2005 Ducati 999 on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Audi Officially Announces Ducati Purchase

Audi has officially announced it has acquired Ducati Motor Holding from Investindustrial. Terms of the deal were not announced, though they should be made available April 19 at the annual stockholders meeting for Audi’s parent company, the Volkswagen Group. Previous reports have the price pegged at 860 million euros (US$1.1 billion).

Max Biaggi to Test Ben Spies’ Ducati Desmosedici GP13 MotoGP Racer

Retired four-time 250cc Grand Prix Champion and two-time World Superbike Champion Max Biaggi will be returning to the track this week to ride a Ducati Desmosedici GP13 at MotoGP test at Italy’s Mugello circuit. Biaggi will be riding in place of Pramac Racing‘s Ben Spies who continues to rehab his shoulder and pectoral muscle injury. With Spies’ on-going injury problems and a star like Biaggi on tap, some might hope this change may be a more permanent arrangement but Pramac is careful to state Biaggi will only be testing the Desmosedici with Ducati test team rider Michele Pirro continuing to race in Spies’ absence.

The future. But we can't have it

It's no secret that we motorcyclists are getting older. We're ageing because less people are passing their bike test each year (roughly 30,000 last year compared to 50,000 for the 10 years before the new two-part test) and so not only is the pool not growing it's not even being replenished and so the average age isn't being diluted down by yoof. When the going gets tough in any situation, you really get to see who's got their shit-sorted and who's light enough on their feet to adapt to change.