Comments on: New Ducati GT 1000 Touring Model: What’s So Great About Ducati?

By: Kim Ludbrook

Kim Ludbrook — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 11:20:20 +0000

I have had the pleasure of owning 5 Ducati’s and have ridden them every day for ten years here is South Africa and have only had minor tech issues none worse than blown fuses. As for the expense of riding Ducati this is not true because every Ducati made after 2009 comes with FREE servicing for a major period with the 1200 Multistrada being every 15 000 miles! Also there electronics are unbreakable now and this is because Ducati hired a GERMAN who was originally from Audi and had a stint at Lamborghini (turning there service and reliablitly around) and he has made huge changes to Ducati’s in respect of their running costs. Recent poll done in the UK rated Ducait among Japanese bikes on running costs and reliablility.

By: jpooch00

jpooch00 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:58:26 +0000

The lack of dealer networks, available spare parts and manufacturer support, combined with expensive and frequent service intervals will always be the reason why Ducs will never be serious touring bikes.

Beautiful and mechanically complex – absolutely. Reliable and durable hard core tourers – never.

These bikes seem to be primarily built for and bought by aspiring speed freaks and folks who crave a lot of attention and admiration based on what they ride.

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:20:45 +0000

i do like the ‘look’ of the sport 1000s BUT
retro… not a worse word in design.
retro simply indicates a lack of direction, thus a pillage of the past. its easier to copy the past than come up something new.

most of chrysler’s look is retro. nothing worse than it.
the revolting pt cruiser and the prowler which is the ‘gayest’ car out there. and i dont mean good gay but bad gay. desperately overworking a hyper-macho image. all ferraris remind me of magnum pi. bushy moustache hiding the sensitive gay inside.

the hypermotard on the other hand. a stand-up contemporary bike. companies especially engineering nerds tend to get carried away with the technological and thus throw in too much techie crap. and the general public gets sick of all the techno and harkens back to a simpler time. (single-speed track bikes being a prime example).

By: nutty

nutty — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:31:37 +0000

ducatis are nothing like porsches.
my 696 doesn’t equate to german engineering at all.

don’t you mean ferrari?

it’s weird, now the 1098 has been out for a while, the 999 looks cool again.

By: Doug J.

Doug J. — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 23:30:17 +0000

Ducatis are like Porsches, refined, to be more than the sum of the parts because they aren’t just slapped together but engineered to feel the parts together. I’ve had English, Japanese, American and now own a 2002 900 Monster in red and a black 999. Bought the 999 because I liked the 900 so much and won’t be getting rid of either for a long time.
Would not take a 1000 mile tour on either but would tour on the new 1000 GT touring! I must confess I do have a 2002 Indian Chief that doesn’t have the performance of almost anything, but it’s my long distance bike. Anyway Ducati also have enough customizing or carbon parts to make then personal like Triumphs were in the 60-70s. The blues were nice except for the white wheels, should have been graphite. most Ducatis need one more color in each model line-up and not the Fly Yellow the Italians usually go for as their standard back-up color. Try blue, green, purple???

By: Noah Leuschner

Noah Leuschner — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:14:05 +0000

To answer your question about blue Ducatis – When the S4R Monster first came out (I think in 2002 or 2003), it was only available in blue frame and bodywork, with White wheels and a white stripe. It was more of a navy blue, though, but there is at least one I know of that came in blue from the factory. Additionally, the Sportclassic 1000s was originally only available as the “Paul Smart” which was a light blue frame with Silver fairings (I believe that was in 2004 or 2005).

By: Terry Parkhurst

Terry Parkhurst — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:56:33 +0000

Correction: meant to write in the last “graf” (old newspaper slang for paragraph) of last post: How many blue Ferraris have you ever seen? Makes me wonder how many blue Ducatis there have ever been, from the factory.

By: Terry Parkhurst

Terry Parkhurst — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:53:25 +0000

It’s about desmodromic valve actuation. All real “Dukes,” as a pal of mine who regularly writes about motorcycles calls Ducatis, has such a setup.

A desmodromic system uses an extra, inverted cam lobe and a closing rocker arm; thus are valve springs eliminated. The result is an extremely rigid connection between the top of the engine and the bottom end.

Of course, the sound of the engine is pretty soothing to the ears of those of us who value internal combustion for something other than just getting from point A to point B. The sound is different from that of another legendary motorycycle, the Harley-Davidson, a bit more muffled yet with a deep baritone.

Personally, I like blue motorcycles, just because they’re different, especially if they’re Italian made. How many blue Ferraris are you ever seen. (I’ve seen just two, myself.) So if I ever owned GT 1000, the idea of getting it repainted in metallic blue, while not factory correct, sounds good to me.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:28:01 +0000

Totally feeling the black vibe over here.