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.
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!