End of the line for Ducati 999 Motorcycle - Days are numbere
Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:14 am
End of the line for Ducati 999 Motorcycle - Days are numbered for Ducati's flagship motorbike
Oct. 22, 2006 - Toronto Star - thestar.com
Motorcycle performance has never been so abundantly available at such a low price. So why make things difficult and buy a Ducati?
Well, if cheap and strong were all that mattered, we'd pick moonshine over merlot every time. Still, if you wanted to buy a Ducati 999 like this one, dealers were blowing them out the door this summer at a shocking discount from the list price of nearly $25,000.
A clearance sale might seem undignified for a Ducati flagship, but something better is coming from the Bologna factory, to be announced Nov. 14 at the Milan motorcycle show.
The shape of that new motorcycle, to be called the Ducati 1098, will be both fresh and familiar, introducing a more powerful engine and athletic chassis, but also reverting to some styling motifs that were abandoned three years ago when stylist Pierre Terblanche reconfigured Ducati's much-loved design. Some of the Ducati faithful have never forgiven him for his transgressions against the classic 916 design created by Massimo Tamburini and launched in 1994.
When the current 999 was unveiled, Terblanche said the bike was designed to maintain its novel appearance until 2010, but the need for an overhaul three years later says something about the market's reaction. In some ways, Ducati is as much a captive of its own history as Harley-Davidson, and it has learned that certain elements — cat's-eye headlights, a single-side swingarm, twin underseat exhausts — are not to be tampered with.
Ducati has already shown the new 1098 to its dealers in advance of the official launch, and all those elements are said to have been restored, along with the bonus of 20 more horsepower and a substantial weight reduction. Ducati customers will also appreciate the new list price, we hear — at least those who didn't pay full list for a 999.
Although I've ridden hundreds of different motorcycles over the years, Ducati models remain vividly separate from the rest. My first brief taste, on a bevel-drive 900SS, was instantly rapturous, delivering something I'd scarcely known existed: an alluring mixture of slim elegance and locomotive torque. Current Ducatis are much different, yet they continue to combine ethereal grace with a robust mechanical presence.
A Ducati like the 999 offers genuine high-performance, but it doesn't hurt that it also generates an aura of prestige and Italian exoticism. Car drivers in the know track you on the street, catching your eye to give the thumbs-up; a deliveryman for an Italian grocer shouts his approval through an open passenger window across traffic — he knows what you're riding.
Although the comparison is unnecessary and patronizing in my eyes, a Ducati 999 can be considered the Ferrari of the motorcycling world.
It's also been said that the two happiest days of a Ducati owner's life are the day he buys his bike and the day he sells it. Although reliability is better now, there's never been a time when that wasn't being said. With the help of a Toyota quality control expert from Japan, though, the factory has made progress. Occasional electrical gremlins are the most common fault, but there's never been a more reliable era in Ducati history.
The company marked its 80th anniversary this year, tracing its origins to a firm started in 1926 that first made radio components, but began making motorcycles after World War II. Ducati's current reputation for 90-degree V-twin sport models began with a 750 introduced in 1971, famously designed by engineer Fabio Taglioni, whose influence is still apparent in every Ducati today.
Taglioni made desmodromic valve actuation a unique signature of Ducati design, a system that uses rockers to both open and close valves, allowing precise valve operation at high revs with radical camshaft profiles. The design is used on every Ducati, including the 230 hp V4 MotoGP race bikes.
Taglioni introduced another signature trait of current Ducati models, the trellis frame of welded chrome-moly steel tubes, which looks improbably delicate compared with the massive aluminum structures that are otherwise universal on current sport and race bikes. Yet Ducati has found the correct balance between flex and rigidity with the design, a combination of art, experience and computer modelling.
In the saddle of a Ducati 999, there's no mistaking the brand of motorcycle, with a great white tachometer ahead of the handlebars, staring back like a demented clock face that reads to 13. There's no redline marked, as if to say "just rev it and see."
A handful of gas delivers a surge that begins with a quaking rumble, then hardens to a business-like fluttering vibration that cuts out suddenly with a rev limit of 10500 r.p.m. But with abundant power below that point, there's no need to flirt with the rev limiter, and short-shifting through the gearbox still provides long, catapult-like swings of acceleration. The stiffish clutch can be ignored for upshifts, each cog engaging exactly with a feel both fluid and mechanically precise.
The steering seems solidly reassuring, unerringly committed to carving a line, but might also be considered simply too heavy. Some of that results from the friction of the steering damper, mounted transversely behind the steering head in clear view, but it's also possible to adjust the steering geometry by changing the rake angle, a unique Ducati trait.
