Let’s start with some numbers before we get emotional. The official clubs of this motorcycle brand are celebrating their 25th anniversary. There are 367 of them in sixty-seven countries, with more than 48,000 members.
And now for the feeling: we’re talking about Ducati.
There are two ways to talk about the Ducati brand. One is highly technical, full of terms like bevel drive, desmodromic valves, Taglioni, Termignoni, Lafranconi. Or numbers like 70.8 degree lean angles, 216 hp at 13,500 rpm, 120.9 newton meters, 200 kilograms of weight. Or acronyms like DPL (Ducati Power Launch), DQS (Ducati Quick Shift), DRL (Daytime Running Light). Or the fact that Andrea Ferraresi, Centro Stile & Strategy Director Ducati, is a trained aerodynamics specialist and aerospace engineer.
And while we’re on the data-driven side of things, let’s throw in the 25th anniversary of the first Ducati Official Club. Today there are 367 active clubs in sixty-seven countries with – give or take – over 48,000 members. Each club is tied to a dealership and has a president and a vice president in addition to a treasurer and secretary.
But what does the president actually do? We asked Björn Keller, president of the Ducati Official Club Main-Tauber: “Organizing regular meetups in our region, club rides, meetups with partner clubs, group motorcycle vacations, safety training at the start of the season, and every two years a trip to the World Ducati Week in Misano.” He also explained that founding a Ducati Official Club (D.O.C. for short) requires fifty members – and a lot of passion.
Good to know. One more thing: Ducati offers its club members exclusive experiences like a visit to the factory in Bologna or access to otherwise off-limits areas at MotoGP, WSBK races and training sessions.
Francesco Milicia, VP Global Sales and After Sales Ducati, told us about another event that’s been around for the past four years and is definitely worth mentioning: “On ‘We Ride As One’ day, every year on the first Saturday in May, all the clubs around the world go on rides through the most beautiful parts of their regions. Last year we had 19,000 participants!”
At this point, we can safely leave the cold facts behind and move on to the other way of looking at Ducati – the emotional one. Because Francesco Milicia is a dyed-in-the-wool Ducatista, and this is where he really opened up: “I was once part of it in Rome – 500 Ducati bikes traveling through the city center, escorted by police in a Lamborghini, all the way to the Vatican. It was unbelievable. And knowing that on the same day people in New York, L.A., Sydney or São Paulo are all out on their Ducati – that’s pure magic.”
So where does this fascination come from? Milicia thinks it’s because Ducati is a worldview, and because riders fall in love with their bikes. “Maybe it’s the color red,” he says, “the color of passion. A lot of Ducatisti say: ‘There are motorcycles – and then there’s Ducati.’” A second later he’s telling us about World Ducati Week, the brand’s biggest event, where 90,000 Ducatisti get together to show their deep connection to the brand. Because yes, it’s a company that makes motorcycles – but it’s also so much more. It’s the feeling of togetherness, the knowledge that you’re part of one big family.
And if you’re still wondering what you’re looking at here in these pictures – they’re from the World President Tour & Meeting, an annual gathering of club presidents, held this year in Sicily. Seventy presidents from twenty countries took part, riding from Palermo to Catania via Erice, Segesta and Cefalù. Björn Keller was one of them, of course. “Spending a few days together really intensifies that spirit of community and the warmth of Italian hospitality,” he said. And when we asked him to sum up the appeal of Ducati in just a few words, he replied: “There’s really just one sentence – and it’s not mine, it’s from Ange Joe, president of the D.O.C. New Zealand. She said: ‘We ride, love and live Ducati.’ I couldn’t put it any better.”
TEXT: Wiebke Brauer
PHOTOS: Ducati
ramp #68 Happy as a Clam
