Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > 999 / 749 > Why does there appear to be this hatred?

[749er]

taste is a funny thing. I really dont like the new swing arm on the 999. I really appreciate the craftmanship and texture of the original cast swing arm, for me its a real peice of engineering beauty, the shape, the finish, those radii, the newer welded one just doesn't have that for me. But I have a bias as I work in manufacturing and when I get the rare opportunity to work with castings I love it as you can do do much with them but the tooling costs a fortune and the castings have a limited life. Working with aluminium extrusions is much more common for me and I see them as a cheap method of construction, so because of that I am biased towards the cast arm. There is probably a performance benefit in the newer arm, but to be fair I am not a good enough rider to notice it, if it were there.

[phil_h]

actually, tbh, I now hate them cos I would like to try one, but dont like buying new(ish) bikes cos of all the depreciation.

[Redruth]

I didn't like them when they first came out. Too radical and far removed from the 996 shape. Now, it's definitely a case of 'love is blind'. I can't remember why I didn't lilke the look of them in the first place, tbh. It's just a fantastic machine to ride. In fact, every time I ride the 749 I think about getting rid of the other two and just keeping this one.

Admittedly, there are lots of bikes I haven't ridden and maybe I'd feel the same about them if I had a go on them but I doubt it because the Ducati brand captured my imagination long before I was a biker with the 916 in a way that no other make has since. I think brand loyalty has a lot to do with accepting the new designs.