Total Motorcycle

The Ducati Streetfighter S is a sexy, expensive machine. It’s like Tyler Durden in Fight Club: not a real bare-knuckles pugilist, but a good-looking imposter. The streetfighter that sits in my garage is a 2001 Suzuki SV650 that some dude crashed and resurrected as a snarling, punk-rock beast. The knackered front end was upgraded to GSX-R750 spec, an ear-splitting Yoshimura pipe and metal handguards were bolted on, the tail section was kicked up and the bodywork was sprayed rattle-can black. It was my $2,500, high-octane dose of post-Katrina, post-divorce therapy. Perfect for the road-warrior streets of Los Angeles, but frowned upon by the much less preoccupied police here in sleepy little Ventura.

Of course, we wouldn’t expect Ducati to resell wadded superbikes stripped of plastic and tarted up with motocross handlebars and agro-looking headlights. But in this distressed economy, such a business model might work. Rather, Ducati applied essential streetfighter elements to its 1198 superbike.