Good News Bad News
GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS
Euro Sport 2000
FIRST YOU LUSTED FOR HER, THEN she became available, now it's too late.
Ducati chose the 1999 Bologna Motor Show to unveil the highly anticipated production version of the Mike Hailwood 900 Evoluzione, and to announce the revolutionary e-commerce marketing plan through which the bike would be sold.
The good news is that although there have been some detail changes, the production Hailwood is just as breathtaking as the prototype, arguably the loveliest motorcycle ever conceived.
No one seriously believed, for example, that the production model would wear a rearward-facing video camera and cockpit TV screen in lieu of mirrors, or that it would have turnsignals sticking out the back of the dual underseat exhausts. And sure enough, the production bike sports traditional fairingmounted mirrors and turnsignals on stalks. The same fate befell the hightech silesium/carbon rotors and carbon/titanium clutch.
But we all bit when designer Pierre Terblanche stated that the faux finned deep sump meant to recall that of the old bevel-drive V-Twins would somehow incorporate an oil cooler. Well, sorry purists, an oil cooler now hangs from the forward cambox as on the previous-generation 900SS.
Ducati will produce the MH900e, but you can’t have one
Heart of the machine is a standard Supersport 900 engine, a fuel-injected, air-cooled, sohc, two-valve-per-pot 904cc V-Twin said to produce 79 horsepower and 58 foot-pounds of torque.
The red-painted frame and single-sided swingarm employ similar steel-trellis construction, with the specs sheet showing a steep 23.5-degree steering-head angle, short 55.9-inch wheelbase and feathery 385-pound dry weight.
The bad news is that by the time you read this, the entire 500-unit year2000 production run is certain to have sold out. Ducati’s e-commerce sales scheme dictated that orders would be accepted only through the company’s website (www.chicciti.com), beginning one second after the stroke of midnight Greenwich Mean Time at the dawn of the new millennium. The worldwide price was 15,000 Euros, which at the time of this writing worked out to $ 15,136. If you didn't get your order in, you’re out of luck.
Oh well, maybe one will pop up on eBay... Brian Catterson
