What I hate about Ducati…

[Kopfjäger]

The last thing I want associated with Ducati is Harley. I find the inference offensive and degrading...

[Bill in OKC]

IMHO Racing is what makes Ducati what it is.  TPG rescued the company and they kept the brand heavily involved in racing.  NASCAR has destroyed the link between what factories race and what factories sell.  I am glad that Ducati has not modeled their plan after Chevy or Ford - so far.   I've got my fingers crossed it will stay that way now that NASCAR owns AMA.  The bottom line for me is that no amount of marketing could have talked me into buying a Ford Taurus at the dealership because they raced a NASCAR that had a Taurus sticker on it.

[Kopfjäger]

Why?   I bought my 1973 Ducati 750GT in 1986, and owned in for 13 years.  Since then, I've owned more than 10 other Ducatis, have successfully raced them in club roadracing and in national Moto-ST events.  I currently own a highly modified S4Rs and an 800SS racebike.   I also own a highly modified and totally pregnant doging Harley FLHXI Street Glide, and it is, in a completely different way than my Ducatis are, a GREAT motorcycle.

Harley sold 219,000 motorcycles in the U.S. last year and another 97,000 overseas.  Ducati sold 10,004 bikes in the U.S. in 2007; I don't know what their 2008 numbers were, but most likely they were down like everyone else's.  Maybe they could learn a thing or two from Harley!

There's nothing degrading about emulating a company that has 25 years of solid growth in sales, profitiablility, earnings, and net worth (with only the worldwide recession of 2008-2009 interrupting it) .   Heck, Ducati has dodged from one financial disaster to the next since I became an enthusiast of the company and its products in 1979; I'd love to see them embark on a 25-year journey as successful as that of Harley-Davidson since they escaped the embrace of AMF.

Motorcycles rock; buy whatever make and model gets you off, but for goodness sakes don't look down on the bikes that other people like.

You can't make well educated posts like that. You will scare all of the stuck-up Ducati owners.    (they think they are special)

[Grampa]

but....but.... I am special

[ducpainter]

I'm spacial....

[Sleeper_I]

[vfrhans]

Roberts had it right! I want the mystique and the Rrrrico... lifestyle to become ever more extreme and stay that way. How else could a retired English teacher ever get his hands on a showroom-pretty 2001 750 M with fewer than 2000 miles on the clock for under 4 (big) bills? 

[lawbreaker]

If you dont like something.....simply move on.

I like my bikes and dont like this thread so... i'm moving on

[greenohawk69]

Why?   I bought my 1973 Ducati 750GT in 1986, and owned in for 13 years.  Since then, I've owned more than 10 other Ducatis, have successfully raced them in club roadracing and in national Moto-ST events.  I currently own a highly modified S4Rs and an 800SS racebike.   I also own a highly modified and totally pregnant doging Harley FLHXI Street Glide, and it is, in a completely different way than my Ducatis are, a GREAT motorcycle.

Harley sold 219,000 motorcycles in the U.S. last year and another 97,000 overseas.  Ducati sold 10,004 bikes in the U.S. in 2007; I don't know what their 2008 numbers were, but most likely they were down like everyone else's.  Maybe they could learn a thing or two from Harley!

There's nothing degrading about emulating a company that has 25 years of solid growth in sales, profitiablility, earnings, and net worth (with only the worldwide recession of 2008-2009 interrupting it) .   Heck, Ducati has dodged from one financial disaster to the next since I became an enthusiast of the company and its products in 1979; I'd love to see them embark on a 25-year journey as successful as that of Harley-Davidson since they escaped the embrace of AMF

Motorcycles rock; buy whatever make and model gets you off, but for goodness sakes don't look down on the bikes that other people like.

Tim - great post.  Some day I'll get a geezer glide  ...until then, I'll be riding the Wide Glide. 

[flynbulldog]

Tim you're talking about the business. This is a lifestyle thread...
I want nothing to do with the harley lifestyle and find it disgusting. If that was all there was to motorcycling I'd have a different hobby
But to each his own, these guys look like they'er having a lot of fun...

[Popeye the Sailor]

Tim you're talking about the business. This is a lifestyle thread...
I want nothing to do with the harley lifestyle and find it disgusting. If that was all there was to motorcycling I'd have a different hobby

Lifestyle is what you make of it, no?

Just look at the range we have here. People who love and cherish their bikes, sit down with a beer after a ride and watch the bike cool down, then wash it.


Then there are people like myself, who had *only* the duc, and rode it everyday, rain or shine. Some people call that abuse of a duc.


Who cares what the company promotes?

[ducatiz]

I like the Harley and Ducati "lifestyle" better than the Suzuki one:

[stopintime]

Harley sold 219,000 motorcycles in the U.S. last year and another 97,000 overseas.  Ducati sold 10,004 bikes in the U.S. in 2007; I don't know what their 2008 numbers were, but most likely they were down like everyone else's.  Maybe they could learn a thing or two from Harley!

9,784 in the US in 2008. 10,793 in Italy. World wide total 42,818. Monsters 17,351. SBKs 14,645.

[Major Slow]

I like the Harley and Ducati "lifestyle" better than the Suzuki one:

I told them they couldn't use the picture of me on a suzuki.

[ducatiz]

I told them they couldn't use the picture of me on a suzuki.

why did you hang your "pride" shirt on the back of the bike?  you should havebeen wearing it...