Three-time World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss is highly involved in the development of Ducati’s new Superbike, with names like Xtreme, 1199, SuperQuadro or Panigale which are just some of the names that are being bandied about.

Bayliss is the star of this brief video teaser from the Italian manufacturer, about something new that we’ll be seeing a bit of next Wednesday on Ducati’s YouTube channel, which is no doubt a lead up to the EICMA show in November, where the Superbike will get its official debut.

Bayliss describes the new machine on his Facebook page as a ‘red beast,’ so we can’t wait to see what Ducati has in store for us.

Source | ducatinewstoday.com

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While Ducati is weeping in MotoGP, in Superbikes it’s all smiles, proving that all those moans and complaints and the rest of the yada yada from fans that came when they announced they would be pulling out their factory team at the end of 2010 a was pretty well unjustified as Carlos Checa and the Althea Racing team are doing an excellent job in taking up the slack.

Carlos Checa took Ducati to its 300th Superbike win during race one at Silverstone and to mark the event, Ducati held a special celebration with the Ducati Corse racing department and Checa in their factory in Borgo Panigale.

Checa also autographed the new poster that hangs on the wall of the main reception area of the Bologna factory.

Ducati’s historic 300 race wins in the World Superbike Championship started with victory for Marco Lucchinelli in the first ever World Superbike race at Donington Park, England in 1988 and continued as 25 more Ducati-mounted riders wrote themselves into the pages of motorcycle racing history. Legendary riders such as Carl Fogarty, Doug Polen, Raymond Roche, Troy Corser, Giancarlo Falappa, Neil Hodgson, Pierfrancesco Chili, Ben Bostrom, James Toseland, Noriyuki Haga, Troy Bayliss and many others up until the current World Championship leader, Carlos Checa.

The victories have generated a total of 155 Ducati pole positions, 753 podiums, 13 Rider’s and 16 Manufacturers’ World Championship titles.

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Thanks to 150elode.it - a project undertaken by Mercedes in association with Autostrade for the unification of Italy’s 150th Anniversary - we have the opportunity to bring you this small photo gallery by Massimo Sordi and Francesco de Luca. With the aim of getting the public to better understand Ducati’s behind-the-scene work, and together with work by other photographers such as Marco Zanta and Seba Kurtis, this project visually explores the reality of this successful brand.

In the gallery, we are going to show you few shots taken in Borgo Panigale (Bologna) the heart of Ducati’s production, where the Ducati factory headquarters and the Ducati Museum are located.

View the full Ducati Borgo Panigale photo gallery

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Hardcore Ducati fans are in for a treat, because if you’ve got one of their motorcycles, their clothing, their perfume, their Satellite U500 Ducati Toshiba laptop, or any other Ducati branded items, you can now get ringtones for your cell phone to match the sound of your own Italian dream bike.

Just hit the the Ducati website to download or play that unmistakable Desmosound.

Don’t think this is a novelty, because Honda made available to fans the ringtone of Freddie Spencer’s 1985 NSR 500 two years ago.

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It was one of the most horrid weekends that Valentino Rossi has ever had and Silverstone proved to be a bête noire for the Italian and his team, who were counting on better results after the Catalan GP. Finishing in sixth, which could have been even worse if three riders (Lorenzo, Spies and Simoncelli) in front him hadn’t crashed. The Italian struggled from Friday all through today without finding the right set-up that would allow him to ride as he wanted to. Lacking in grid and never getting his tires into temperature, Rossi cut his losses hoping for a better race at Assen on June 25th and that he doesn’t end up more than an embarrassing minute adrift from Casey Stoner.

“Without a doubt, this weekend was the most difficult so far this season, but we at least managed to do a good job of limiting the damage. Considering how we came into the race, sixth place is a fairly positive result that helps us to stay not too far from the top of the standings in fourth, which isn’t bad. We knew that my lack of experience here compared to the others would hurt us, but it’s also true that we haven’t managed to improve our setup as well as we should have. In fact, today Nicky managed to have a nice race and ride well, even setting the fastest lap, which demonstrates that the Ducati is competitive in the wet. We didn’t improve enough though, and that made it hard for me, as the bike was difficult to ride and I couldn’t push hard. We’re all responsible: me, the bike, and the team, so together we’ll try to improve and return to the level we were at in Le Mans and Catalunya as soon as possible, and then take another step forward.”

