2003 Ducat; 749/7495
_ By-BLAKE CONNER
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DUCATI
I
f there is one obvious statement
about Ducati's new Superbike line
- consisting of the 999 and the 749 it's that they are controversial.
It seems as though everyone has
suddenly become a self-proclaimed
industrial design critic. You can sit in
a room full of journalists (myself
included) or consumers and listen to
everyone babble on about how the
bike should have been styled and
what they would have done differently, blah blah blah. I've been listening
to this banter for months now, and it's
starting to get old.
To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure
what I thought about the styling
myself, after seeing the bike at the
Intermot show in Munich this fall,
although I did like it a lot better in
person than in photos. However, as
history has demonstrated time and
time again, fresh designs often work
their way into acceptance in due
22
JANUARY 8, 2003'
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