Cafe racers have been making a big comeback in the past decade, although people have been replacing the term cafe racer with streetfighter. Either way, they’re the same thing: a powerful bike that has has it’s fairings removed and been generally stripped down and modified for speed.

For a while, one of most commonly modified streetfighter style bikes was the Ducati Monster, but it’s been losing it’s popularity lately. In an attempt to win back that market niche, Ducati came up with a new model called, appropriately, the Streetfighter.
Check out the pictures and specs:

The new Streetfighter was just unveiled on November 3rd at the EICMA 2008 Milan Bike Show. It’s basically a liquid-cooled, naked version of Ducati’s 1098 Superbike mixed with the look and feel of the Monster lineup. It has the same 155 horsepower 1099cc V-Twin engine as the suberbikes and the same beefy thickness as the Monster.

There’s also the performance tuned S version of the Streetfighter, featuring Ohlins components, 5-spoke forged Y-shape Marchesini wheels, and the Ducati Traction Control and Data Analysis system (with USB connector right on the bike), plus some other carbon-fiber bits and pieces.

Ducati has been really been upping the game lately, and they have to. With so much quality competition coming from Suzuki and Honda and just about every direction, Ducati has to fight to keep it’s place at the upper end of the bike spectrum. The Streetfighter lacks the classy retro look of the SportClassics and the sharpness of the Superbike line, but it has the musclebound appeal that fans of the Monster will appreciate. It hits that niche perfectly, it looks like they’ll keep the title for now.

(Some pics from Motorbiker.org)