Ducati’s modern era really started here, with the 851. The air-cooled Pantah engine, with its rubber cam belts, was a step forward, compared to the bevel-drive twins and set the stage for Ducati’s move into the future. But it was the liquid-cooled, four-valve version of their classic L-twin that finally brought them fully into the…
Launched at almost the same time, MV Agusta’s Brutale has always lived in the sleeker F4’s shadow. Styling aside, it was just a little bit lower-spec, a little less focused, a little too practical. Like that’s a dirty word. I happen to love the design, although it’s hard to argue that the F4 isn’t a…
After languishing in infamy for a few years, Ducati’s 999 is finally getting a bit of respect for being the impressive machine it has always been. If the 999 had been built by anyone other than Ducati, and it had been the follow up to pretty much any bike but the 916, its praises would…
Suzuki’s GSX-R750 brought endurance racer performance to the masses. It may not have been the first bike to use a full fairing wrapped around lightweight aluminum monoshock frame and a four-cylinder engine, but it was the first bike to make that formula accessible to ordinary mortals, and it popularized the format. Prior to the GSX-R’s…
Designed to resemble their race-winning TT1 machines and the very last bike built before a buyout by Cagiva, the Ducati F1 was a bit rough around the edges but, in spite of a kit-bike feel and build quality, was a true thoroughbred. The F1 and its variants languished in obscurity for a while, since it…
It’s obvious that we’ll continue to see Ducati’s iconic “L-twin” for the foreseeable future, but the recent introduction of their V4 Panigale represents the end of the v-twin superbike era that really began with today’s Featured Listing Ducati 750GT. If you ask anyone to name the earliest Ducati v-twin, one of the Supersports is the…
It’s a shame that the second incarnation of Laverda was gone by the end of the 1990s, before the recent interest in classic styles and older nameplates. I can imagine that a modern take on their big, burly triples would have gone over pretty well if they’d survived into the present. Apparently, a new triple…
It’s always fun to see older cars and bikes that were meant at the time to embody the designs of tomorrow, even if that future never actually came to pass. Somehow, even though the world this wild Gilera CX125 embodied only exists in some sort of alternate reality, at least it doesn’t rely on vaporware…