The Ducati 916 is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made. Photos by the author.
When Ducati announces a new model, the world of motorcycling sits up and pays attention. In the factory in the back streets of Bologna, brilliant engineers have turned out brilliant motorcycles for decades. Back in 1973, Fabio Taglioni came out with the 750SS, a 90-degree, air-cooled L-twin with two valves per cylinder having desmodromic actuation. A new engineer, Massimo Bordi, replaced Taglioni in the early 1980s, and he began work on updating the L-twin, with liquid cooling and four desmo valves per cylinder. However, this was an expensive proposition, and it wasn?t until Cagiva bought Ducati in 1985 that Bordi had the money to do proper development. Much of that work was done at the Cagiva research center in Varese, 150 miles northwest of Bologna. And the result was the Ducati 851 model (Retrospective, July 2007), introduced in November of 1987, which grew to the 888 in 1993. The 916 was fitted with a single-sided swingarm and twin exhaust tucked under the tail.
Another engineer, Massimo Tamburini, was the fellow who actually designed the 916, replacing the 888, the first one appearing in October 1993 at the annual Italian motorcycle show. Initially it had a very limited production run but it was such a success at the track that a clamor went up for more bikes. The 916 was only in production five years, but in four of them it won the Superbike World Champions...