavel V4.

At the launch of the original V-twin Diavel in Sicily in 2011, all the hardened sports bike riders took one look at it in the morning and decided that although it looked fabulous, it wasn't going to work because it was still a cruiser... And came back at teatime grinning from ear to ear about how astonishing it was. It had the engine from Ducati's 1198 superbike, but its longer wheelbase stopped the front and rear wheels lifting under brutal acceleration and braking respectively.

The real stroke of genius, though, was the dual compound rear tyre; hard at the bottom for longevity, and soft around the rest for grip. Although it was 240mm wide, or about the same as Kim Kardashian's left cheek, it had a sports profile which allowed you to exploit a remarkable 41-degree lean angle to the full, unlike most cruisers, which had a lean angle of around 28 degrees and shallow profile tyres which tended to reach the edge then tip into corners with disturbing instability. Even the Harley V-Rod, the Diavel's main competition in the muscle cruiser market, could only manage 32 degrees before the pegs touched down.

Its only other rivals were the fairly esoteric Yamaha V-Max, although its first-generation model loved straights but had a panic attack if you introduced it to a corner, and even the handling of the second-generation version wasn't a patch on the Diavel.