The Ducati marque is to the motorcycling world what the Ferrari badge is to cars; Italian exotica famed for their performance, styling and distinctive red colour schemes.
The Ducati model history is littered with bikes that represented the pinnacle of performance and styling at their time of manufacture. In recent years, following a restructure of the Ducati business, the range has broadened and become more affordable and accessible to the average rider. The Monster, launched some 10 years ago now and still going strong, is firmly at this end of the scale available in a wide range of engine sizes. Ducati have also capitalised on their versatile engine to produce a range of Sports Tourers in the ST2, ST3 and currently ST4. But fortunately the Italian manufacturer hasn't lost sight of where they came from and what is expected of them. Which is why they continue to produce models like the 916, and its later incarnations, that continues to turn heads at sets of lights the world over.
In contrast to the Japanese manufacturers, Ducati succeed in producing extremely capable bikes from relatively old technology. They continue to persist with a trellis frame with several of their models and who can blame them when the resultant package handles so well. The 90 degree twin engines have also become associated with the Ducati badge, with their distinctive exhaust growl and grumpy pinking at low revs.
Termignoni are the sports exhaust manufacturer most commonly associated with Ducati bikes, in fact they are fitted as standard to some of their factory specials, but several other manufacturers make cans also worth a look, in several cases offering the same performance increases at less cost. Take a look at the model detail pages linked on the left for further information and best buys as recommended by fellow riders.
