Ducati

The streetbike segment has certainly been heating up lately. Blurring the lines between naked sportbikes, choppers and old school café racers, these un-faired brawlers broadcast their preference of function over form loudly and proudly, yet often wind up looking fantastic for doing so.

Ducati is arguably the leader of the charge in this area of the marketplace, offering the popular Monster, the animalistic Diavel, and the fittingly-named Streetfighter families of motorcycles. That last model range is set to grow next year with the addition of the Streetfighter 848. But if you think the only change is just a slightly smaller engine than the 1,098cc unit found in the current Streetfighter and Streetfighter S, you are quite wrong. How wrong are we talking? 

Casey Stoner extended his MotoGP Championship lead over Jorge Lorenzo after winning this weekend's Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway. Even after crashing heavily in qualifying, Jorge Lorenzo was still able to hold onto pole position for Sunday's race. His lap time of 1'21.202 was only 0.072 seconds faster than Stoner's best. Continue reading after the break for our recap of Sunday's race as well as the rest of our coverage from Laguna Seca.

It’s hard to argue against motorcycles being lots of fun. Unfortunately, it’s also pretty hard to argue against them being dangerous (relative to cars, anyway). Whether it’s the fault of the rider, other motorists or some other factor or combination of factors, motorcycle accidents happen, and very, very few of them qualify as “minor.”

So it’s on that happy note that we share with you some wildly painted Ducati 1198s and 1098s with the pronouncement “Kill Me Fast” on their flanks. What’s the story behind them? Are they for sale? Make the jump to find out the answers to these and other burning questions.

To further emphasize the idea that the lines of its motorcycles are directly related to the curves of the human form, Ducati has hired photographer Elizabeth Raab to show the relationship in naked light, so to speak. This set of photos really succeeds at setting off the talents of Ducati's designers at nailing the human form in cold steel.

To achieve the brief, Raab threw some nude models atop Ducati's most-desirable models and added delicate lighting, to show off the lines of both subjects just so. The result, as you can probably imagine, will leave both gearheads and non-gearheads thoroughly agog. Think of it as a slightly less-NSFW version of the Pirelli calendar.