Apparently September 20th was the anniversary of what would have been Fabio Taglioni’s birthday were he still alive. In 2006 to commemorate the man and the event, Superbike Planet ran a very nice biography of Fabio Taglioni that’s worth reading.

Taglioni built bikes in a period when one man could still engineer an entire motorcycle and enjoy near complete autocratic control over the project. No focus groups, no polling of current customers to better gauge what will sell, Ducati’s line-up was many times just one man’s vision. He was both famous as he was infamous, but consider the simple fact that he was well known then and is remembered now. Can you name the man who designed the Kawasaki Z-1 or the Honda 750-4?

You can read the full article here if you want to learn more about the man behind Ducati’s design and engineering department for forty years…

via The 1098 Forum