Well, it’s 5:32 AM as I start this post and I’m finding it rather hard to sleep… This by itself wouldn’t be news, except for the fact that later today I will become the proud owner of a brand new Yellow Ducati 749…

It is quite a thing and one that I’m not sure I can accurately describe. While there are many sportbikes and racebikes out there, there is only one Ducati. It is unquestionably the closest thing that the sportbike category has to the Harley Davidson ethos trapped in race paddock sensibility and a Madsen Avenue mindset.

People don’t just ride a Ducati, they love them. The brand loyalty is amazingly high, over 70% in fact, the most among modern motorcycle manufactures. It is not just a bike, but a lifestyle choice. The Italians call the faithful, “Ducatisti” and they are known to be passionate, insane, fast, sexy and styled.

Owning a Ducati has been a dream of mine for longer than I can grasp. It was quite literally the bike that brought me in to motorcycling.

The 916 body-style was the bike for my generation. It redefined the styling of motorcycles and at the same time won over 115 races and, I believe, 5 world superbike titles over the better part of a decade.

But winning races is only part of the picture. The 916 body style, which morphed into the 996 and then later the 998, was the icon of what was and is ‘cool’. It has appeared in countless movies (the most obvious reference being the freeway chase sequence in “The Matrix”), television shows and fashion mags (GQ did one of the first motorcycle spreads using nothing but a Ducati) over the course of its tenure.

As far as bikes go, the 916 was a revolution. It altered public style, the entire liter bike category, and the definition of sex and speed?

Fast forwarding until today and the 916 body style is still a stunning motorcycle, but it is not the king of the hill in terms of performance anymore. It has been eclipsed by the 999, Ducati?s newest line of superbikes. Unlike the previous reincarnations of the same basic technology, the jump from the last of the 916 line, the 998, to the 999 is nothing short of spectacular. The difference between the two styles is so defined that the 916 which once seemed like a killer sport bike, now feels like a sedan in comparison to the faster, lighter, nimbler 999.

By now if you?re still with me, I’m sure you?re asking what does all this 916 versus 999 talk have to do with a 749? Well, Ducati for the past decade has produced two lines of bikes from the same platform; a liter bike (i.e. anything with an engine displacement over 900cc) and a 700cc superbike. While the 916 through 999 lines excel at the racetrack, many motorcycle writers consider the lighter, smaller, 749 a better canyon bike.

So later today I will join the millions of Ducatisti across the world in celebrating the passion of the most incredible Italian Motorcycle Company ? if not the world ? when I pick up my new 749.