Ducati 916: Мотоциклдің көркемдігі мен тарихы

Sport bike

The Ducati 916 is a fully faired sport bike made by Ducati from 1994 to 1998. Featuring a fuel injected, 4 valve, desmo, liquid cooled, 90° V twin engine in a trellis frame with a single sided swingarm and USD forks, the 916 is frequently cited as one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever.

Making its debut in 1994, the Ducati 916 was admired because of its new design and outstanding technical features. At the time of introduction, the 916 was recognized by winning "every magazine's Bike of the Year award for 1994", and Ducati sold out its entire first year's production run in the United States before any had actually arrived there.

First presented at the Bologna Motor Show in December 1994, the 916 Senna was a special edition to commemorate Formula 1 World Champion, Ayrton Senna, an avid Ducati enthusiast who endorsed its release shortly before his death in May 1994. At the time, the project was facilitated by the fact that Claudio Castiglioni, Ducati's owner, was a personal friend of Senna's. In total, between 1995, 1998 and 2001, Ducati released three "Senna" editions and, in every instance, net proceeds were donated to the Instituto Ayrton Senna charity.

The 916 was later replaced by the 996 and 998 with similar design but revised engines and more power. Massimo Tamburini went on to design the MV Agusta F4, the bike which is seen as his replacement for the 916 range, and it shares many similarities with the 916 especially in the tail section. Both of these Tamburini designs were featured in the Guggenheim Museum's 1998 The Art of the Motorcycle exhibit. Looking back over a decade after its introduction, it is regularly placed on top lists of important designs in motorcycle history by authorities like the Guggenheim Museum, Bennetts, and Design Week; and authors Ian Falloon, Hugo Wilson, and Margaret Henderson. In a retrospective on the 1990s, Motorcyclist magazine simply stated, "1994: Ducati 916 debuts. Did anything else happen that year?" In addition to the Guggenheim exhibit noted above, an example is also held by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.