| My thoughts are that the 999 has many styling details and gimmicks but, the seat is less comfy, the bike is unstable at speed and looks bitty. the 916 etc has a 'oneness' about it, the lines flow and it looks balanced even at rest.
BUT the 999 and multistrada were designed from the begining to be assembled out of a few sub systems to speed up production and reduce costs, a lot of the blame for the percieved ugliness may result from this. However In my view the present R1 shows that mass produced low cost bikes can look stunning. It has a very similar nose down and tail high stance to the 916 shape, perhaps this is in fact the styling key that the majority of us like.
a very disjointed post sorry but work kept interupting my train of thought (although many would say that coherant thought is not my speciality)
dave |