Cycle World has posted a five question interview with Ducati designer Pierre Terblanche.

CW: You’ve made a lot of Ducatisti unhappy with your 999 and some other controversial designs. Why are they so ticked off and how do you feel about that?
(Here, Terblanche seemed relaxed and unapologetic, where I was expecting him to be exasperated and defensive. I’m certain he’s been asked this question a lot since 2003!)

PT:  I thought that the 916 series needed to move on. The original 916 was a beautiful bike, but it had a lot of issues that owners and journalists alike remarked on and complained about. These were mainly practical issues regarding using the bike on the road under real-world conditions. The 999 fixed a lot of the issues; it was a direct response to the complaints about the 916/996/998.

Maybe I was too rational; maybe people liked those flaws. The intention had been to give people an exciting bike which also works well under real-world riding conditions. I now know that I went too far on the styling for the average biker, but as you well know it’s always easier to play Monday-morning quarterback. It is all so easy to discuss now but, hey, you win some and you lose some, and it’s all water under the bridge now.