Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128090
ucati MH900e By ALAN CATHCART PHOTOS BY PAUL BARSH ON Qorgeous or ghastly? Great lookWing or God-awful? You certainly can't remain indifferent to Ducati design chief Pierre Terblanche's MH900e showbike, a motorcycle you either loved or loathed the first time you laid eyes on it, and which polarized two-wheeled opinion to an extent few motorcycles have ever done before its public debut at Intermot '98 in Munich. Terblanche's creation thus amply fulfilled its presumed purpose, in blazing a successful promotional path by getting people talking about it, thus creating enhanced prestige for, as well as directing attention to, the Ducati brand as a whole. By showbike standards, this was mission accomplished. Yes, but this is just showbiz, thought admirers around the world surely we won't be able to buy one. Well, perhaps not in the form it was first displayed, but by the time the Bologna Show rolled around in December of '99, Ducati had been so overwhelmed by the response to the MH900e that what had originally been intended to be a one-off, 'what-if' show-stopping special, had now progressed to limited-edition, individually-numbered, hand-built production status, as the first motorcycle to be sold exclusively over the Internet. 26 FEBRUARY 7,2001 • cue I Each of the 2000 bikes which will represent the sum total of the model's production run were sold at the same Euro 15,000 price irrespective of the country it ended up in, and were all accounted for by buyers around the world within hours of the dedicated MH900e website opening for business at 00.01 hours on New Years Day 2000, with 38 percent of sales coming from Japan, about 30 percent each from Europe and North America, and the balance from Australasia. Sold out in nano-seconds (well, 12 hours, actually), the MH900e has achieved unobtainium status, leaving a horde of unsatisfied wannabe buyers in its wake. Production of the MH900e was originally scheduled to be subcontracted to Bimota, and to begin last summer - but the well-publicized collapse of the small Italian company meant that Ducati did, after all, end up having to find space in-house at its Bologna factory for the hand-built manufacture of a bike that by definition could not be assembled on its regular production lines. This meant that construction of the 2000 bikes could not be started until December, one year after its launch but production is now in full flow, with a team of workers assembling the bikes in batches of 50 for delivery to customers. Five bikes are currently being built each day, a figure which n e _ s e (Above) Naked or semi-naked, the Ducatl MH900e is a looker. Well, if you like that kind of look. It's a motorcycle that you'll either love or loathe. (Right) On the road, the bike works well - better than expected, reports the author. it's hoped will be stepped up to 10 daily quite shortly, so allowing all 2000 bikes to be completed by midsummer. So, if you spent New Years Day 2000 logging on to place your MH900e order, expect to be blasting down memory lane sometime in the next six months. Or will you? Is this yesterday once more, or a modern bike in fancy dress, pretending to be something it isn't? Well, in terms of its marketing as well as its design, the new MH900e - for 'evoluzione' - is a design which looks at the history of biking from both sides now, manufactured using today's engineering technology, sold with tomorrow's marketing techniques, and encompassing the styling of the future replete with design refer-