My mate big Iain came down today to show off his, new to him 999. Well what a bike, beautiful. When it came out I thought it was ugly. I've been off bike for two years, I know poor show. I had my dream bike, yellow 748r, followed by a 848. Iain's bike is an 03 999 totally std apart from a carbon rear fender, sprocket and clutch cover. That bike had really come into its own. Well done Iain, enjoy it.
I think the design of the 749/999 was a bit of a shock for most back in 2003 after the beauty of the 916, but the 749 brought me to Ducati and I'm on my third now. I think they grew into their skin so to speak and still look fantastic today. I always fancied a 999R but I'm 6ft4 and they are physically too small for me. I didn't keep mine all that long before replacing it with a 1098 but they still pull my strings when I see one out on the road.
Agreed. When it came out, it was too different from the iconic 916 style bikes. Single can, double sided swing arm, stacked headlights etc etc too much of a difference from 916, but, a very brave move, ahead of a lot of the competition with their styling. But, the 999/749 has come in to it's own
I think the xx9 series was really ahead of it's time, I personally think they benefited from the later facelift with the chunky black swingarm and also I think they tend to look really good with some subtle carbon bits etc.
If you don't love this then you have no soul............ Even if you still can't cope with the the look of the 749/999, just take in the design package. Why did Ducati throw away those lovely combined leaver/reservoir units and go back to the Meccano bits for the later bikes? The whole design concept was, and still is, far ahead of both the opposition and later Ducatis. Still, why should I care? I had the very real pleasure of sitting quietly over a cup of coffee in Bristol on Sunday and listening to visitors to the Italian Day saying "Wow, that red Ducati over there is just so beautiful"...and then I got to ride it home! Does life get any better than that?
