I’m not impressed by power. No, really. If I were, I could have bought any of the current crop of Übersportsbikes for less than I paid for my Ducati, had another 45bhp in my right hand and a license in the shredder. I’m much more interested in handling, real-world performance, and maybe a little bit of cool engineering style. However…

…there are those moments — those rare “Holy Shiiiit…” moments – when something comes along that just blows my little cotton socks off with its sheer desirability, style, engineering and, ah, price. Today is one of those — Ducati have just launched the road-going version of their MotoGP machine, the Desmosedici RR. Now this is not a mere MotoGP lookalike machine with an (admittedly impressive) road chassis and engine underneath some slinky bodywork. No, this is their 260bhp GP6 race bike, detuned to a ‘mere’ 200bhp+ and fitted with the closest that production components can come to the prototype technologies of MotoGP.

The pictures are here, the official site is here, and my own site will be here, once I get time to do something with it.

Of course it isn’t perfect: they’ve given it exhausts that exit from the top of the seat unit, which won’t do tailpack-tourers any good at all. This sadly means that those following it (ie, everything else on the road) will be denied the Mersey Tunnel effect of the race bikes twin bore exhausts. I assume that this particular decision was taken on environmental grounds — to stop itinerant badgers from taking up residence. There’s also the small matter of price: 37,500 of our UK pounds. By the time it ships in 2007, and if GWB Jr continues with his determined attempt to turn the USA into a banana republic, you’ll probably have to sell Texas back to Mexico to buy one. On the upside, and like my local Hyundai dealer, the price does include three years routine servicing. So that clearly makes it a practical commuter and ideal for the Tesco run: it’ll keep the barbecue chicken warm on the way home, that’s for sure.

One more thought: this is a production road bike, however limited the production. Its power and specification could therefore make it the cheapest possible privateer way into competitive World Superbike racing. Now this could be very interesting indeed…