Probably Ducati's STRANGEST Motorcycle

there are some motorcycles from history that are so beautiful and Timeless if you were to spot them out in the wild you'd probably drop everything you're doing just to get a good look for me something like an early Indian or maybe a Norton or Vincent or vet would qualify but there's another more rare kind of motorcycle one that may seem to bring about the same reaction from onlookers but really they'd be staring for a slightly different reason it's not that said motorcycle is ugly per se it's just a different kind of art the sort of art for which entire PhD dissertations could be written maybe it would catch your eye initially because it's so striking but then you'd find yourself lost in the details wondering why certain elements are there and you'd quickly realize that this is not your typical production motorcycle made for the sole purpose of getting sales it couldn't be few motorcycles like this have ever made it to production but today we're going to be looking closely at one of these motorcycles and how it came to exist in the mind of one of the greatest and most polarizing designers in motorcycle history this is the story of ducati's strangest motorcycle as the 9s got underway Ducati was Finding their home in world superbike thanks to their new desmo Quattro engine and at the end of 1993 the iconic 916 was unveiled proving that Ducati really did have what it takes to make truly compelling production sport bikes this motorcycle was a huge success not only because of its performance in racing but even more so it was the way it looked like a sort of Ferrari for the two- whe world nothing like it had existed prior and it really propelled ducatti to a new status in the market they were moving beyond just an Enthusiast brand the smaller and arguably better 748 was also a sales success Beyond just sport bikes Ducati made some interesting and important moves as a company in the 9s shortly before the release of the 916 they tapped into the brilliant mind of Miguel galzi to create this motorcycle the monster the monster was interesting not only in that it wasn't a sport bike but like the 916 or really anything ducatti had created it still managed to keep ducati's design language with things like the iconic trellis frame this motorcycle helped show ducatti that even if they continued to push the envelope in terms of sport bike and race bike development they could also continue to have a successful business by investing in motorcycles for regular people and they could keep to their own Heritage despite the fact that they were now making motorcycles that were not necessarily primarily about their performance or you know they at least weren't sport bikes this idea of Ducati making Heritage inspired non sportbike motorcycles will be important and will sort of come to a head in the motorcycle we're looking at in this video today the concept of retro is really everywhere in motorcycle design if you give your motorcycle a round headlight Suddenly It's pointing back to the illustrious history of your company and of course there's entire Brands who've built their businesses on making modern but old-looking motorcycles you know think Royal Enfield and to some extent Triumph but this wasn't always a thing interestingly enough at the same time as this motorcycle was being thought up with its thoroughly backwards looking concept so too were a lot of other iconic retro motorcycles from the re-released Triumph bonnaville to the Kawasaki w800 at this time at the end of the 9s and the turn of the century designers both in the four and two- wheed space were beginning to look back as the future was inevitably crashing Upon Us in the form of the New Millennium there was a sort of reactionary desire for the old and this motorcycle would fall uniquely into this category you need to understand another player in this story to really get the point of this motorcycle his name is Pierre terblanche though terblanche had designed a few cottis prior to the mh900e he wasn't and isn't your typical designer of Italian Goods he isn't even Italian he's from South Africa but that didn't stop him from creating one of the rarest and most coveted Ducatis ever in the form of the super mono and also one of the best but perhaps most hated Flagship Ducati sport bikes ever in the 999 and many other really unique Ducatis you know think bikes like the hyper motard in between all of that though he sketched out this bike the mh900e and what you need to understand about ter blanch is that he kind of marched to the beat of his own drum I'll let him spell out his frustrations with designing motorcycles for major manufacturers as he talks about this insane electric bike that he recently designed because electric is new I don't have to make it look like a BMW boxer from 1923 or a narrow angle v twin from 1910 like Harley guyss have to or a you know El twin from ducatti was become marketing it's not really engineering anymore they engineer within the marketing parameters because they have to the client expects to get that bike from them whether it's actually good or not so the the thing would it could have you know this could be a clean sheet project those restraints that he experienced really frustrated ter blanch as he got along working for companies like Royal Enfield and ducatti the culmination of this really would be the 99 9 a motorcycle so different than anything ducatti had made like there is no nod to ducati's history with that motorcycle despite the fact that it was a great bike and that motorcycle caused so much controversy that Ducati instantly reverted back to their old design language but understanding ter blanch and how he approaches motorcycle design is important when looking at this rather insane motorcycle and in many ways ter blanch was able to make a career for himself because at least at