Output at the rear wheel from the 998 cc Testastretta V-twin is well over 100 hp, which doesn't match current Japanese litre bikes, but proves sufficient to blur the roadside goldenrod and purple asters into a seamless tapestry. Opening the throttle is also a bit like opening the oven door, as a wave of heat floods around my legs on a warm September day. That's the price you pay for the 999's sexy narrow waist, which leaves the rear cylinder head provocatively exposed.
A back-road jaunt lasts less than a couple of hours before the fuel warning light comes on, pessimistically, as the tank will only accept 11 litres at that point. But an excuse for a rest seems welcome. Although there's plenty of fore-and-aft seat room, and the relatively low seat works well with the position of the clip-ons, there's a considerable stretch forward that eventually fatigues my neck from the effort of keeping my head tipped up; there's a temptation to use the throttle to generate lift force from the wind, but that's temporary relief in this jurisdiction.
The suspension, so firm and direct in supplying a feel of the road, eventually makes the broad saddle seem more and more like a plank.
This comes as no surprise, of course, as the 999 makes no claims as a touring bike, yet relatively few make it onto a racetrack, which would be a more natural setting. Ducati has dominated the World Superbike Championship over the years, winning the first race in the series in 1988, and 11 of the last 13 championships, including this year's title won by Troy Bayliss.
In Canada, however, the cost of campaigning a Ducati Superbike is prohibitive compared with Japanese alternatives, and the factory has announced that it is pulling out of American Motorcyclist Association racing in the U.S.
Despite a racing pedigree second to none, Ducati also seems prepared to abandon the World Superbike Championship next season, because the new 1098 model will have a displacement beyond that allowed by current rules.
Ducati must be thinking either that its unilateral decision will cause the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme rule makers to cave in, or else that it will be content to coast on its racing reputation and focus instead on satisfying street riders with its latest technology.
More than with any other manufacturer, I'm curious to take a close look at what Ducati comes up with this year, simply because we know it will combine performance and aesthetics in a thoughtful, original and daring manner.
The somewhat chilly reception the 999 received has no doubt motivated Ducati more than ever. Anything less than a beautiful machine, brilliantly executed, will be judged a failure.
If Ducati can achieve that, questions of mere practicality or comfort fade into the background. The bike becomes something for a special person, or a special occasion. If we can't be one, we can at least aspire to afford the other.
Oct. 22, 2006 - Toronto Star - thestar.com
Motorcycle performance has never been so abundantly available at such a low price. So why make things difficult and buy a Ducati?
Well, if cheap and strong were all that mattered, we'd pick moonshine over merlot every time. Still, if you wanted to buy a Ducati 999 like this one, dealers were blowing them out the door this summer at a shocking discount from the list price of nearly $25,000.
A clearance sale might seem undignified for a Ducati flagship, but something better is coming from the Bologna factory, to be announced Nov. 14 at the Milan motorcycle show.
The shape of that new motorcycle, to be called the Ducati 1098, will be both fresh and familiar, introducing a more powerful engine and athletic chassis, but also reverting to some styling motifs that were abandoned three years ago when stylist Pierre Terblanche reconfigured Ducati's much-loved design. Some of the Ducati faithful have never forgiven him for his transgressions against the classic 916 design created by Massimo Tamburini and launched in 1994.
When the current 999 was unveiled, Terblanche said the bike was designed to maintain its novel appearance until 2010, but the need for an overhaul three years later says something about the market's reaction. In some ways, Ducati is as much a captive of its own history as Harley-Davidson, and it has learned that certain elements — cat's-eye headlights, a single-side swingarm, twin underseat exhausts — are not to be tampered with.
Ducati has already shown the new 1098 to its dealers in advance of the official launch, and all those elements are said to have been restored, along with the bonus of 20 more horsepower and a substantial weight reduction. Ducati customers will also appreciate the new list price, we hear — at least those who didn't pay full list for a 999.
Although I've ridden hundreds of different motorcycles over the years, Ducati models remain vividly separate from the rest. My first brief taste, on a bevel-drive 900SS, was instantly rapturous, delivering something I'd scarcely known existed: an alluring mixture of slim elegance and locomotive torque. Current Ducatis are much different, yet they continue to combine ethereal grace with a robust mechanical presence.
A Ducati like the 999 offers genuine high-performance, but it doesn't hurt that it also generates an aura of prestige and Italian exoticism. Car drivers in the know track you on the street, catching your eye to give the thumbs-up; a deliveryman for an Italian grocer shouts his approval through an open passenger window across traffic — he knows what you're riding.
