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Ducati GT1000 – A Little Bit of History Repeating (Onewheeldrive.net)
Model(s) covered: 2007 Ducati GT1000
Back in 1971 Shirley Bassey was singing “Diamonds are Forever” and Ducati had just released the GT750, a product of Fabio Taglioni’s (Dr. T’s) prediction that motorcycle displacements were on the rise. The engineer took Ducati’s existing SOHC, two-valve, single-cylinder design, bodged it to another and voila, the first Ducati 90-degree L-Twin. The GT750 inspired motorcycle history; Cook Nielson reviewed one for Cycle in 1973 and by 1975 he was racing a Ducati 750 SS (California Hot Rod) leading to Ducati’s first AMA victory in 1977 – placing the Italian mark firmly on the map. Before you start pining for “back in the day” though, you’d best meet the remake of the bike that started it all… the 2007 Ducati GT1000.
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Rehashed Ducatis: Retro with comfort (Motoring.co.za)
Model(s) covered: 2007 Ducati GT1000
Each time I encounter a member of the Ducati Sport Classic family I hear Karen Carpenter singing "Top of the World". I don't much like the Carpenters but they encapsulate the early 1970's and these are quintessential Seventies motorcycles.
Ducati designed them to replicate the minimalist racing machines that it built in its workshops in that decade.
The look consists of exposed chassis and engines married to elegantly rounded bodywork.
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Model(s) covered: 2007 Ducati GT1000
I must confess openly and directly that I do not like retro bikes. I fiercely object to pre-pubescent designers telling me, a fully paid up member of the trashed-bodied, bald, old wrinkly user group, what they think I should like.
Products of this disingenuous attitude are such truly awful motorcycles as the Kawasaki W650 and the breathtakingly ugly and nauseatingly dull Triumph Bonneville. Fat boring bikes, with styling taken straight from the "Supersize-Me Fat Club Yearbook" do not excite, or even interest, me. What these young designers forget is that we too were young once - and lusted after Manx Nortons and Gold Stars, not emasculated concrete mixers on two wheels.
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