New Ducati

[Six95]

Imagine if they made this scooter with a dry clutch.
There would be alot of tambourine action filtering on the spit bridge every morning

[Betty]

Who would possibly want to by a performance scooter.

If you like scooters, or they appeal to you for some reason ... you get a scooter. But (generally speaking) if you have ridden a scooter the idea of 'performance' becomes very important.

Just remember it is all relative ... a non-performance scooter may be unbearable, a 'performance' scooter could be liveable ... neither will blow the fairing of an 1198.

I just happen to know someone who has a big carby and tuned exhaust on a scooter (which some would deem to be 'performance' modifications) and it is much more rideable (read 'fun') in its 'performance' mode 

As for whether they will make it: I think Cairns Man is correct. It is just too different to everything else coming out of the factory ... so not likely to be a viable option.

[CairnsDuc]

I remember reading about it in one of the Magazines (AMCN, I think) and one of the big brains of Ducati said that a Scooter almost made the list and was then pulled because the numbers could not be made to add up.

Mind you, this is from a company that last year was denying a 1098 Naked bike was even being considered, and then the Big Giant Head in charge at Ducati asks the fan base via his blog, do they think it would be a good Idea? Should we be considering a Naked 1098 style/type of bike?
If enough of you respond we may look at doing something with the 1098.

Next thing out pops the Street Fighter (Allowing a design and evaluation of about 2 years) it was a good smoke screen to throw everyone off.

Need I remind you how many times has photo's of finished bikes or near finished bikes appeared only weeks or a month priors to release (Monster 1100 being a recent example)
It's a brilliant way to get some promotion out there for the new Model, and let the die hard fans take a closer look and get reactions, then if anything is picked on by the Fans, they have a small window of time to correct/cover or change the offending part.