Although the comparison is unnecessary and patronizing in my eyes, a Ducati 999 can be considered the Ferrari of the motorcycling world.
It's also been said that the two happiest days of a Ducati owner's life are the day he buys his bike and the day he sells it. Although reliability is better now, there's never been a time when that wasn't being said. With the help of a Toyota quality control expert from Japan, though, the factory has made progress. Occasional electrical gremlins are the most common fault, but there's never been a more reliable era in Ducati history.
The company marked its 80th anniversary this year, tracing its origins to a firm started in 1926 that first made radio components, but began making motorcycles after World War II. Ducati's current reputation for 90-degree V-twin sport models began with a 750 introduced in 1971, famously designed by engineer Fabio Taglioni, whose influence is still apparent in every Ducati today.
Taglioni made desmodromic valve actuation a unique signature of Ducati design, a system that uses rockers to both open and close valves, allowing precise valve operation at high revs with radical camshaft profiles. The design is used on every Ducati, including the 230 hp V4 MotoGP race bikes.
Taglioni introduced another signature trait of current Ducati models, the trellis frame of welded chrome-moly steel tubes, which looks improbably delicate compared with the massive aluminum structures that are otherwise universal on current sport and race bikes. Yet Ducati has found the correct balance between flex and rigidity with the design, a combination of art, experience and computer modelling.
In the saddle of a Ducati 999, there's no mistaking the brand of motorcycle, with a great white tachometer ahead of the handlebars, staring back like a demented clock face that reads to 13. There's no redline marked, as if to say "just rev it and see."
A handful of gas delivers a surge that begins with a quaking rumble, then hardens to a business-like fluttering vibration that cuts out suddenly with a rev limit of 10500 r.p.m. But with abundant power below that point, there's no need to flirt with the rev limiter, and short-shifting through the gearbox still provides long, catapult-like swings of acceleration. The stiffish clutch can be ignored for upshifts, each cog engaging exactly with a feel both fluid and mechanically precise.
The steering seems solidly reassuring, unerringly committed to carving a line, but might also be considered simply too heavy. Some of that results from the friction of the steering damper, mounted transversely behind the steering head in clear view, but it's also possible to adjust the steering geometry by changing the rake angle, a unique Ducati trait.
Output at the rear wheel from the 998 cc Testastretta V-twin is well over 100 hp, which doesn't match current Japanese litre bikes, but proves sufficient to blur the roadside goldenrod and purple asters into a seamless tapestry. Opening the throttle is also a bit like opening the oven door, as a wave of heat floods around my legs on a warm September day. That's the price you pay for the 999's sexy narrow waist, which leaves the rear cylinder head provocatively exposed.
A back-road jaunt lasts less than a couple of hours before the fuel warning light comes on, pessimistically, as the tank will only accept 11 litres at that point. But an excuse for a rest seems welcome. Although there's plenty of fore-and-aft seat room, and the relatively low seat works well with the position of the clip-ons, there's a considerable stretch forward that eventually fatigues my neck from the effort of keeping my head tipped up; there's a temptation to use the throttle to generate lift force from the wind, but that's temporary relief in this jurisdiction.
The suspension, so firm and direct in supplying a feel of the road, eventually makes the broad saddle seem more and more like a plank.
This comes as no surprise, of course, as the 999 makes no claims as a touring bike, yet relatively few make it onto a racetrack, which would be a more natural setting. Ducati has dominated the World Superbike Championship over the years, winning the first race in the series in 1988, and 11 of the last 13 championships, including this year's title won by Troy Bayliss.
In Canada, however, the cost of campaigning a Ducati Superbike is prohibitive compared with Japanese alternatives, and the factory has announced that it is pulling out of American Motorcyclist Association racing in the U.S.
Despite a racing pedigree second to none, Ducati also seems prepared to abandon the World Superbike Championship next season, because the new 1098 model will have a displacement beyond that allowed by current rules.
Ducati must be thinking either that its unilateral decision will cause the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme rule makers to cave in, or else that it will be content to coast on its racing reputation and focus instead on satisfying street riders with its latest technology.
More than with any other manufacturer, I'm curious to take a close look at what Ducati comes up with this year, simply because we know it will combine performance and aesthetics in a thoughtful, original and daring manner.
The somewhat chilly reception the 999 received has no doubt motivated Ducati more than ever. Anything less than a beautiful machine, brilliantly executed, will be judged a failure.
If Ducati can achieve that, questions of mere practicality or comfort fade into the background. The bike becomes something for a special person, or a special occasion. If we can't be one, we can at least aspire to afford the other.