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AMG Sponsoring Ducati MotoGP Team

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Announced last night at the L.A. Auto Show, Ducati and AMG (Mercedes-Benz’s tuning house) have formed a partnership between the two brands the will first manifest itself by having the German car tuner sponsoring the Italian company’s MotoGP team. Rumored for over a month now, this announcement finally puts to bed the speculation that Fiat would sponsor Ducati now that Valentino Rossi has joined the Rosso Corse team, and is also the first official sponsorship announcement for Ducati Corse’s 2011 season.

With Rossi healing his wounds back in Italy, Nicky Hayden was on hand for the event with a Ducati Diavel and Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG on stage with him. Asked what he thought about the partnership, Hayden replied, “Well, if this is my company bike and this is my company car, I’d say I’m doing pretty well.” We’d tend to agree.

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Larry Pegram Says Ciao to Ducati

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Larry Pegram announced today that he will not be riding a Ducati in the AMA American Superbike series. Pegram initially put together the Team Foremost Insurance / Pegram Racing team in 2006 with the help of Ducati North America, and campaigned the Ducati 1198R Superbike last season to a fourth place Championship position. Pegram is expected to announce what bike he will campaign next week, with the idle gossip in the AMA paddock suggesting either a Suzuki or Kawasaki.

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Valentino Rossi Goes in for Surgery

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While Dani Pedrosa has been spared the surgeon’s knife for his broken collarbone, Valentino Rossi underwent his surgery this weekend for his injured shoulder, which will see the new Ducati rider out of action for 90 days. Rossi’s shoulder, which was a bigger factor in the 2010 season than the rider’s broken leg that saw him miss four races, was injured in April during a motocross cross-training accident, and plagued the Italian throughout the latter half of the 2010 season.

Surgeons at the Cervesi di Cattolica hospital preformed an arthroscopic procedure on Rossi’s supraspinatus tendon and glenoid ligament, encountering no complications in the procedure. Recovery times for this type of surgery typically last 12 weeks, which should mean that Rossi will be fit enough to test early next year at MotoGP’s second testing session.

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Rossi’s First Date with the Ducati – As Seen By Gigi Soldano

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Valentino Rossi’s personal photographer Gigi Soldano was on hand for Rossi’s debut on the Ducati Desmosedici this week during the MotoGP test at Valencia. Granted unfettered access to what goes on behind-the-scenes in the Ducati garage, Soldano combined his magic behind the lens with the events that unfolded in front of him, and lucky for us, he shared them with the world on his blog today.

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First Shots of Valentino Rossi on the Ducati

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Clad in only carbon fiber bodywork, Valentino Rossi made the mental switch from blue to red today, as he swung his leg over the Ducati Desmosedici for the first time — a moment Italy, and the whole of MotoGP have been waiting for the entire 2010 MotoGP season.

As such Rossi and his crew from Yamaha will not be wearing the Rosso Corsa just yet (the former Yamaha crew has instead elected to wear some very smart looking yellow sweaters), but Rossi’s yellow “46” did make it onto the bike for the testing session, which is about all the branding that Ducati & Rossi fans need to see at this point to get in a fervor.

Promoting his VR46 line, Rossi is wearing special one-off Dainese D-Air leathers, which like the D16, is all black with yellow accents, while his AGV helmet has a question mark set between the Italian’s sun & moon logo. We wouldn’t be surprised if a replica version of these became available later this year. Video, lap times, and photos after the jump.

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Bikes

Radical Ducati Café Veloce

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Seeing how popular the work of Radical Ducati has been on our site, both with the Radical Ducati 9½ and Radical Ducati RAD02 Imola, we thought we’d bring you another one of the Spanish group’s fabulous creations: The Radical Ducati Café Veloce. Based off a Ducati Sport Classic, the Café Veloce features the same DS 1000 air-cooled two-valve motor, and steel tube frame as the now discontinued Ducati, but grows upon the Sport Classic’s cafe inspired lines.

Tastefully refining the Café Veloce into a sleeker and more dynamic package, Radical Ducati has created the Café Veloce to be devoid of Ducati’s more bland touches to the GT1000. In case you haven’t noticed yet, we’re smitten with the Café Veloce, even if it’s not usually the kind of thing we’d go for in our own garage. Photos after the jump.

