I have to admit, I am a Ducati fan, I actually bought a 748 early 2005 and absolutely love it. I have not been able to ride it much because I wadded it up in April of '05 and have had to spend quite a while getting it back running. My brother has had it in his shop for over a year, mostly waiting on me to get to get him the parts he needs to make it work.

With this in mind, I have been super-excited to hear about the new 1098 that Ducati has released. The specs are unbelievable, and they finally went back to their roots in design and made it into a super-sexy machine. I dont think that they will ever get back to the beautiful design of the 916 series, but they have gotten close. It has hints of the CBR 1000RR, but then there are also some uniquely Ducati parts as well. They went back to the single-swingarm, and also made it stronger than the traditional swingarm. They kept the indertail exhaust, and of course, made it feel super-small to sit on.

I would say that if I had $15K to blow, I would definitely be picking it up. Of course, that would mean that i would have to get rid of the current Duck and the 900RR I have.

Looking at the current pre-season testing has been great this year, the 2007 season is going to be one to watch. I can't wait for the MotoGP, SBK and AMA season openers. Ben Spies is looking good in the Pre-season testing, so are his teammates. Hopefully Honda will be doing a better job of getting the CBR up to snuff for the Superbike season, and finally Eric B is back on a superbike, I can't wait to see him in action again.

The MotoGP testing has shown that Ducati is going to be a force to be reckoned with this year, and Honda has some work to do on their motor to get it back to the envy of the paddock. Nicky has been able to keep the 800 rolling pretty fast, but it seems that his pace is a little bit off in his race simulations. Suzuki has shown something good in the testing at Sepang, but didnt seem to go as well in testing at Philip Island, so I will wait and see how that bike will perform. No one is questioning the drive that Jon Hopkins has for hiw first win in the series, hopefully this will be his year and we will have more Americans fighting for the championship. I dont think that Colin is going to do much more than play second fiddle to Rossi again. I would love to see he and Bayliss going head to head in the World Superbike series again, they had some truly epic battles and I dont think that Troy Corser has what it takes to challenge Bayliss. Corser is an unblievable rider, but Bayliss just takes it to another level.