It’s not the newest, fastest or smartest of bikes, but there’s something about the 25-year-old Ducati 916 that really gets our juices going.
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Hitting the market in 1994, it’s proven itself to be better ageing than Dorian Grey and even more desirable. So what makes this tubular framed, v-twin the lustered lovely that it is?
On paper, its credentials aren’t all that impressive, and with a quarter century’s worth of horror tales to tout around, covering everything from engine blow-ups to electronics so unreliable they make politicians seem dependable, the Ducati’s reliability hasn’t exactly done it many favours either. But madly enough, folk like you and I are happily paying ever-inflating lumps of money to own one.
How come? Surely it’s a looks thing, right? There are only so many times I can write the word ‘iconic’ in this piece without getting lynched, but the 916 epitomises that word, effortlessly encompassing Italian beauty with what was, in it’s day, a beast of a motor.
You can read the rest of this article in the November issue of Fast Bikes, in the shops NOW!