As we’re still not sold on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 all-things-to-all-people, we thought we’d take a closer look at the Multistrada test our colleagues at Motoblog.it had the opportunity to do. First up, the look of the bike is not to everyone’s taste, although perhaps necessary for the kind of bike it is. While hardly a masterpiece in sexy, superbike design, the Multistrada does give off a functional, practical air.

In an interesting comparison with the Ducati Hypermotard, the Multistrada is revealed as being more versatile, something we would expect, but also more powerful without gaining too much weight. It’s a fun bike, both in touring and sports style on the road, cornering well and with a traction control that’s not invasive. Further on the technological front, the ABS is very well managed, and overall electronic issues weren’t a problem.

The great thing about the Multistrada is that the four modes are really very different, so that you haven’t just bought a bike with a fancy switch that actually doesn’t do very much. Two out of the four modes have 50 hp less, which you can really feel, although the traction control is less noticeable - you would need a separate day to play around with that to fully understand its influence on the bike.

Test Ducati Multistrada 1200

Continue reading: Ducati Multistrada 1200 test ride and pics

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New from Italy indicates that the two big Italian manufacturers of Ducati and Piaggio could merge. Ducati needs no introduction, while Piaggio is the parent company of Vespa and Moto Guzzi, as well as it manufacturing scooters under its own name. The news of a possible merger comes just a week after rumours of a Piaggio sale; rumours that were subsequently denied by Piaggio, although the frequency of them now would suggest some substance. A Ducati-Piaggio merger would create a large Italian motorcycling consortium, of sorts, and could see some serious competition for the Japanese on many fronts - from scooters to superbikes. We wait further news!

Source | Motoblog.it

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The Ducati Multistrada 1200 has still yet to earn its stripes, but these official Multistrada launch pics and video (after the jump) from the presentation have enough sex appeal to make us consider the new Ducati in a positive light. We already know most of what there is to know about the four-bikes-in-one Multistrada, but as test ride results start to be published, a pattern is emerging that this is not a bike to underestimate. We’ll be bringing you more details later of Multistrada tests, with live pics and videos, but in the meantime enjoy these evocative images from the official gallery.

Continue reading: Ducati Multistrada 1200 pics and video

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Check out the concentration on the face on this young kid as he revs the throttle of his daddy’s Streetfighter and listens to the unmistakable Ducati sound.

Source | geeketto.com

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After the race highlights of round 1 of the World Superbike Championship at Phillip Island, you can now check out our gallery of pics from the race weekend.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island - Gallery of Pics

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As usual racing at Phillip Island never lets fans wanting, if Race 1 didn’t disappoint, Race 2 was an absolute thriller. The Italians have a very pictoresque saying about close racing: “correre con il coltello tra i denti” which literally means racing with a knife between between your teeth and that’s what Carlos Checa did today on his privateer Ducati when he won the race.

The Spaniard who debuted with Althea Ducati Racing had a bad start leaving him in 11th on the first lap, but Checa was a man on a mission after his 7th place in Race 1 began working his way through the pack to join the four front runners to make a last lap move to take the victory in front of race 1 winner Leon Haslam followed by Michel Fabrizio who would take third place on the podium.

Haslam seemed to be heading to his second career victory and the race looked like a perfect photocopy of the first race with Fabrizio closely tagging the Brit and Noriyuki Haga in third moving up from his tenth place on the grid, but it would be former MotoGP and BSB rider Sylvain Guintoli who would snatch fourth place from a fading and aching Haga who took fifth.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island Race 2: Carlos Checa wins last lap thriller

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Check out this fantastic pic of the photo finish between Leon Haslam and Michel Fabrizio during Race 1 at Phillip Island.

Four thousandth of second, it doesn’t get any closer than that, infact it was so close that Michel Fabrizio was declared the winner of the race, but after this photo the decision was overturned leaving a very happy Haslam and a slightly disappointed Fabrizio.

Photo Source | worldsbk.com

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For those who couldn’t wait for racing to begin again, WSBK Race 1 at Phillip Island did not disappoint.

The race was won by a superfast Leon Haslam who led the race from start to finish, but the victory had to be decided by a dramatic photo finish decision when Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio who trailed Haslam through out the race tried to slipstream the Suzuki Alstare rider across the finish line, but it was Pocket Rocket who came out on top by a mere four thousanth of second.

A tough Noriyuki Haga took an excellent third after starting 10th on the grid and despite having been taken out BMW’s Ruben Xaus during the morning warm-up that left the Japanese rider bruised and battered. Xaus had to sit out the race due to a suspected concussion and after having totalled numerous crashes this race weekend that probably left the German team without any spares.

Fourth place went to Jonathan Rea who was a little more than 10 seconds from the lead group, resisting several assualts by Aprilia’s Max Biaggi who was fifth, Sylvain Guintoli finished the race in sixth while Althea Racing Ducati’s Carlos Checa took seventh.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island Race 1 – Leon Haslam wins by a breath!

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Leon Haslam rocked in all three stints of Saturday’s Superpole at Phillip Island by taking his first ever career pole position in WSBK and edging out Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio in the last stint by a mere 0.016s.

Cal Crutchlow will also be on the front row with a impressive third place while team mate James Toseland took eighth. Both Sterilgarda Yamaha riders having finally found a proper set up on their ‘hybrid’ R1’s after yesterday’s problems in free practice and in QP1.

Carlos Checa who led in yesterday’s provisional pole will start in fourth with his satellite Ducati while Althea Racing’s second rider Shane Byrne did not make it inside the second cut and qualified 18th, but the Englishman was struggling with back injuries picked up after yesterday’s massive highside.

Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli gave took and excellent fifth position with his Alstare Suzuki and will start on the second row alongside 6th place B&G’s Jakub Smrz and Irishman Jonathan Rea in seventh

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island: Leon Haslam Rockets into Superpole

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With four days of pre-season testing at Sepang already over, MotoGP will be heading to Qatar on March 18-19 for the final two days of tests, before the new season kicks off at Losail for the night race that takes place on the weekend of April 11th .

Here’s what the riders had to say about today’s final day of testing in Sepang.

Valentino Rossi - 1st : 2′00.271 Laps: 39

“I’m really happy to have beaten my pole record, it’s a good feeling to be this fast in testing. I did this with an old tyre but we also got the chance to try a very good new tyre from Bridgestone today, which I hope we will use from the first race. Our bike is in great shape; we need to do a bit more work on the electronics but in general everything is better, especially the rear grip and the engine. Yamaha have been very clever to develop this new bike whilst keeping the best parts of the old one, I’m very happy about it. It was good to get the chance to try the Japanese test bike, hopefully the feedback I gave them will help us in the future. Now we go to Qatar and then we will see our level because it is not one of mine or Yamaha’s best tracks! But we’re in great shape and this is very important at this stage of the season. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang 2 - Final Day Rider Quotes

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