Ducati Built Its First Ever Race-Only Supermoto for Its 100th Birthday
The Desmo450 SM previewed at World Ducati Week is a purpose-built S1GP racer, not a detuned motocrosser with street wheels — full specs and pricing follow in September.
Ducati marked its 100th anniversary at World Ducati Week, held at the Misano World Circuit, by rolling a prototype onto the stage on Saturday, July 4: the Desmo450 SM, the company's first purpose-built racing supermotard. Ducati was explicit on stage that this isn't a motocross bike wearing smaller wheels — despite sharing its architecture with the existing Desmo450 MX, the SM is engineered from the ground up to compete in the S1GP class of the Supermoto World Championship.
The two bikes share a starting point: a 449.6cc desmodromic single-cylinder engine and an aluminum perimeter frame built from eleven separate cast, forged, and extruded pieces, the same layout used across the Desmo450 MX line. In MX trim, that engine revs to 11,900 rpm, but Ducati says the SM's version has been retuned specifically for supermoto racing, complete with integrated traction control — the company has not yet published power or torque figures for the SM-specific tune.
Where the SM clearly departs from its motocross sibling is at the contact patches. It rolls on a 16.5-inch front wheel wrapped in a Metzeler Racetec SM slick, paired with a 17-inch rear — making it the only production Ducati that will ship on slick tires as standard. Braking comes from Brembo hardware front and rear, with Showa suspension retuned for supermoto's mix of tarmac corners and off-road jumps.
Ducati is holding back the complete technical sheet and pricing until the bike's full reveal in September, with European deliveries targeted for October as a 2027 model. It's a deliberate two-step rollout — building anticipation around the company's centennial — but it also means the exact power output, weight, and price of Ducati's first dedicated supermoto racer are still unconfirmed heading into the fall.
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