this time time Ducati was pretty much okay with just letting him and his great mind kind of run wild so now that we've set the stage let's talk about the development of the mh900e you might wonder what MH stands for well if you're going to make a Ducati that features a design language pointing to the Past there's no better place to look than Mike hailwood and the race bike that powered him to take ducati's first Isle of Man TT World Championship the iconic NCR 900 on that motorcycle hailwood made a comeback to racing after being away for 11 years taking down Phil Reed and averaging 108.5 1 mph the combination of ducati's balanced and Powerful motorcycle with hailwood's experience on this beautiful Castrol colored bike was really legendary and the Motorcycle we're looking at today wouldn't be the first in ducati's history to actually emulate Mike hailwood's bike just 6 years after this win Ducati released the 900 mhr which was a street bike which also looked back at this moment in this iconic motorcycle but there's so much more happening with the mh900e it's so much more than just a retro bike looking back at another specific motorcycle originally ter blanch had the idea for this motorcycle and Drew it up really just for fun it was never meant to be a production bike it was just meant to be a show bike one that would really celebrate ducati's history not you know carry Riders to jobs or on trips and so in 19 1998 when the sketches were unveiled to the world at intermont in Munich nobody at Ducati was prepared for the response Riders had to have this thing it's not just unlike anything Ducati had ever made it was unlike any motorcycle that any manufacturer had ever made and so ter blanch was tasked with taking his rather outlandish sketches and turning them into a reality a motorcycle that wouldn't just sit in a museum or a garage but would actually be ridden and you know have a 2-year warranty but ter blanch was the man for this job for as much as he could quickly sketch out a cool looking motorcycle and a really compelling design he really did care deeply about the rider's experience so some aspects of the bike from those sketches did have to be changed but what's interesting is that in the production version the bike didn't really get any more traditional it almost got more radical and weird with more of the bike being exposed you've got lots of places that you can see through the overall stance is just crazy and perhaps the most interesting part is this clear demarcating line between the top and bottom of the bike if you cover half of the bike you see something entirely different than if you cover the other half like the bottom half feels exposed and mechanical and old you know with that air cooled v twin front and center whereas the top half feels more like a futuristic sport bike you know all fiberglass and aerodynamic on the one hand it looks like a retro styled 70s Italian race bike with its round Chrome rimmed headlight but then there's all these modern touches you know it's got very busy bodyw work that swoops and the unders swept exhaust and single-sided swing arm but then there's all these design elements that really have nothing to do necessarily with the new or the old it's just fun cool stuff like this incredibly thin midsection of the bike where the seat is and the crazy tail section and the tank area where it flows into the front bikini style fairing it's all pretty intense and crazy ter blanch called it a kind of lunacy that could only come out of Italy I mean just look at this swing arm only ducatti could do something so strange but yet in such a stylish way if any other company tried to make you know a bike of this kind of radicalness it would come out ugly the mh900e may have looked odd but it wasn't ugly okay my wife does think it's ugly and she does have pretty good taste when it comes to vehicles but I don't think it's ugly now the e in mh900e stood for evolusion which translates to Evolution obviously but also to development getting at this idea of the past and the future coming together in this concept ter blanch even commissioned famed Italian car designer giorgetto giaro to make this amazing retro Ducati logo now most of the Mechanics for the bike are pretty exposed and it's clear what this is the 900cc air cooled v twin came directly from the the 900s giving the fuel injected single overhead cam mh900 a mey 75 horsepower with a top speed of 130 mph which is really not bad for this time sure it wasn't competing with the highest end sport bikes available from anyone including Ducati but that wasn't really the point what it did offer was a kind of raw sport bike feel much like the sport bikes of old that it was nodding to not only did the mh900e look old felt kind of old with its lightweight trellis frame the bike weighed in at just over 400 lb dry and the gas tank was so small that you know you weren't adding much to the weight once it was all fueled up the frame and swing arm were made specifically for this bike and you know the original design for the mh900e was never meant to be a mass-produced bike so despite some of its problems and there are certainly many it really did function pretty well we'll talk more about that later but as a whole the bike was Thoroughly Modern you know much like a Triumph Bonville there are even touches of fake old school elements present that make the bike feel more like one of those old race bikes you know Ducati had moved away from bevel Drive engines a long time ago but for this bike they made a nicely shaped piece of metal covering the engine to mimic those old bevel Drive V twins the cockpit with its single white gauge is stunning and very accurate to just kind of the simple stripped back layout of the 1978 Mike hailwood 900 and really any of the race bikes from the' 60s and the' 70s let's not worry about the fact that the bike