Different motorcycle manufacturers have different ways of mining riders’ nostalgia and their own history: Triumph makes motorcycles that look like they rolled straight out of the 1960s but perform like modern machines, while Harley Davidson makes actual 1960s motorcycles, only heavier and with 1980s brakes and electronics. Ducati’s retro bikes manage to straddle the…
With apologies to the Who, this cheesecake of a sportbike is one of Guzzi’s greatest hits. The design was based on the Daytona and shown in fall 1993 as a 1994 model. One of the last carburetted Guzzis, the 1996 model had fully adjustable suspension front and rear, and the company’s torquey 2-valve L-twin. This…
Ducati’s first motorcycle was the Cucciolo [or “puppy” in Italian], which was basically a simple engine strapped to a bicycle, an affordable tool to get the Italian population mobile and back to work after the end of World War II. Certainly a far cry from the frameless, race-inspired exotica they’re famous for today. This NCR…
In creating the 996, it might look like Ducati simply slapped a set of fresh decals onto their 916, with an extra “9” replacing the “1.” But the development of the 916 into the 996 and finally into the 998 saw a lot of gradual changes under that very pretty and iconic skin. Introduced in…
The very definition of an “affordable exotic,” the Ducati Monster M900 was designed from the beginning to be cost-effective: their proven air and oil-cooled two-valve v-twin and six-speed gearbox combo, the frame from the 851 with suspension, wheels and brakes from the 900SS meant everything except the minimal bodywork was off-the-shelf. Originally available in 904cc…
Drawing on his experience re-invigorating Laverda, industrialist Francesco Tognon’s similar approach to Bimota involved development of a slightly less exotic and more saleable motorcycle. The resulting SB8R used Suzuki’s TL-1000 L-twin in a carbon-aluminum hybrid frame, and put Bimota on the comeback trail. 2000 Bimota SB8R for sale on eBay A showcase for early carbon-fiber…
Update 2.20.2017: Price is now $17k and links are updated. -dc Regardless of how you feel about the Ducati 999, it was a significant failure in terms of sales for the company, something they could ill-afford for their flagship product. Although it was an improvement in virtually every way when compared to the outgoing 998, Ducati’s conservative…
By the late 1970s, it was pretty obvious that Ducati needed to update their line: performance wasn’t really all that much of a problem, but their famous L-twin was very expensive to manufacture. So when the time came… They simply tossed the whole thing out the window and started over, with a parallel-twin that used…