Beauty is in the naked details

Deep inside our well developed reptilian guy brain there are few things that are processed as fast as “motorbike…” (Aston Martin DB9 comes close). This goes double for new bikes and elevated a little further still for me when I see one of the big bore naked bikes.

Naked bikes came around when people became tired of repairing bodywork of road bikes after laying them down. They just left the bodywork off, it was easier for everyone.

For me it’s having the design be such an important part of the aesthetics of the bike. The engineering, styling and dynamics are all on display. A good naked bike means all three are mutually dependent. Get any of the three wrong and you have an ugly, poor bike.

Get all three right and you have a Ducati Monster.

On a naked bike you see everything, no chance to hide some ugly tube routing behind a fairing. The engineering is on display and quality of execution is on display in the details. Get the details just right and it’s beautiful.

Ducati has that Italian flair that makes Ferraris mush more of a statement than an equally good Porsche. They have character and even sitting still make a statement.

Riding a Monster grabs the reptilian brain and screams at it to open the throttle and feel the power.

I believe that true petrolheads need to have owned an Italian car at some point; I’d listen to an argument that they also need to have owned a bike.

There is a something different about Bike shows when compared to a regular motor show. Cars are seen by most as a necessity, while for most owning a bike is closer to a hobby.

Car companies spend millions on flash marketing to promote the release of a new midsize family saloon that’s not going to be quite as good as a Honda Accord in some way. Bikes don’t have any of that glitz because they don’t need it. The reptilian brain knows what it likes and an ad agency is going to have a hard time convincing it otherwise.

I’d certainly be more cautious on a bike than I was when I was 22 and briefly rode something with too much power. Reality is I’ve never learned how to ride properly, I passed the test, but never learned how to push a bike and where the edge really was.

I know I can’t ride a race bike, my back just can’t take it, but having an Italian bike in the garage would be very, very cool.