World's greatest bikes: #1 Ducati 916

No bike has ever defined an era as much as the Ducati 916 defined the 1990s. Launched in 1994, the 916 replaced the aging 888 as Ducati’s sportsbike and went on to not only dominate the World Superbike Championship but also rewrite the rules for what makes a motorcycle beautiful.

A result of the collaboration of three of motorcycling’s greatest brains, Massimo Tamburini, Claudio Castiglioni and Massimo Bordi, the 916 – along with the 1993 Monster 900 – helped drag Ducati out of the antiquated state it found
itself in as the 1990s began and into an era of success and worldwide fame into the new millennium.

Recognising that Ducati was a firm built on race victories, owner Castiglioni approached his head of design, Tamburini (who had previously formed Bimota, the ‘ta’ in its name is for Tamburini), with a simple request.

“He said, ‘I want a breakthrough bike but I don’t want an old Ducati and I don’t want a Japanese bike’,” remembered
Tamburini in one of the last interviews before his death in 2014.

Based around the 888’s four-valve Desmoquattro motor, which Bordi designed and had already proven its speed in WSB taking three titles, Tamburini housed it in a traditional Ducati trellis frame and then added his typical Italian flair that had seen Bimota previously become an Italian powerhouse for style…