Sport Classics...

They leave me cold.   Surprising, eh?  I mean I’m a card-carrying bevelhead and it’s obvious from my personal rides that I tend to live in the past, but Ducati's Sport Classic collection just doesn’t light my fire.  Part of the problem with the new designs is that they lack the lean and lanky silhouette of the original bevels.   Granted, the aftermarket is going to allow the new breed of Ducatisi to produce some cool looking variants, but there’s just too much bulk to the tank, seat and (honey, don’t let me commence!) the fairing.  I favour the Sport; and with a set of nasty pipes and a tail chop, it’ll likely suit my tastes the best.

But there’s another variant that caught my eye recently and that’s the tasty looking MotoCafé F1  design that Mark Savory’s building out of his MotoCreations studio and workshop.  Mark’s gained a reputation in the Ducati community for his DesmoDevil Monster-based cruiser (that I absolutely adore) and has been busy working up new designs and building his business.  I had the opportunity to view the MotoCafe design prior to its release and other than whining about the tail section (he will offer a more traditional version for us ‘purists’) and a lack of black engine paint, I think he’s right on the money.

To quote from Mark’s site “The "MotoCafe" series motorcycle is my tribute to Ducati’s past. It’s always been my opinion that the low production 1980s era 750 F1 series of racing replicas was the last true descendent of the magnificent Ducati TT2 racing motorcycles. I took this belief and started asking the question, “What would Massimo Tamburini, the great Italian designer who created the 916 series Superbike, have done if he’d been allowed to evolve the 750 F1 further, possibly incorporating a bit of the parts and design that he created for the 916 series itself?” Unfortunately this never happened. Instead, Ducati went on to mass produce the 750 Sport and Super Sport series of bikes, which have never sparked my emotions in the same way.”

I think his design more accurately captures the spirit of the F1 than the Sport Classics do the bevel.  But hey, I’m an old guy and a pretty biased one at that..

Comments

[Robert]

Ok, so I like the new Sport 1000, and I got to see the Paul Smart, which looks like a B-52 bomber. The B-52 is better looking in person. I read everyone posting that too. That aside, I can't help but feeling "is that the best Ducati could come up with..."?

The MotoCreations has a sort of almost raw apeal if that makes sense. A lot of slick lines that keep you interested in that bike.