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Here is a common joke that you will often hear: “How do you make a small fortune in the motorcycle industry? Start with a large one.” Well, the next time you hear the lead-up, here is a new punchline for you: “Sell a limited edition model.”

Motorcycle manufacturers have been onto this gag for a while now, offering limited edition, numbered for collectors, pure unobtanium motorcycle models to the well-heeled masses.

There may not be that many people that can afford a motorcycle that costs as much as a modest house, but there enough of these people in the world that selling a couple hundred expensive superbikes a year is a pretty trivial feat – it helps too that many of these enthusiasts are return-customers too.

Take the case of Ducati, as our Bothan spies have provided us with some interesting information about the Borgo Panigale brand. Last year, the Italian company made more money on its special edition superbikes, than the regular models it sells.

Ducati is returning to Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for 2018, with plans to reclaim its title as King of the Mountain. To do so, Ducati has enlisted the help of former outright record-holder Carlin Dunne, as well as current middleweight record-holder Codie Vahsholtz.

In their assault to the top of Pikes Peak, Dunne and Vahsholtz will be riding modified Ducati Multistrada 1260 Pikes Peak motorcycles. Wanting to know more about these beasts, we reached out Ducati North America, to see what light they could shed on the v-twin race bikes.

They came back to us with an interesting list of changes, to make these the fastest Multistradas you have ever seen.

Andrea Dovizioso will spend another two years in the Ducati Corse squad, signing a two-year contract with the Italian team, and announcing it today in Le Mans for the French GP.

That Dovi would sign again with Ducati is unsurprising, though the news took some time to come to fruition, likely as last-year’s MotoGP Championship runner-up wanted a paycheck more in line with what he was doing for Borgo Panigale.

This disparity comes because Andrea Dovizioso was supposed to be the #2 rider in the Ducati MotoGP team, playing second fiddle to Jorge Lorenzo, however that has not been the reality.

Ducati is set to return to America’s Mountain, announcing today that it would race in the 2018 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with riders Carlin Dunne and Codie Vahsholtz.

Carlin Dunne (who is today’s big birthday boy) is a former record-holder at Pikes Peak, and was the first rider up the 156-turn course in under 10 minutes, while Codie Vahsholtz is the current middleweight record-holder at Pikes Peak.

The return to “The Race to the Clouds” will also serve as a launching point for the Ducati Multistrada 1260 Pikes Peak model, which will have to compete with an increasingly faster volley of competition.

Alpinestars is celebrating its 55th anniversary at this year’s Americas GP, and to help commemorate the event, they have commissioned the creation of a special one-off motorcycle from Michael Woolaway, the prorietor of Woolie’s Workshop and Deus ex Machina in Venice, California.

The bike is based off a Ducati 1974 Ducati 750 Sport, with an old race engine that Woolie found in a crate, wedged into a custom frame that was built by Jeff Cole.

The design is immediately recognizable as one of Woolie’s creations, with its minimalist red bodywork, retro-mod lines, and performance-oriented pieces. 

Speaking at the bike’s unveiling, Woolie described his creation as having the heart of a classic sport bike, with the benefit of modern technology and chassis dynamics.

As such, you will find Öhlins suspension front and back, Brembo braking pieces, Marchesini wheels, and a custom 2-2 Akrapovic exhaust.

Other trick bits include parts by Rizoma, as well as a thumb-brake system on the left-hand side.

If you ever happen to see the creation on the road, look closely at the rider. It’s like Alpinestars CEO Gabriele Mazzarolo.

Ducati is making an interesting announcement today, boasting that it will bring front and rear radar technology to its motorcycles by the year 2020.

Using radar technology developed with the Politecnico di Milano University, Ducati will use radar not only to detect vehicles in the motorcycle’s blind spot, but also to detect the flow of traffic ahead of the motorcycle, and use that information for an adaptive cruise control system.

Ducati plans a number of other rider alerts as well, with the fore and aft radar units, which will help riders know when there is a fast-approaching vehicle coming from the rear, when there is a risk of head-on collision in front of the motorcycle, and so forth.