won't start if you wash it without covering up that cockpit area now Ducati decided that for such a radical motorcycle being sold at really a radical time in human history that is the turn of the century that they should sell the bike in a new radical way and so Ducati decided to sell all 2,000 units of the bike get this entirely and exclusively on the interweb a new and still to this day somewhat radical thing to do for a motorcycle but in 2000 this was crazy the site opened up for sales on January 1st 2000 at 12:01 a.m. and all 2,000 units sold out within hours of it opening if you wanted one chances are you couldn't get one even if you were you know on time because the server just kept crashing getting the bike prepared for production for the 2001 and 2002 years was a whole ordeal for ter blanch and Ducati and it didn't help that bomoda that is the company set to actually build the machine for Ducati well they went bankrupt in part because they made this ugly thing so Ducati had to shift gears no pun intended and the bike was actually handmade in the bolognia factory at a rate of about four to five bikes per day and some have said that the quality of the mh900e is actually better than that of its Ducati contemporaries you know it has not only that bespoke handbuilt feel but the paint quality is just outstanding up to this point I've painted the mh900e in a pretty positive light but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows over at Ducati sure this bike had taken the Press by storm in a similar way to the 916 but there was one person who wasn't happy with this bike Mike hailwood's widower Pauline hailwood had problems with this bike being named after Mike when he was never associated with the project or even rode the bike a lawsuit was settled out of court and Mike's wife was given a retroactive license despite ducatti claiming that the bike was just inspired by the bike that Mike had ridden the mh900e also wasn't without its design problems despite looking like something out of a museum the MH was and is ridden as a real bike this means that its foibles are pretty obvious now because people have put a lot of miles on these the aggressive stance puts quite a bit of weight on your wrists nothing new for a Ducati though the exhaust looked nice but for many it sounded pretty lame as stock a nice set of Hermes or some other aftermarket exhaust can fix it though and it sounds pretty [Applause] amazing the mirrors are useless like many Ducatis from this era really and it's 2.2 gallon gas tank or 2.3 depends on who you're asking will have you stopping quite often for Phillips but your body might need that anyways for reference that's a smaller gas tank than a 1973 Honda CB 350 aside from that scouring the forums and reviews will show you that with a few small upgrades the mh900e was arguably a better package than its contemporary 900 Super Sport I know many will disagree with that but some really do love riding this bike in the spring of 01 Cycle World managed to get their hands on an mh900e and I think this sums up their thoughts pretty well they say the seat is tall mandated to avoid contact between that exhaust and the rear wheel upon full compression of the shock that combined with low set clip-ons makes for a riding position that is not particularly comfortable at least the large white face tachometer is easy to read the digital speedometer somewhat less evident short and tall is not my favorite chassis setup and on that cold day the Michelin simply refused to produce decent grip nonetheless medium and high-speed Corners are the mh's target territories just like the old days there the red and silver machine shows its worth driving gallantly onto the chosen line and providing a wonderful balance between response and stability then a few months later Peter Egan tested out the mh900e for Cycle World and he said this when Pierre ter blanch designed this thing he was trying to evoke the elemental spidery lightness of the old bevel Drive 900 SS in an instantly pure package in this he has largely succeeded the bike is loaded with beautiful details polished triple clamps and headlight surround Exquisite fairing mounts fluted gas cap Etc it's a piece of jewelry but it almost succeeds in being more than that he says things like the chassis has a wonderfully light and narrow feel and that the bike has shark-like stability in fast sweepers his biggest rpe is the riding position though here's what he says the otherwise comfortable seat is so high that at 6' 1 in tall with a 34 in inseam I can just keep my toes on the ground and the bars are correspondingly dropped on the forks it's a butt up head down riding position that will challenge the most masochistic ducatista he mentions a few other drawbacks but for the most part he likes the bike he says that it's a sweet combination of age-old Ducati virtues brought up to date those who sort of blindly claim that this motorcycle was just a complete disaster that really didn't work and that it was just kind of meant to be a piece of art and nobody rides them they're way off most reviewers find the bike surprisingly well put together and most of the problems are present in bikes like the 916 I mean the mh900e is really a thoroughly thought out package but it's not that different than a lot of other Ducatis from this time and if you know anything about ter blanch and what he cares about in a motorcycle which is mostly the ride this shouldn't come as a surprise that he could you know take something that was meant to basically just be a piece of art and turn it into a real motorcycle one of the most interesting aspects of the life of the mh900e is shown in its current community of enthusiasts many riders customize their bikes to make them better with little regard for the incredible increase in values that these bikes have experienced a low mile mh900e