Aesthetic preferences aside, which are personal taste. It was the last proper Ducati Superbike in R form. As great as my Panigale is, it’s not a Ducati Superbike in the way a 1098R or 1198S are.
Speaking as someone with a design degree and has worked as a designer the 999 is light years ahead of the 1098 in styling and detail. A modern FIAT 500 is pretty but highly derivative. That’s a 1098. A 999 is more like a jaguar e type or Lamborghini Countach. Radical and dripping in little details all over the bike which echo the design concept. Everything from the shape of the tail lights at the back to the fluid reservoirs at the front. Everything that could be detailed to the theme was.
Nothing new there! There is a difference between what people find pretty and what is radical and detailed. The 1098 is probably the prettier of the two. But as a detailed design excercise - it’s no contest - 999 all the way, by miles The former is a matter of taste, the latter is a matter of fact and can be evidenced by any number of components which have been detailed on a 999 and hauled out a random parts bin on a 1098
I won't argue the point on design as I am not qualified to do so. However, design within a commercial context must meet commercial reality. Looking at the design timeline from the 916 onwards the 999 is an outlier. It's design ejaculated from Bologna for a few short years, was thoroughly wiped up and not a trace of it remains from the 1098 onwards. So no matter how successful in your view it was as a design exercise, it was about as useful as as drawing on Picasso for inspiration in designing the successor to the new V4 Panigale ... come to think of it there are parallels between the disjointed work of Picasso and the 999
It’s certainly true they didn’t sell as many as they wanted to, but the move to the 1098 was as much about having a bike which could win WSB. A bit like the V4. Same was true for the 999 at the time. The shape of the nose come and fairings came from a wind tunnel. As did the air conveyors. It necessitated the use of the small round stacked headlights. It’s interesting that you see the 999 as disjointed. I see it as the most cohesive design I have ever seen on a motorbike.
He's been posting for days trying to get a bite Andy. He obviously thinks nobody has noticed his unsubtle attempts, but he's just being ignored.
You like the Chinesey looking V4 clearly a step back from the V2 Pani Mind you, you said it was a wind up which can only mean you are in the majority who love the 999 now all these years later
It’s interesting that you see the 999 as disjointed. I see it as the most cohesive design I have ever seen on a motorbike.[/QUOTE] Including the exhaust? which to me spoilt the whole look of the bike
I always thought it had a look of an ironing board myself, very flat. I still like it though and it would be handy if I ever needed to iron my leathers in the garage.
@everclear stick this poll in your pipe and smoke it baby Loooooooser https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/best-looking-r.41625/#post-733451
Oh well Jesus that's a clincher @Exige! You really have excelled yourself digging that up. A sample size of 135 members of a poll on one Ducati Forum in the UK. That must be absolutely representative of Ducatisti worldwide. Come on mate, pull up stumps, I'm actually starting to feel sorry for you
135 members voted. Take an opinion poll on on any issue based on a sample of 135 people and try and convince anyone who scraped through Statistics 101 with a solid C- that it has any sort of statistical validity on any planet in the Milky Way! Good luck with that. Christ the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel are getting very thin.
How about I'll put the same poll up on Ducati.ms? A little backwater forum in a tiny country called the USA?
