The only bike I'd buy from the Ducati range would be the 1299, and I'd have to win the lottery first. I hate to say it but for me their range has never looked so unappealing. Ducati's heart and soul has always been sports bikes but that DNA seems to have been bred out. The link appears broken and I'm not sure where they're coming from now. The old 1198 SB engine which powered their big non-sports bikes has effectively been quietly killed off and been replaced by the softer, user-friendly 1200 DVT. The Panigale engines, the only sports bike engines they make, do not cross over into any other part of the range. They seem to be shy of performance. Why is there no proper sports bike-based Streetfighter? Next to KTM, APrilia and BMW's offerings the 1200R Monster is a soft, fat misshapen thing designed more for urban ring-roads than race tracks. I can't believe Ducati have let Aprilia walk away with the super-naked crown without even putting up a fight. I quite liked the look of the new Diavel from what I could see of it in the teaser shots. Then I saw it whole and clocked that riding position... Please leave that sort of thing to Harley. They can get away with it, just. Europeans can't. The style's gone the same way as the performance. The 959 pipes for instance. If you must have twin side bins at least make them look decent. like the Termis on a Streetfighter. The cat is in the collector so there's no excuse for cans like that. Why go out of your way to mimic a cheap after-market system for a Japanese commuter bike? Its all gone a bit too Germanic. Let the Germans do the accountancy and the Italians do the designing, not the other way round.
I agree @Gimlet. I hung about waiting for the Monster R, and I'm still considering it but Ducati doesn't seem like Ducati anymore. The Monster R is the only Ducati I would consider now, but the Yamaha MT-10 speaks more to what I actually want to buy.
That front end is very Aprilia. Shame the engine is an R1 four. Well not a shame exactly - its a great engine - but I'd have liked to see them develop their triple into into the high performance litre class. You don't fancy the KTM 1290 SDR/GT then?
I don't know if it's already been asked, but I'd like to know whether a software patch will become available for the 899 with regards to the rear tyre sizing!!