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Nicky Hayden’s Ducati Diavel Concept

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Are you one of the loyal Ducatisti who is not so crazy about the new Ducati Diavel? Don’t worry, because Nicky Hayden feels your pain, and went as far as to create his own concept bike for Ducati’s newly released performance cruiser. Based off the 800cc V4 motor of the Ducati Desmosedici GP10, Hayden’s low-riding two-wheeled vision uses an all carbon frame, Öhlins suspension, and Brembo monoblocs.

It also comes fitted stock with Bridgestone’s top-of-the-line performance tires, and has numerous carbon fiber bits and pieces, not to mention traction control, launch control, wheelie control, but no ABS. Available only in Rosso Corsa for now, we hear a one-off limited edition white paint scheme may also be available later next year. No word on price, but the above model comes slightly used.

Source: Alex Hofmann (Twitter) via Ducati News Today

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Randy de Puniet Signs on with Pramac Ducati for 2011

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A&R Patron Saint, Randy de Puniet confirmed this weekend at Valencia that he has signed with the Pramac Ducati team for the 2011 season. Making his announcement at the conclusion of Saturday’s qualifying session, de Puniet is the second-to-last unconfirmed rider for next season, as now everyone waits to hear Gresini Honda’s confirmation of Hiroshi Aoyama to its quasi-satellite team.

The Gresini squad is likely waiting for the Repsol Honda team to confirm how it will handle having three marquis riders under one tent, as HRC has signed Dani Pedorsa, Casey Stoner, and Andrea Dovizioso. At one point there was talk of having Dovi take a seat in Gresini, with the promise of factory support from HRC.

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First Video of the Ducati Diavel

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Want to see how the Ducati Diavel‘s 240mm wide rear-wheel handles the tarmac? The Bologna company has a video for that. With it we get a better idea of what the Diavel will look like in motion, along with a glimpse at the bike’s other features (keep an eye out for the secondary dash).

While there is parts of the bike that we are still coming to terms with, there is certainly aspects of the Diavel that come across as pure genius, one of which has to be the signal integration into the bodywork.

After looking at the Diavel, every other bike on the planet looks out of date with its black plastic Christmas tree hanging off the tail section, and boring orange marker lights up front. You’ll know the scene we’re talking about when you see it, after the jump.

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Bikes

2011 Ducati Monster 1100 EVO

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Ducati has updated the Monster 1100, giving it the EVO treatment, which brings with it +5hp on top (for a total of 100hp), while keep torque at 76 lbs•ft. The 2011 Ducati Monster 1100 EVO also benefits from Ducati’s electronics package, which now includes standard ABS, Ducati Traction Control (DTC), and Ducati Data Acquisition (DDA) as standard OEM equipment.

Fitted with a two-canister side exhaust (you can debate if this is being channeled from the Diavel or the Streetfighter), the Monster 1100 EVO tips the scales at 373lbs, 4lbs less than the 2010 Monster 1100 ABS. In addition to these goodies, Ducati has also revised the sitting position by adding a new seat and a 20mm higher bar-riser, there’s some nice rally stripes thrown into the mix.

Diehard Ducati fans will be sad to hear the Monster 1100 EVO is fitted with the APTC wet clutch, making for smoother transmission work, but perhaps less Italian soul (this means the entire Monster line will now have wet clutches). Photos after the jump.

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Bikes

2011 Ducati Diavel Breaks Cover at EICMA

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The 2011 Ducati Diavel has leaked ahead of its debut in a few hours at EICMA, showing us the final lines of Ducati’s performance cruiser. Performance is the key word here with the Ducati Diavel boasting features like: 162hp Testastretta 11º engine, 94 lbs•ft of torque, 456lbs (carbon) / 463lbs (base), radial brakes, ABS, traction control, ride-by-wire, and three riding modes. Other features include keyless ignition (as found on the Multistrada 1200), a split dash (as we revealed earlier), fold-up passenger pegs, and a carbon version of the Diavel (aptly named the Diavel Carbon) which sheds 7lbs of weight over the base model by adding carbon fiber body panels and forged Marchesini rims.

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