Sports motorcycle in Manchester in the 70's was the place to go on the weekends, usually on the moped, later on my Bantam. Not your ordinary Bantam mind you, a racing Bantam! Centre plug head, balanced crank, polished ports, over sized Amal, Ali tank,hand made, braced frame to take up the massive power increase, superlight. Copper expansion chamber hand made by my father from an old water tank, he was a pattern maker.. It was shit, ran like a pig,ate the little end bearing,crank bearing. Went round corners like it was on rails unfortunately rails that deviated from every curve. So bought a Ducati 250. Happy days Bantam was buried on the West Pennine moors in a noisy ceremony involving a stone wall. Aerospace apprentices got a good education and access to machine tools, dangerous combination but some wicked bikes came out of the factory gates courtesy of the night shift. I've loved all my Ducatis since no 1.
Ducati’s have been a bit of a slow burner for me, always liked the look of them and that certain mystique they have, but I think my first Ducati purchase almost put me off for life.... Back in 92 / 93? I traded in a lovely 1000 Exup Yamaha and a shitload of cash for this 851, ...Foggy was doing his stuff in WSB at the time and I just had to have one, rode it away from the dealership and it felt like a bag of spanner’s compared to the silky smooth Exup Just never clicked with that bike, rock hard suspension and very abrupt 1st gen fuel injection, difficult to ride smoothly, used to “ threpenny bit” around corners with the lurchy fuel injection Did a Ducati owners track day at Cadwell park in 93? On it , rode down and back from Yarm Cleveland to do it, must have been fekkin mad in those days,...amazed it did the trip without breaking down and leaving me in the lurch Me in Leyburn marketplace wondering why the rear suspension kept launching me into orbit !! When the 916 was launched I just thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, out of my price range at the time, but I did a track weekend with Superbike magazine and Jamie Whitam was riding a 916 all weekend, it looked and sounded even better when you were on the track with it! I think the thing with Ducati’s is they have a certain aura and mystique about them, a bit “ works racer-ish” helped by the fact that back in the day you hardly saw any of them on the roads and there seemed to be no such thing as a “ standard “ Ducati, Termi pipes, Marchesini mag wheels etc, they were all different and totally exotic compared to your mass produced Japanese bikes , when you saw one it was like you’d just seen a Unicorn a mythical beast in other words! They passed me by for a decade or so until the press was giving the Panigale’s rave reviews, so I thought I’d better investigate? I lined up test rides of a 2014 Blade and a 2014 899 so I could try them back to back, I had the Blade out for about 20 miles or so and it just did nothing for me, which was surprising as I’d had 3 of them before? Then I took the Panigale out for afternoon,....as soon as they started it up at the dealership and it BOOMED!! into life I was smitten I spent the rest of the afternoon ( and about 120 miles! ) pretending I was a Ducati WSB rider, first time I’d experienced a quickshifter and it was just fantastic, the bike felt like it somehow had soul and passion built into it and as an experience was way, ..way beyond what I’d just felt on the FireBlade demo, and at the end of the day, that’s the whole reason we ride bikes,...for the “ feelgood factor “ Got back to the dealership, apologised for being gone all afternoon and slapped a deposit down straight away. I still say to this day, this is the best bike I’ve ever owned in about 40 years of riding bikes And I don’t think any other bike looks as beautiful as the Panigale’s.. I was lucky enough during my working career to be dealing with a die casting company in Imola that also did work for Ducati, at the end of my trip they were kind enough to drop me off at the Ducati factory ( excuse my gurning mush! ) and introduce me to the museum tour guides so I think I got a bit of preferential treatment that day If you ever get a chance to visit the Ducati factory and do the tour it’s like being in heaven, in the heritage centre with all those winning WSBs and Moto GP bikes , but the thing that struck me most was the attitude all the employees had, they were really proud to work for Ducati and make these great bikes, it was more than just a job to them, they were like a bunch of enthusiasts who had the best job in the world and actually got paid for it!! It’s probably this pride and passion that feeds down through the designers and builders of the bikes that gives them the soul and kudos we all appreciate and I think it’s this that elevates them and makes them feel more special than other “produced for profit not passion” bikes...it’s definitely something inbuilt in the Italian psyche and has been over the centuries with artists like DaVinci and Michelangelo where “good” is just not good enough, it has to be magnificent.
