Cafe racers, custom motorcycles and classic motorcycles

We’ll see about all this bs hoopla when it hits the showrooms and how many are sold……. and to what type. Posers and wannabee’s.

Ducks are high end sports cars……. no SUV’s please.

The bike is brilliant. To the self-proclaimed “Ducatista”, give it a chance. I know that anything new scares most of us, and there are many Ducati snobs that don’t like it because they don’t want the average Joe, or (shudder) a HD fan to buy one. They feel it will dilute the brand and if Ducati’s become more common, they won’t be as special.

I think it looks like an amazing bike. It will rip a 600cc supersport on the straights, run circles around the VMax or any cruiser in the twisties, and it will look and sound Italian and be comfortable while doing it. What’s not to like? I have had 2 Monsters, a Hypermotard, a 999s, an 848, a Streetfighter, and I think this would make a fine addition to their product line.

It should not be seen so much as change, so much as expansion. All the race bikes that we love will continue to be made, this Diavel changes nothing in that regard. In fact, if it is a sales hit, it would provide additional revenue to help develop the sport bikes that we crave. I don’t see this as a bad thing, but then again, I may be more open-minded than many of the Ducati fans I have met.

In about 5 years I may buy a used one:…
and remove most of the plastics, add a decent aftermarket exhaust and a regular 5.5″ Duc back wheel

I can’t wait to see (and test ride) one of these at my local dealer. I currently own an 1198S and a BMW K1200S. The 1198 is very fast but not too comfortable, The BMW is reasonably fast and fairly comfortable. This might be a potential replacement for the BMW, It has better power to weight, and is lighter. If it is more comfortable and performs better than the BMW, there could be two Ducati’s im my garage.

Absolutely a V-Max refined and redressed in Italy’s best. It’s a hairdresser’s bike- it’s a mannequin bike which will be strategically parked to direct attention to the owner or the owners business. For lack of a better description, let’s call it a static display.
Cruisers are bikes that will take 1 but preferably 2 people in considerably comfort over long distances with panniers able to be affixed at will.
This is by no means a cruiser. It’s an urban streetfighter. I will take the Triumph Rocket 3 over this or the V rod anyday. BUT if I was the sort of bloke having a mid life crisis and the cruiser market didn’t quite appeal to me I would select this as a pimped up pedigree over the VMax. The Vmax has street cred but it lacks the “Status” label which Ducati will now confer.
Mid life Crisis man has a new toy. It’s the Metrosexual Bike. You will only ever see them on weekend breakfast runs (if you should be so lucky) and the rest of the time they will be static displayed as Phallic monuments to the mid life Metrosexual.

I think is going to be a very important bike for Ducati (think Cayane for Porsche), but its also a failed change to make the sexiest bike of the decade, due to the horrid front!! Mind you, they were on the right direction, there’s some images of the prototype, and it looked much better:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xJRQ2fueXbY/TLaJ37zY8XI/AAAAAAAAENk/AvAVrXRI7YU/s400/ducati-diavel-prototype-1.jpg

I think a lot of people are forgetting one of the most fun aspects of motocycling here – aftermarket upgrades! IF you like the bike overall, but there is some aspect of the bike you don’t. Just change it to the way you do like it. I’m sure there are hundreds of companies out there right now designing what they consider to be design flaws and will happily sell you a new headlight, exhaust, or whatever.

What i hear is alot of ‘purists” trying to define what a motorcycle buyer “should” buy, even more important is the idea that Ducati owes anyone anything. Most Ducati buyers are exactly what one of th e posters above expressed, they want to be exclusive. If they wanted a japanese bike or a harley they would have bought one. Many probably do, but in the realm of the same people who knocked porsche or any of the others. This bikes fills a “niche” that people who buy those bikes, are looking for. Ducati now offers a complete realm of bikes for the age ranges, from the light monsters to superbikes. The people who can drop 15-18K on a bike to tool around on wont be riding the top sport bike, and most likely want something a bit more comfortable than the streetfighter and something more definative than the Monster. more importantly, they want something that defines them differently than everyone else. I think the bike lookss fantastic for exactly the market segment its approaching. its all in name recognition. I agree with the above posting, people associated Duacti these days with superbikes from the great 916. But its majority sales come from the “other” market. What i see in this bike may not be unique to Ducati actually, but pieces that are the reason people have purchased other bikes, like the Vmax, HD VRSC, and others, the headlight, exhaust profile for example. Ultimately if your basing everything on a “look” and not the quality of the product produced then you do any product an injustice. If the same engineering is in this bike as all other Ducati’s, then as an owner or follower, for me, its another Ducati that makes itself special just like every other Ducati in other markets. Its always the same reason you bought an 1198 and not a Suzuki or a Monster instead of something else, its because you can.