THINK ‘Ducati’ and the image that springs to mind is probably a race-rep superbike of some sort.
Depending on your age, it might a 916, a 1098 or a Panigale, or perhaps one of the firms older efforts; the 851 or even a bevel-drive sports bike. But the sports theme is so intrinsically linked with Ducati that it’s hard to imagine the firm being defined by anything else.
However, this is a company that now makes the Diavel, and is set to launch a second cruiser model soon, as well as machines like the Multistrada and Scrambler. And given that Ducatis that are proving popular today, future generations may well not pigeonhole the firm into the ‘sports’ bracket that it’s so often associated with.
To get an insight into just how the firm is changing, take a look at the top 10 best-selling Ducatis in the UK at the moment. All the figures come from the government’s registration records for the first half of 2015.