I am now the owner for a Ducati 749. I absolutely love it. In a future post I will tell you much, but for now lets talk about the Ducati and the motorcycles they produce, or should that be … lets talk about Audi … and the Motorcycles they produce.
Let’s first look at a little bit of Ducati history.
The Motorcycle manufacturer from Bologna grew from the ashes of the the second world war. Prior to Hitlers decision to go a bit nuts and plunge the world into war, they had manufactured electronics. Knowing Italians now had no money to buy expensive electronics, they went into producing small 50cc engines that clipped to push bikes, this in Turn led to the Cucciolo, Ducati’s first ever production bike.
Fabio Taglioni was creating the first Ducati Desmodromic engine, a single cylinder, by 1956, the legendary L-Twin motors arrived in 1972 and in the early 80’s Massimo Tamburini (designer of the 916) introduced the Trellis frame.
Ducati, until 2012, was almost always broke.
However, despite between being passed into Italian Government Ownership, being owned by Cagiva and comically by an American Investment Company (with no history of running a Motorcycle company), they always seemed to produce fantastic motorcycles, many ahead of the times. Ducatis were special, they were different.
Then along came Audi and they no longer are.
In 2012 Lamborghini purchased Ducati. Audi have all the voting shares. I’m sure there is some convoluted and complex reason why, however, I’m not going to get into that. But basically Audi own Ducati.
So, what have they done?
Well, they have increased global sales. In 2010 Ducati sold 36,000 Bikes around the world, by 2019 that was 53,000 and they have created phenomenal motorcycles in the form of the recent Panigale and Multistrada V4’s.
So far, so good, better profitability for an Iconic brand and some fantastic bikes…. so what’s my problem?
The bikes produced today are superb…. but they are not special.
Aprilia have been using V4’s for years, whilst it has slight differences in engine characteristics, its a four cylinder motorcycle, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki use four’s.
The lack of a trellis frame means they are no different, certainly appearance wise, to Japanese bikes either. Take a look at the 2021 Ducati Monster next to a Yamaha MT-10, they’re Identical.
They don’t have dry clutches, look them or hate them, they are destinctive.
Now, the Icing on the cake, new Multistrada V4s, uses valves springs over the Desmo system. So now it is literally just a normal run of the mill four cylinder engine.
Take a look at reviews for many modern Ducati’s, words like ‘passion’ ‘flair’ ‘character’, words used to describe older Dukes, have been replaced by descriptions such as ‘usable’ ‘easy to ride’. Give me strength.
Both my Ducati’s are a pain to ride in town, both stumbling and bumbling as they drop below 2,500 revs. 10mph is a nightmare. Ergonomically, the 749 is comical for the road (you get used to it – honestly). They take a lot of effort to ride at times (ok the 749 take a lot of effort and concentration ALL of the time) but oh the noise, that distinctive L-twin rumble, the ‘brapping’ noise as the revs increase, the precision and most of all that ‘Je ne sais quoi’ feeling from riding them.
I’m never bored on my Ducati’s … never looking forward to getting off. Can the same be said for todays models? I don’t know.
The point is this, Ducati’s are supposed to be special, unique. They are supposed to look and feel different, they are supposed to be a ‘pain in the ass’. They are supposed to have crazy clutches and (some may argue) pointless valve closing systems.
In 2021, a company in Bologna produces some of the best Motorcycles in the world… it’s just they should have an Audi badge not a Ducati one.
Big V Motorcycles 