For anyone in love with the open road, Ducati motorcycles are a perfect expression of Italian sprezzatura. Standing still, the bikes are gorgeous. “Garage jewelry” is not an insult but a term of endearment among loyal Ducatisti. The slinking, Sophia Loren-like contours of a Sport 1000 S may contrast with the razor edges of a 1098 or the troll-like squat of Il Monster. Still, every Ducati looks like it was formed, naturally, wholly, out of a single block—as if Michelangelo himself had carved it from Carrara marble. Ducati owners have been known to spend hours in mute admiration of their machines, wearing circles in garage floors as they orbit the sun of their desires.

Soul of the Machine
But their infatuation is grounded in the knowledge that Ducati engineering, Ducati performance, Ducati road-manners are unique in the world. Indeed, technical aficionados will readily affirm that Ducati’s “desmodromic” valvetrain designs represent the only current exploitation of this technology in contemporary motorcycle or automotive arenas. They will also assert that “desmo” is the very soul without which a Ducati motorcycle would simply not exist.

In simplest terms, a desmodromic valve is one that opens and closes according to the positive action of two different rocker arms. The traditional alternative is to open valves with a single rocker arm and then close it with a spring. In high heat and high-rpm environments, springs fail. Desmos don’t. You can’t see a desmo valve in action—for that matter, you can’t see a human soul either—but it’s there; and it matters.

For devotees of motorcycling—those with long enough memories, that is—the 1970s were a particularly invigorating heyday. Ducati is a large part of the reason why, so it’s delightful to find in the present-day line-up of Ducati models a quartet of 1.0-liter, 92-horsepower motorcycles that serve as an aggregate homage to bygone glories. The GT 1000 is a classic “standard” with chiseled and scalloped tank and upright seating, whereas the Sport 1000—available biposto or monoposto according to whether one likes passengers or not—hearkens back to the “café racer” days of clip-ons (i.e. dropped handlebars) and rear-sets (i.e., rear-mounted footpegs and brake and shifter levers). With its “S” designation, the two-seater Sport 1000 S acquires Ducati’s iconic Café fairing, which whisks riders back through time into an idealized dreamscape peopled with the likes of Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni.

On the Road to Anywhere
Wanderlust through the actual landscapes of today, on the other hand, might be better served aboard Ducati touring bikes like the 1.1-liter, 95-horsepower Multistrada 1100/1100 S and the 1.0-liter ST3/ST3S. The Multistrada, with its long-travel suspension and partially exposed “trellis” frame is oriented towards adventure travel over both paved and unpaved surfaces. The elegant, fully fared ST3 models, by contrast, are sport-tourers in the long-distance, over-the-road tradition. Both Ducati tour-bike lines accommodate integrated, hard-shell luggage panniers, so that an extended two-wheel expedition alla Ducati becomes an experience unparalleled by any other form of travel.

“Beautiful Savage” is perhaps the best way to describe, if not to translate Ducati’s infamous “naked” motorcycle, Il Monster 695. For some 15 years or so, the Monster has exposed—quite literally— the awesome performance and handling of sport motorcycling at its most essential. With its 700cc, 73-horsepower twin-cylinder engine, the Monster 695 unites power with handling in a revealing architectural configuration that puts raw performance on display. Moreover, it has by now given rise to an entire family of “baby Monsters”—all of which boast even more power and sport-potential than “Papa” himself. The Monster SR family boasts two-valve twins in 800cc and 1.0-liter configurations (77 hp and 95 hp, respectively) as well as the truly monstrous S4R/S4RS “Testastretta” models, whose four-valve twins produce 130 hp.

Like a Hot Knife Through Cold Pavement
Then, like some sort extraterrestrial spawn, Ducati’s pair of Hypermotard 1100/1100 S bikes made their appearance in 2007. “It’s like lightning has struck,” says longtime Nashville, Tennessee, motorcycle dealer David Bloodworth of Bloodworth Motorcycles. “These Motard bikes seem to have come out of nowhere,” he continues. “They’re exotic looking and agile like you wouldn’t believe.” Although novel on this side of the Atlantic, Motard bikes are Euro streetfighters for today’s urban jungles. Power, balance, and robust strength yield almost skateboard-like maneuverability for a 1.1-liter twin making 90 hp.

Crowning Ducati’s heirarchy are a brace of race-based sportbikes famed for their ability to inspire glee and terror in like proportion. The 1098/1098 S both boast a 1.1-liter four-valve twin making 160 hp. Under a full fairing hides a total package that combines voluptuous power and massive braking, exceptional strength and minimal unsprung weight. New “data-capture” digital instrumentation further blurs the distinction between raceway and roadway. And since too much is never enough, Ducati’s limited-edition Desmosedici RR, with its 16-valve V4 and 180 hp, is now dangling in the marketplace to tempt collectors with investment potential, enthusiasts with epiphany. This “Desmosixteen” is essentially Ducati’s MotoGP racebike made streetable—for those with cash and pluck enough to accept its daunting challenge.

Wicked bikes, classic bikes, gorgeous bikes, monster bikes: somehow Ducati has managed to conceive them all and still make it look easy.