Yup, its a good thing if you have vag shares The lifestyle market has plenty of buyers at the moment. However, since this is very much tied to a current fashion it'll be interesting to see what happens when it passes. Will we have nu-mods with Ducati spunking out Vespa copies and nu-mod branded fishtail parkers?
As a business that would probably make sense, my worry would be they could be that successful with the hairdryers they could end up ditching sportsbikes
Best remembering that the sports bikes were born out of trying to make hair dryers go faster....... It started with practical then was adapted to the task in hand.
Won't happen Clive. The Scrambler is the 21st Century Monster. And we all know what the Monster did for Ducati 20 years ago
I wouldn't worry too much about the future of the sports bikes until such time as you see Dovi coming out for FP1 on a yellow Icon (he'd still be quicker than #35 though).
An interesting thread. I own a Scrambler, an Urban Enduro model, and I absolutely love it! I've had Ducatis for 25 years, I've raced them, toured on them, commuted on them, and crashed them, more than once! It puts the fun back into riding for me, big time! Since I sold my 748SPS I've had a few different Dukes, a 944 Superlight, a Baines Imola, an Elefant, and built my Pantah special. I don't need speed and big power to prove my manhood anymore, been there, done that. I reckon I'm quicker down the local lanes on my Scrambler than pretty much any other bike I've owned. It's like an LC with wide bars! So far I've scratched on it, commuted on it, and even took it to Belgium for a bike show last weeked. It does it all, and most importantly it's fucking good fun! Isn't that was bikes are supposed to be? Having said all that, the Land of Joy stuff is total bollocks!
I should point out I have absolutely nothing against the bike itself. As a means of having fun I bet it's brilliant so I don't buy into the 'Ducati should only build super bikes or Monsters' argument. It's a strange rational anyway as super bikes and monsters are very different. I guess my peevishness is about the way it's marketed. The people it's aimed at are not likely to be Ducati owners (although obviously there's are some Owners who will buy one) and its squarely aimed at the 'lifestyle set'. Great bit of business though and I doubt those who object will take it seriously enough to abandon their favourite bikes. What a lot of hot air we guff out on here with not a poo in sight
Here here get rid of the clean living beardy check shirt brigade and bring back babes in bikinis Or not [emoji6]
Erm, no I didn't! I did get the givi saddlebag kit though, better than carrying my lunch to work in a rucksack ;-)
Every bike has a marketing angle to it. That's what advertising is all about. If the success of the Scrambler means there is more money to invest in the next generation Panigale that can only be a good thing. I suspect the reason many Ducati owners don't get the 'Land of Joy' thing is because its not actually aimed at them.
Call me cinical but after Euwan Mcgregor and Charlie feck about round the world everyone wants to be a adventurer or buy the bike and full BMW catalogue.Then after David Beckham grows a silly beard and haircut and fecks about in South America on a scrambler type bike ducati release one as they become the next in thing. I guess that says more about people than the bikes themselves.Yes superbike and monster are different that's the point.The ST series seemed a good idea (better than a pretend adventure bike imo) and id be all for ducati putting research and money behind a project like that or a new pani streetfighter.Instead we get the Diavel and scrambler hmmm. Did I mention I don't like the scrambler or diavel .Oh well all in jest folks and ill have a good chuckle to myself when I see the scrambler crowd as it reminds me of this crap series.Who would have thought the 2015 ducati line up would start to look the same.
Its called banter ya knobbers.Lol you lot would soon sulk off in a mood with my piss taking mates at a bike meet. I got 6 months of pure piss take for buying a ducati but its all good.At least I don't look like Boon eh.
That's more like it. If you think I take the piss spare a thought to my HA friend that thought it a good idea to turn up to the clubhouse on his new 999.They all refer to me as the foggy wanna be and claim ive been at my sliders with the grinder.But the best piss taking by far is when one of us crash.The more serious the crash the more the piss take.
Doh! This is called "cannibalisation" and as a marketeer, it's a thing you want to avoid. There is no point in producing a new cheapish bike that is going to steal sales from your more expensive bikes. What you want is a whole new customer base that adds to sales instead of trading people down. The Scrambler, as you have noticed, does just this. Most Ducatisti won't touch them, so they are being sold to a whole new market who will then buy into the Ducati brand and some of them will go on to buy more expensive Ducatis. They may be buying a Scrambler as a born-again thing, or a first bike. They want to look cool. Perhaps some of them think that having some Ducati apparel will help this (we might disagree). The Diavel is a little different as it's already an expensive bike. It's mainly for people in the States, probably, or Japan - somewhere were big cruisers are considered cool. These are people that Ducati wouldn't otherwise sell a bike to. All power to their elbow. I don't mind. I'm happy with my sports Ducati. It doesn't affect me in any way. TBH, it was all like this when the 916 came out, then suddenly every Tom Dick and Harry had a Ducati.