Nicky Hayden actually outshone his more titled team mate, in all the practice sessions and in qualifying something that no one would have expected heading to Silverstone this weekend, finishing in the same position as he did last year.

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi limits damage with 6th, Nicky Hayden happy enough with 4th

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Matteo Flamigni is one of the many crew memember who left Yamaha to follow Valentino Rossi to his new adventure in Ducati, which included crew chief Jeremy Burgess, four mechanics: Alex Briggs, Bernard Ansiau, Brent Stephens and Gary Coleman, and even chef Michael Quarenghi decided to make the switch.

Flamigni is Rossi’s track engineer and in this video interview released by TIM, one of Ducati’s main sponsors, the Italian engineer talks about this important step in his career, the positive and negative aspects of his work and the emotions that the team shares.

Since the video is in Italian we’ve decided to translate it for you.

Continue reading: Video: Matteo Flamigni talks about his switch to Ducati

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Speculation that Ducati would soon be making a maxi scooter and a scrambler have been growing over the last year or so and just last week Ducati’s Claudio Domenicali in an interview with Motosprint.com, confirmed that the Italian company was seriously thinking about it, but now Ducati’s head honcho Gabriele Del Torchio has nixed it.

Speaking to our Italian cousins at Motoblog.it during the Moto Passion bike show, Del Torchio stated that the company “has a well defined range and now we are concentrating on our next project for the sports market and on Superbikes, we’re not thinking of new models. That’s our industrial production plan for the next 3 to 5 years, and we have no maxi scooter in mind, and certainly not a scrambler. “

Do we actually believe Del Torchio? Nope. Ducati isn’t dishing out a few millions of euros to build plants in Thailand and Brazil just to get around import taxes and and concentrate on selling 20,000 more sportbikes or the Diavel in expanding markets.

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In an exclusive interview with Italy’s Motosprint magazine (you can read it also on their website here) Ducati’s general director Claudio Domenicali revealed that the Italian marque is seriously thinking of developing a scrambler style motorcycle and a maxi scooter to add to their line-up, confirming the rumors we’ve been hearing lately.

While the interview concentrated mainly on the controversial Diavel, despite the many rave reviews we’ve read by journalists who tested the bike at Marbella last month, when it was shown to the international press. Domenciali admitted that Ducati wants to up their production to 60,000 bikes a year, thus needing to branch out to other production segments and markets.

Ducati has already laid down the first stone in their new plant in Thailand and Domenicali confirmed they will build another in South America, specifically in Brazil, in order to get around import taxes that are strangling their sales in these two important areas.

So far reactions to the idea of new scrambler have been met favourably, but a scooter branded with the iconic marque just sticks in the craw of Ducati purists, while everyone is worried about eventual job losses in Italy.

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How in the hell does Ducati do it? They’ve got their brand over everything, the only thing missing from their merchandising line is toilet paper with the motorcycle manufacturer’s logo on it.

Now we get (actually only millionares or Colombian drug runners can) this new Cigarette Racing 42X Ducati Edition boat.

The 42X Ducati Edition features a 2,200hp from a pair of staggered 1,100hp Mercury Racing engines. The livery of the model is pure Ducati, in white with Ducati red racing stripe. A white interior boasting red accents features a specially designed stereo from JL Audio. The 42 foot hull boasts an eight foot beam; completing this astonishing 120+mph package that will be dispayed at “Ménage of Motorsports” at the Miami International Boat Show.

Will we be seeing Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden LARPing Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, with the JL stereo blaring out “In the Air Tonight” as they arrive at the Misano Adriatico port to take part in the GP Week?

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If you’re going to be in Italy and precisely near Bologna on March 4th, why not attend the big send off event that Ducati and the Bologna city hall are organizing for the Ducati MotoGP team?

The event is going to be held in Piazza Maggiore (where they celebrated the 2007 World Championship title, which Casey Stoner did not attend due to shoulder problems) at 9pm to give the city a chance to see Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden and the GP11, before they head off for the season opener in Qatar that takes place March 20th.

Could this be Gabriele Del Torchio’s idea of appeasing the masses, because Ducati has pulled out of World Superbikes and is building a plant in Thailand?

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Ducati USA (before Italy) has released the new D46 Valentino Rossi replica apparel collection and the new 2011 MotoGP team replica apparel carrying Valentino Rossi’s number.

Italy who is also known internationally for it’s famed fashion designers, just took a nose dive into a yellow colored hell, ending up looking like something that McDonald’s would serve you with a Happy Meal.

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