Ben at no time did I say anything in this thread about the Suzy 1000 VS the Duck 1200, at present we are talkin about twins and what to do with the old 1000s that have no chance against the new 1200s. I am guessin that with about the same amount of money you can make 749r 848 TL1000 RC51 Milles make similar HPs so putting the older 1000 in makes no difference.
On the subject though Ducati is capable of making a 4 cyl motorcycle that is competitive, they just choose not to for superbike. Seems to me that a few new upstart superbikes came out in the last few years and they are 4cyl and they have done quite well. Given a hard and fast set of rules in moto GP Ducati made a 4cyl V4 when they could just as easily made a twin.
As for honda kicken ducatis ass what I meant more than anything is that honda was willing to play ducatis game to show how much better a 1000cc twin was than a 750cc 4. They did not change the game they just changed how they played it. Now I am not saying that running a1000cc twin against a 1000 cc 4 is fair but a 250cc bump is to much. There is more to look at then just HP numbers, the way twins and 4s accel is different, the handling is different so how well a bike works is more than just the sum of its horsepower and torque.