The Volkswagen Group got a new CEO last week, and in less than seven days, that news has already sparked renewed rumors in the German automobile conglomerate divesting itself of Ducati Motor Holdings.

For those who have been following Ducati’s saga, there was much talk last year of Volkswagen selling off a number of its other brands, all under the reasoning that the German company would need to raise capital to cover its mounting Dieselgate liabilities.

The logic for that reasoning wasn’t sound, but the actions were certainly there, with Volkswagen tendering offers from a number of would-be suitors

There was a fly in the ointment though: Volkswagen’s labor unions, who control half of the VW Group’s board seats, and were vehemently opposed to any brand divestitures.

Because of the unions, any sale – including Ducati’s – was a non-starter for the Volkswagen executives, though that didn’t keep the warring factions from trying. By the end of last year though, it seemed we had put this issue to bed. 2018, however, is a new year.

For a long time, the name “Termignoni” was synonymous with “Ducati exhaust”, with the popular scarico-maker being a constant fixture in the Ducati Performance parts catalog.

So prevalent was the brand, that if you see a turn-of-the-century (21st century, that is) Ducati clacking down the street with its dry clutch, chances are the exhaust you are also hearing was made by Termignoni.

But that has changed in recent years, with Slovenian marque Akrapovi? supplanting Termignoni in Ducati’s good graces.

To find out why, all one had to do was examine the products themselves – where Termignoni’s pieces were poorly fabricated and over-priced, Akrapovi? was infinitely better built and often cheaper.

In the past years, Akrapovi? has done a proper job of branding as the exhaust of choice for motorcycle exhausts (note the company’s many B2B marketing deals in MotoGP and with OEMs), with Termignoni seemingly all but forgotten…until today.

When we first heard that Ducati was bringing back the Supersport line, we were excited. The original SuperSport wasn’t exactly the best selling model for the Italian brand, but Ducati created some loyal enthusiasts with the half-faired sport-touring machine.

The new Ducati Supersport does a good job of tapping into the ethos of the old model, but visually it draws too close to the Ducati 1299 Panigale Superbike, rather than the lines of yore.

Here, Oberdan Bezzi plays another one of his “what if” games, drawing an air-cooled Supersport model (based off the current Scrambler platform), complete with the more classic half-fairing design. 

I can tell you from personal experience that Casey Stoner is not one to mince words.

The two-time World Champion’s direct and sometimes confrontational approach to interpersonal conversations was at times difficult for MotoGP fans to get behind, but on the brightside, one always knew exactly were they stood in Stoner’s opinions.

Maybe that is why it is interesting to hear Stoner talking about the latest superbike from Ducati, the Panigale V4. Riding it around Valencia, the same venue where we tested the Ducati Panigale V4 S earlier this year, Stoner gives his fairly insightful thoughts on the 1,100cc machine.

The short version? The Australian was quite impressed with the new V4, though admittedly it still wasn’t up to the standards of his former MotoGP ride.

One can hardly blame Casey though, he does have a slightly different perspective than most, which is why he is one of our favorite GP riders of all time. Though, we should point out, he is technically a Ducati employee, so maybe that skews the perspective as well…

On a side note and for those keeping track, photos of this pre-launch test were “leaked” ahead of the Panigale V4’s debut at EICMA.

Looking at this video now, it seemingly confirms our suspicion that Ducati leaked the photos itself, as they are exact image captures from the video footage used here. Such is how the sausage gets made.

Have you ever lost the key to your bike? Forgotten where you parked? Can’t remember your last dank whoolie? Episode 72 is kinda of like that for us.

What should have been something like the 68th episode in our queue, comes to us today as the great Lost Episode of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast. It’s a good one too.

In it, we talk about what it’s like to ride the new Honda Gold Wing, as well as the new Ducati Panigale V4. Quentin also gets a few good kickstand jokes in there, and my asshole cat even makes an appearance.

All in all, pretty standard podcasting fodder from your favorite enthusiasts podcast.

You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.