Ducati are spending large sums of money on racing, money that has to come back from somewhere, so if bike sales stall, it causes a problem.
in decline, who knows, I'd say no.
looking for a return on all that money invested in racing, yes.
If Ducati won Moto GP next year, how much for the race rep then???

And these donkeys are doing it within the same rules as the opposition! Unlike the "saviour" bike that had 25% more rules advantage!

No they're not - only in AMA are the rules reasonably close. In WSB the Ducati's are allowed a lot more tuning of the engine than the IL4's and a few other things so it's not the level playing field you think it is. Otherwise the IL4's really would stomp the twins.

Is the Ducati brand in decline?


Simple answer is YES!!

When you are at the top , where Ducati have been for a long time, there is only one place to go and thats DOWN.

Not saying its all over, far from it, but you can only stay on top for so long, then its someone else`s turn.

Thats just life.

Thers no replacement for displacement!:D

Don't confuse brand image with financial success.

Financially Ducati may not be doing so well bu the Brand image is still very good.

Ducati's neighbour ferrari make a huge amount of revenue from licensing, £400million this/last year I seem to recall seeing somewhere.

Ducati are growing this area but they have to be carefull.

Ducati needs racing sucess cos everyone loves awinning brand.

Ray.

what are Ducati allowed to do that the Jap's cant in SBK please :puzzled:

I know in AMA bikes are not alowed to run front wheel speed sensors.


You need a front wheel sensor for traction control, hence they can't run the same engine management system that they use in WSB.

Well after years of the older 4 vlv bikes I've become a real fan of the 2vlvers. Love em! There's so much scope for making excellent roadgoing sports bikes out of them for little outlay. The latest 4vlv bikes do nothing for me with perhaps the exception of the 749R. As I've said before, the new bikes don't seem to be special and that is something that really attracted me to the bikes in 95 (748SP) when I got into them.

That seems to have been Ducati's product evolution process over the last ten years. I can't see a problem with it.

Have you ever taken a look at the Japanese products and how they depreciate when a "newer" model arrives