FEATURE
DUCATI MUSEUM TOUR
P86
of the bikes but there
was nothing else to stop
me. I could eyeball ev-
ery angle and each part
as closely as I liked.
Ducati's website fea-
tures a virtual tour of the
museum, which gives
you a complete and
quite detailed "walk"
through. But if you're in
Italy you have to see the
real thing. There's no
substitute.
It's small but full, and
as much an art gallery
as it is a museum. CN
Ducati broke with
convention when it
launched the very
rare, very expensive
Desmosedici RR. Here
was a road-going sport
bike that was as close as
you could possibly get
to being a fully-fledged
MotoGP bike, complete
with the angriest 990cc
V4 around. I was in Italy
soon after its release,
walking along a main
road in coastal Rimini,
when an ear-splitting
howl drowned the din of
Italian traffic. I wheeled
around in time to see a
Desmosedici RR holding
its front wheel 18 inches
in the air as it flew
through the chaos. It
flashed past and raced
into the distance. All of
Rimini applauded. At that
moment I understood
Italians a little better.
Road races, grand prix, tourist trophies, championships, bikes of the
year, people's choice… Ducati is not alone among manufacturers in being
driven to win, and the museum's display of a small portion of the trophies
earned by the marque is a good reminder of the company's winning
history. Victory in the Italian Motogiro in the 1950s is as cherished as
winning the MotoGP championship in the modern day.
