Looks like pics will have to come because in another thread I am, apparently, not worthy of trust. Some take the rip out of me because I post pics of me on my bikes others complain if I don't offer proof of affirmations. Go figure...
Fun reading this one,but you have to say foggy the man saved the company based on his track days out!
I would say now after 10 pages, the 916 raised Ducati onto the world consumer stage, the monster financially saved Ducati and the current multi is what is keeping them ticking over till they feck up again.
What a great question Tommaso asks. As some one elderly, but who's been into bikes for almost sixty years but new to Ducati ownership I don't think this question can be answered. As a company and considering their products over the years they have changed almost every decade or recently even more often than that. Perhaps look at what has endured since they made their first powered two wheeled vehicle and you come up with 'very little'. So I think it depends what you can pick from each era of the company. As a young lad it would probably be the Elite and then the Mach 1, followed by Hailwoods TT winning bike. Then as time moves on the 851, then the Panagale a stunning piece of automotive design. If I had to pick one bike to show some one it would depend on who was asking, I would either show one of the two pictures below.
In these cold winter months I cherish the thought of owning one of the most hated, down talked, ignored and low valued Ducati's in recent history, the 900SSie.......ahhh, the Terblanche curse, the torque may not be strong with this one, but I know its day will come, I know.....
I think that you make a very good point when you argue that Ducati meant and represented different quintessential values and attributes across its lifespan and, therefore, to different people. But I think that these values and attributes build up, accumulate, become stratified and, eventually, create what is today's quintessential expression of the brand. The product of each additional element contributes, with varying degrees of influence, to creates a new and independent sum of all values, and therefore image, of the company that is not necessarilyt the latest Panigale model but, as was voted here, the 916/998 series. However, you make an excellent point. In fact the challenge that you present is the key hurdle that designers must negotiate when they develop new ideas to pursue marketing strategies.
Can we add colour to this discussion? And BLACK isn't a colour... it's the absence of reflected light, so that ones not allowed.
