The Diavel has always been Ducati’s invitation to misbehave: part cruiser with swagger, part sports-bike baked with extra menace. But with the all-new Diavel V4 RS, Bologna has torn up the rulebook. Before clinching his 2025 MotoGP World Championship title just yesterday, Marc Márquez had started the week by strapping on his leathers and helping Ducati put the Diavel through its paces. The GP team’s fingerprints are all over the project, from blistering test runs around tracks in Europe to fine-tuning how a 1100 cc V4 feels when stuffed into a muscle-bike frame. This isn’t just another special edition, it’s a Ducati with genuine GP blood coursing through its veins, and yet still sports all the comfort of a cruiser.

If you needed one tidbit to make mates at the pub instantly jealous, here it is, Marc Marquez piloted the new Diavel V4 RS to a mind-bending 0–100 km/h sprint in just 2.5 seconds. That’s hypercar territory, from a motorcycle that still looks more like a sculpted brute than a slender sports machine. It’s this duality that makes the RS fascinating: a cruiser stance that’s been given the heart and lungs of a race-bred predator. Ducati’s launch material makes it clear that this is a limited, high-spec Diavel, where nothing has been left on the shelf.

Márquez’s involvement isn’t just window dressing. By having the reigning world champion ride and test the Diavel V4 RS, Ducati has sent a clear message: this bike’s credibility doesn’t need marketing spin, it has been certified to the limit by someone who knows exactly how much abuse a chassis and engine can withstand. Further to the bike’s performance credentials is the test rider who has been developing the Diavel with engineers since last year. Michele Pirro does more miles on a MotoGP bike than anyone else, and when he’s not testing and refining Marc and Pecco’s GP25, he’s on the factory road bikes to infuse them with race-bred performance.

Underneath the bodywork, the numbers are every bit as sharp as the headlines. The 1,103 cc Desmosedici Stradale V4 is tuned for around 180 horsepower, delivered with that signature Ducati mix of mid-range punch and a screaming top end. It might be short of the V4 Panigale’s high HP figure, but it beats it for torque throughout the rev range, which is what really matters on the street. Electronics are borrowed from the Panigale and GP playbooks: multiple ride modes, Ducati Power Launch, quickshifter tech, and all the safety nets that let you get close to Márquez-level antics without immediately looping it in front of your mates.

The chassis is where Ducati’s obsessive streak shows through. Lightweight forged wheels, Öhlins suspension, carbon and titanium components, and Brembo anchors make sure the Diavel RS isn’t just a straight-line freak. Add in that counter-rotating crankshaft, one of those MotoGP party tricks that smooths out wheelies and quickens direction changes, and you’ve got a bike that can hustle in the bends as easily as it dominates the drag strip. Even the wide rear tyre, once dismissed as muscle-bike theatre, now feels like a deliberate weapon in the RS’s arsenal.

But where things really get interesting for us is what happens next. Because the Diavel V4 RS is more than a limited-edition rocket, it’s a platform just begging to be hacked, tuned and rebuilt by the custom scene. Builders will already be sketching up slammed silhouettes with billet swingarms, carbon tails, and one-off titanium systems that push the soundtrack from thunder to Armageddon. And given how horrendously ugly the stock muffler is, anyone who can create something beautiful will make plenty of pennies to add to those extra ponies.

Customisers also get the benefit of Ducati’s electronics suite. Traction, wheelie and launch control mean radical builds won’t automatically end in tears. Now, transforming the looks of the big Italian is more challenging than on most machines, but the likes of Rough Crafts’ Winston Yeh have shown that a total transformation is not only possible, it can result in a show-stopping silhouette. There is a lot going on visually with the stock bike, so simplification and frame-hugging 3D printed body parts could just be the order of the day.

There is also the chance to get truly creative with the paint, from full race graphics to a single hue borrowed from your favourite supercar. And no matter the looks, you will simply never lose a traffic light GP again! Ducati has created a bike that’s both a headline grabber and a canvas. It’s got the speed stats to scare hypercars, the world champion’s seal of approval, and enough exotic hardware to make even jaded builders sweat. Ok, so it’s bloody expensive, but it’s the kind of motorcycle that sparks late-night workshop conversations, Instagram build sketches, and the kind of high-end, one-off custom builds that our scene lives for. In short, the muscle bike era has dawned again, and it packs a KO punch.