I saw this, and my jaw dropped. But before I gush over this bike, I’ll admit: it’s difficult to understand this extremely rare and extremely expensive Ducati/NCR New Blue without a bit of history about Old Blue. In the early 1970’s, a couple of Cycle World editors were racing one of only a handful of…
After the controversial 999, the 1098 of 2007-09 was an un-redesign, instantly recognizable as a Ducati, designed by Giandrea Fabbro, now a senior designer at the company. Additionally, the Testastretta engine received some significant upgrades after a petition to FIM for an additional 100cc for Superbike World Championship twins. The result was a quintessential Ducati…
Cashing in on the retro-craze or reverently invoking Ducati history, the Pierre Terblanche design for the Sport Classic series was ( and is today ) a hit. Built from 2006-09 in relatively small numbers, the bikes were styled in the 1970’s but had power and reliability for the new century. 2008 Ducati Sport 1000S for…
This is not a road bike, that much is obvious at a glace: slick-shod, missing lights and signals, with just that big, redline-less tach and smaller temp gauge to distract the rider from the really important things like speed, speed, and more speed. Which is good, because this Ducati 916SPS was designed with speed foremost…
After Carl Fogarty retired his 916 racer with 4 Superbike World Championships, the Ducati factory released a 2002-only Monster S4 commemorative edition which are quite rare with total production of only 300 and highly regarded as the first water-cooled 4-valve Monster. 2002 Ducati Monster S4 Foggy With 101 hp and just a bikini fairing, the…
Ducati’s 916 bikes were built in great enough numbers, and are available for sale often enough, that it’s sometimes hard to think of them as “rare.” I mean, it’s much harder to find a nice ZX-7R than it is a 996 these days. But while we may have become a bit blasé about these former…
The Ducati 851 debuted in 1987 and featured brand-new four-valve heads and liquid-cooling, revolutionary design features for the already venerable 90° L-twin. The Pantah engine, while very durable even under racing conditions, was limited in terms of outright power by its two-valve heads and air/oil cooling. Ducati wanted to compete in World Superbike racing, and…
This weaponized Ducati Superleggera, resplendent in nuclear red paint that looks like it causes cancer to people standing near it is one of those bikes that lives up the hype. Many Ducati special editions have been a bit disappointing, unless you were looking for a living room decoration. All that carbon fiber added to the…