We’re not too far away from seeing the Ducati Scrambler officially, but the good folk over at Motociclismo have managed to get their hands on a photo of Bologna’s newest model, looking almost ready for production we might add.
Perhaps the clearest photos we’ve seen of the Scrambler yet (though, we did enjoy the emissions testing photos of the Scambler a few weeks ago), we can see how Ducati plans on reviving this motorcycle from the 1960’s.
The situation at Ducati was the talk of the paddock in Barcelona. With Andrea Dovizioso, Andrea Iannone, and Cal Crutchlow being linked to Suzuki. With Crutchlow having a contract for 2015, Ducati is keen to retain the services of both Dovizioso and Iannone.
Iannone is openly pushing for a seat in the factory Ducati team, and so the Bologna factory faces a series of complex contract negotiations. To check on the state of play with Ducati, we cornered Ducati Corse’s MotoGP Project Director Paolo Ciabatti.
What was meant to be just a brief chat turned into a much longer conversation, on a range of subjects. Ciabatti gave his view of the situation with Cal Crutchlow, as well as his hopes of retaining both Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone.
He discussed the rumors concerning an approach to Jorge Lorenzo, and reflected on having had Valentino Rossi in the Ducati team. He gave us an update on Ducati’s plans to provide more Open bikes for 2015. And finally, he turned his attention to the return of Michelin, and Ducati’s hopes for the new tire manufacturer.
The Ducati Scrambler seems set for a mid-summer debut, as Borgo Panigale has confirmed that the new Italian motorcycle will be shown to Ducatisti at the 2015 World Ducati Week event.
Like Ducati’s teaser event with its staff in Bologna, viewings of the Ducati Scrambler will be private and reserved (held on July 18-20th), as Ducati hopes to generate buzz around the new model, while limiting the Scrambler’s details from being revealed.
It seems that no sooner did Ducati tease us its upcoming Scrambler model, than the Italian motorcycle maker was busy sound-testing its latest machine for road homologation.
Luckily, we have some spy photos from that event, and not only do we get to see what the near-finished form of the Ducati Scrambler looks like, but we also get a glimpse into what has to be the most ridiculous looking tests we have ever seen.
Unless we missed the part where the 2015 Ducati Scrambler will operate as a submersible, in addition to its expect on/off-road capabilities, the photos attached here (two more after the jump) show the great lengths that manufacturers must go to in order to pass all the stringent government protocols for motorcycles.
Ducati has officially acknowledged its well-known Scrambler model today, after giving its employees an sneak peak over the machine at Borgo Panigale. A 2015 model year machine, the Ducati Scrambler is being pitched as a fun motorcycle that hearkens back to the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Debuting in autumn of this year, the 2015 Ducati Scrambler is tipped to use one of the company’s smaller air-cooled v-twin motors. Said to have wide handlebars and off-road inklings, Ducati describes the machine as “simple” – perhaps signaling the company’s intention for an affordable two-wheeler that will appeal to both motorcycle enthusiasts, and those outside the industry, alike.
Once we saw the unveiling of the Ducati Monster 1200 at EICMA last year, we knew it was only a matter of time before Bologna wedged its new 821cc liquid-cooled motor into a mid-size Monster machine.
That feeling was fueled further by spy photos the 821cc Monster making their way onto the internet, and now we have confirmation of the mid-sized Monster, as Borgo Panigale has officially launched its Ducati Monster 821.
Borrowing the 821cc Testastretta 11° engine (112hp and 65.9 lbs•ft) found on the newly revised Ducati Hypermotard, and its cousin the Ducati Hyperstrada, the Monster 821 continues Ducati’s trend to repurpose powerplants for multiple product families.
The Ducati Monster 821 also continues Bologna’s new trend of building its lower-spec midrange motorcycles with double-sided swingarms, to help further stratify and differentiate its models.
The Ducati 1199 Superleggera is finally here, Ducati’s exclusive 500 customers are starting to receive their bikes, and Ducatista around the world are acting like its Christmas in May. We can’t blame them; after all, the Superleggera is a rolling showcase of what the engineers at Borgo Panigale can do with a street-legal machine.
Our friends at Moto Corsa were lucky enough to get three fine specimens in the first wave of deliveries — the Portland, Oregon shop will receive nine Superleggeras in total — a pretty sizable sum when you consider that less than 200 will make their way across the pond to US soil.
Naturally Arun and his cohorts took the opportunity to examine up-close what $200,000 worth of carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum looks like. Even better, they documented the experience, for our viewing pleasure of course.
The latest and greatest from Bologna might be the Ducati 1199 Superleggera, but our heartstrings still find themselves tugged hardest by the Ducati Desmosedici RR.
Based off Ducati’s MotoGP racing machine, there is just a certain street-worthy craziness that comes from the Desmosedici RR, which the production-based Superleggera lacks. They’re both fine machines, to be certain, but that’s just where we find ourselves in the hyperbike category.
Taking that crazy to a whole new level is this “Black Polygon” Desmosedici RR by Death Spray Custom. A simple, yet effective departure from the Rosso Corsa found on the original D16, the desaturated and angular work by DSC is a stark contrast to what came out of Borgo Panigale.
As summer is upon us, avid motorcycle fans all across the country are gearing up for some of the hottest events of the season, the Isle of Man TT, World Superbikes, and Speed Week are some of the first that come to mind.
With so many high profile events taking place during the summer season it is often easy to overlook great opportunities that may be going on right in your own backyard, such as the Quail Lodge Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel, California.
After pulling into the Quail Lodge Golf Club, there was a distinct tone of class in the air, although that may have been due to the machinery that littered the parking greens, a Jaguar E-Type, Ferrari 355 Spyder, and Porsche 911 GT2 just to name a few.
Upon entrance to the show, it was apparent that this was not just another motorcycle show, and that I was in for a treat as one of the first motorcycles to greet me was an early Simplex Servi-Cycle.
Presented by Tudor, the show is in its sixth consecutive year, and truly does not disappoint with something for everyone, ranging from some of the rarest, most elusive bikes ever made like the 1950 Rumi Turismo to entries that were on the forefront of cutting edge technology such as the Lightning Motorcycles LS-218.
With so many amazing motorcycles and such a rich two-wheeled history all in one place, it was a bit overwhelming trying to figure which gems deserved more photographic attention than others, but there were a handful that really stood out.
If you were one of the early birds to put a deposit down on the Ducati 1199 Superleggera, chances are that your $60,000 worth of titanium and magnesium, dripping in carbon fiber we might add, is sitting at your local Ducati dealer right this very second. We don’t know how you’re maintaining your composure under these circumstances…just breathe.
And soon, we all will be reading all about the Superleggera’s stellar attributes, as the chosen few of motorcycling’s journalistic ranks are headed to Mugello to put Claudio Domenicali’s homage to engineering through its paces. That’s not in our cards just yet, so we will have to keep ourselves warm at night with some cold hard numbers. Dyno graph numbers.
The good folks at RSRacecraft have stuck a Ducati 1199 Superleggera on the shop’s Dynojet 250i chassis dyno, breaking in a Moto Corsa customer’s machine at their request, and the impressive results are above.
On April 2nd, Ducati North America announced they would be recalling 2,083 of their 1199 Panigale and Panigale S models due to a malfunctioning handlebar switch. The recall affects 1,515 motorcycles manufactured in 2012 and an additional 568 manufactured in 2013.
According to Ducati, “the left handlebar switch may not get power from its connection at the dashboard, preventing the horn, headlight high beam, instrument panel display and right turn signals from functioning.”