can easily go for 25 Grand or more but many have opted to paint their bikes different colors and implement contemporary ducatti aftermarket parts or parts from different bikes from this time period here's a nicely customized example with changes and additions for the purpose of really making a better ride and here's a more heavily customized bike you know the more of these you look at the more you realize that this bike kind of looks good no matter what you do to it am I wrong here I would like to hear from you guys in the comments below but I really like it you know the longer I research for this video the more I think it's one of the coolest Duc ever aside from pushing the Ducati name further into the far reaches of the motorcycle world the mh900e and its success would cause ducatti to create a unique kind of mass production motorcycle that's kind of in the same ilk known as the sport classic lineup these motorcycles were also the brainchild of ter blanch and they owe quite a bit in terms of design to the mh900 they too emulated the Ducati race bikes of the' 70s and they stand as really some of the first retr production sport sport bikes the mh900e would influence a whole slew of retro motorcycles going forward Beyond just the sport Classics bikes like the super vce and Speed Triple RR they all owe their design at least in part to the mh900e not necessarily because they looked directly to ter blanche's design but because this bike really started this trend for the most part retro motorcycles were and would be bikes that looked back to the production street bikes of the' 60s like the Bonville I mean everything's pretty much a copy of the Bonville at this point in the Retro segment but this bike and all other retro sport bikes look mostly to the small fairing race bikes of the 60s and70s not just your standard production bikes more than anything though the mh900e is a lesson in design for manufacturers proof that you really can create out there Unique Designs unlike anything else in the market that legitimate Riders and enthusiasts will love and will purchase now I'd love to reiterate my same old rant about how motorcycle manufacturers today are just unwilling to make experimental fun motorcycles so I'm going to I mean this motorcycle was on some level a parts spin bike but it had an entirely new designed frame and a new swing arm I mean just imagine that today you know MV a gusta reveals some limited production version of the super vce that just kind of looks like they forgot to paint it and guess what it's still the same motorcycle imagine mvagusta or Ducati or any major brand making an entirely new motorcycle just to sell a few thousand units I wish manufacturers were willing to go beyond the boardroom and the marketing teams to the real design enthusiasts people like ter blanch and others from motorcycle history who not only understand design they understand Riders because they themselves are riders today manufacturers rarely give individuals free reign to make entirely new unique bikes for many the motorcycle is judged based on its performance its comfort you know its ability to do the thing that is the motorcycle thing and sadly it's mainly about how much the thing costs and of course Pier ter blanch is no stranger to designing motorcycles like this you know the 999 was a response to the failings of the 916 as a motorcycle and so it was a better motorcycle better ergonomics better performance better for the rider and more usable as a sport bike in really every way but for some reason it's not remembered and will not go down in history as a better motorcycle in most people's mind the 916 is the one that will be remembered as you know the pivotal brand making motorcycle and the 999 will and already is somewhat of an embarrassing footnote despite being a better motorcycle and my point is that for some reason the motorcycle experience is so much more than just ergonomics and comfort it's a bit more mystical than all of that sometimes it can be more connected to Nostalgia and memory maybe owning a grumbly Harley like what your dad and his dad rode that's potentially more meaningful and enjoyable than just focusing on how much fuel the tank can hold or what the horsepower is I just think that many manufacturers today think it's worthless to invest in these kind of more handmade bespoke small batch motorcycles and it's sad and in terms of the accounting yeah they're probably right but creating the kind of brand ducatti has goes Way Beyond just the numbers and I'm afraid Ducati isn't even the type of company that will make these kinds of motorcycles ever again but these formative years for Ducati and the insane motorcycles they created like the mh900e really made them who they are today sometimes strange is good personally I would love to see another motorcycle like this come out from either ducatti or any big manufacturers something that really shakes up the market something truly out there we'll see though all right guys I hope you enjoyed the video be sure to leave me a comment below if you have any thoughts on this motorcycle I'd love to here if you like it or if you hate it or what you think about it because it's a very polarizing design all right we'll see you in the next one ride safe

Channel: bart

Views: 38,385

Keywords: bart, motorcycle, motorcycles, vintage, retro, classic, top 10, top, best, moto, bike, motorbike, motorcycle history, motorcycle essay, video essay, best motorcycle video, kawasaki, suzuki, yamaha, ducati, harley, harley davidson, history, best motorcycle, best motorcycles, craziest, greatest, probably ducati's strangest motorcycle, strange, mh900e, ducati mh900e, retro motorcycle, sportbike, retro sportbike, italian, pierre terblanche, worst, worst motorcycle, bad motorcycle, funny motorcycle

Id: 0yH7XN1oRQ8

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024