It’s rather amazing how one bike can so quickly transform the public face of a company in the consciousness of the road going public. In less than a full week just about everyone I know has had the word ‘Ducati’ slipping of the tips of their tongues. Granted most of these folks are either my friends or fellow riders, but its downright hard to ignore the kind of branding fever that a $65,000 motorcycle creates in today’s TV turned bling culture. Undoubtedly as the bike gets closer to actual production we’re going to see it in magazines like Maxim and Playboy, featured on The Tonight Show with Leno, and who knows where else.

Already word of the bike and the assorted press photos have spread across the ‘net in a ridiculously fast fashion – Every motorcycle or sportbike forum on the internet seems to flooded with posts on the subject. Without a doubt every single one of next Month’s mainstream Moto-Mags will probably feature the bike on their cover.

The day that the bike got announced Ducati for all their cleverness made it a bit harder than one would have expected to get to the nut & bolt information with their high-end Flash introduction, though I do have to say that it was worth the watch the first time. You’ve got to give points to webBikeWorld, Motorcycle Daily , Bike in the Fast Lane , and The Kneeslider who were some of the first and best sources of information on the web.

In my opinion however the two best write-ups went well beyond the standard press release approach. OneWheelDrive.Net posted a marvelous start to finish recap of how the project started and where it finally stands which is well worth the read and Richard at Ducati Diary added a more rational UK view which is fun.

Additionally someone has even already started a ’sedici based website called Desmosedici.Org - of course right now it’s just a place holder until they decide what to do with it, but I give whomever registered the domain name credit for looking into the future…

These are just a small inkling of the recent words written about the bike, but I think it’s fair to say that already the Desmosedici is having an impact. A mere 400 units have captured the imagination of just about every motorcyclist on the planet. The question it strikes me is what is Ducati going to do with all of this new found cultural currency?

When Chrysler introduced the Viper, which in many ways I think makes an interesting comparison to the Desmosedici, the rough and tumble sportscar reinvigorated the brands image. Thousands of advertisements suddenly showcased every car in their line-up in bright red and with serious attitude. What was once a mere Mini-Van was now subconsciously ‘tough’ because it was painted in Viper red. But from a performance standpoint the introduction of the Viper didn’t exactly redefine the cars and trucks that Chrysler was making at the time. It took them years redesign, build, and introduce better looking and faster cars.

One can only hope that Ducati doesn’t repeat this mistake. They have the world attention right now, so what are they going to do with it?