It's a good looking bike. Though I do agree that the matte/pearl/bright white paint fad is fading on me. I like it when it contrasts with red, but otherwise, I'm not a fan.
This bike is going to cause Ducati some serious headaches.
The RSV4 is a serious motorcycle. Considering that you could buy somewhere around 4.5 of em for what you can get one V4 Ducati for, it's a hell of a good deal.
I'm guessing Ducati could sell a more pedestrian "street" variant of it's Desmosedici for much less than $72,000 after having made so many now.
Look at the 1198S as compared to the 1098R's that peeps paid $43,000 for.
The Aprilia looks like one hell of a good bike to me.
LA
A lot of the price difference comes in shaving off the 30+ pounds between the D16RR and the RSV along with the insanely expensive suspension on the D16RR.
Ducati have always maintained that for a street based sport bike the L-twin makes more sense as it has better power characteristics for the street rider and a V4 was only better for on-track performance. Given their adherence to heritage I don't expect them to mass produce any sportbike with more than 2 cylinders.