I’ve only ridden mine twice but I can tell you the 999s I have is absolutely fantastic to ride you will enjoy it!
nice post, the 899 is definitely the friendliest and by far and away the prettiest pani (imo of course)
I'd say it's an Italian 'thing' although Ducati's have their own particular character. I've ridden and owned old and modern MVs, Ducatis, Moto Morinis, Laverdas and Moto Guzzis and you get a similar feeling with all of them. I do think that the semi works, 'engineered' special character is really only present on the 70s bikes though. I personally think with modern bikes there's less of a distinction and out of around eight bikes I've test ridden in the last year or so the Italian bikes were the ones I disliked the most. And thats coming from an Italian bike diehard going back to the late 80s. Maybe it's because I'm getting older (or I'm just old..) but I now favour bikes where I don't have to ride around their faults (or character). The bike that really stood of for me was the VFR800. The V4 is something else. VTEC or otherwise. Probably not a popular sentiment on an Italian bike forum but there you go! That said Italian bikes will always be there for me and if I could afford one I'd buy a Bevel Ducati, old MV or Guzzi V7 Sport in a heartbeat.
based out in Germany for the late 90s when Ducati was in its heyday BSB and WSB, I was on my 3rd Fireblade ( MY99 blue) and they were getting softer and more sports touring, and then a friend bought a MY99 996 (gold frame and 3 spoke wheels) and let me have a go on it on the local roads, 100% hated it, it was solid, hard seat, uncomfortable, and i kept hitting the rev limiter or the bike chugged so bad i thought my teeth where going to fall out... wind forward to the start of 2000, and a road trip to the Ring, and my buddy gave me the key again and said now try again ( local roads to the Ring, smooth wide etc) and it clicked.. i was doing about 220kph where i would normally only hit 180kph on the Fireblade, and the bike felt like it was on rails... Got home on the Sunday and on the Monday did the deal on a MY00 996bp ... been on a roller coaster of elation and frustration ever since.. oh and broke..!
I always think that the originals of anything turn out to be the most desirable, I just really really like the shape of the 899/1199 series bikes and the new models seem to be getting a bit podgier and more stuffed up with Euro numbers as time goes on. You can see parallels in the car world, back in the day when I was a lot younger I was the proud owner of a Datsun 240Z, fantastic car, looked the bizzo for its time, like a cross between an E-type and a Ferrari, but sure enough as newer models were introduced, 260Z, then 280Z they just got fatter heavier and slower. The less Euro numbers the better in my opinion, I know,.. I know, it’s all about saving the environment and rightly so, but it certainly doesn’t do bikes any favours,. I think the new 950 Supersport actually produces 5 bhp less!....that’s progress for you!!!
Honda VFR Vtec was the bike Mondeo man would buy in the day. Had 1, just a bike, well built etc but just a bike, soulless, efficient, boring. Each to their own. I had totally forgotten I owned one bought from ESB in 2002. Just a bike. No idea how many bikes I've road ridden legally since 1974. Ducati has always to me stood out. It's not Marks and Spencer undies, it's Italian silk suits, form. Something called soul. '
All cars have gone this way putting on weight, it’s all the gizmo’s and goodies they stuff in them. Mark 1 Golf 920 kgs. 2018 iteration 1300 kgs.
That weight AFAIK is for a standard Golf for both iterations, there were heavier figures quoted but Iwent with the lightest. I found a quote of closer to 1800 kgs but dis regarded it.
