It's No Contest: Ducati Corse Desmo 450 is the hottest bike ever!

Only thing missing is the spoke covers.

For real they CRUSHED IT that year. 

I think it is a nice looking bike. personally think reason for Black Swinger is due to issues in the finish that can be disguised through the coating/anodizing. Beta is same way. The Valve Maintenance stuff that few are concerned about will disrupt the sales program. Its a good start but i think in time after gaining data and logging data from events, they may come to find a design change for this style valve train and offer something more "traditional/durable" due to average RPM data. Great start for the brand. As far as the colors, willing to bet Troy has something up his sleeve for the Riders outfit to match or come close to the hub color.  

I doubt it. Desmo valve train is their whole “thing”. 

i am not saying it will change from desmo. but we may see a design change to offroad desmo for less maint/more durability that may be similar to a traditional setup.

Jimmy Weinert once said "it doesn't matter what they say about you, as long as they are talking about you" or close to that

I have done several valve adjustments on my own Ducatis with out having to take it to the dealer, they are actually fairly simple to do.  

Wonder what OTD here in the states will be and target dates to be on dealer floors.

Well they run silver hubs in Europe so it seems the green was pretty intentional.  Someone pointed this out to me in another thread, they're the same color as the Duc/Lambo collab.  I like that they did something different, not sure how I feel about it, but TLD killed the rest of the bike.  I like the deep red, reminds me of the red Ferrari ran at Mugello in '20 and the flo red is sick.  Not sure about the gold gas cap tho... matching green could've been cool.

If you want to know if desmo valves do require more maintenance, comparing recommended maintenance interval for Desmo and non-desmo road bikes (since there aren't any off-road Desmo bikes available yet) could give an indication.

I chose Hypermotard 698 since it's the closest Ducati to what their 450 will be: 659cc desmo single cylinder, 151 kg, 78 hp. Recommended maintenance interval to check and/or adjust valve clearance is 30k km. I chose another euro single cylinder Supermoto bike, KTM 690 SMCR, its recommended interval for valve clearance is 10k km. Now you can check for similar bikes, take your pick and see if you find any over 30k km.

Is there any information on the bikes? suggested models, MSRP? dealer base, etc?

What are the specs on it? Weight, power output, engine components (pankl, Hinson?), suspension travel, geometry, etc…

Love that Ducati is getting into the game but the dealer network is awful in the South. The valve train is interesting but the rest of the bike screams meh to me.  I’m more interested in the triumphs tbh. 

We have 1 dealer in all of Idaho and they suck balls! Dennis Dillon is the name and they are horrible at service and have uneducated staff. I doubt they’ll even know there is a 450 coming. The Press Release said “In select dealers July 2025”

Nothing will ever be as great looking as the full works bikes from the mid 70s to mid 80s, but that Ducati looks pretty good for a modern bike. Not sold on the greenish tint of the hubs, but maybe it looks better in person than in a photo. 

I do wish that side panels covered the exhaust better on modern bikes, but it looks like that’s just a thing of the past. 

Agreed, especially some of the works exotica that we were treated to back then. But I've never found a single 4T that I thought looked as racey as a 2T. Probably because the 4T engines are so much bulkier and heavier looking (not to mention that Desmo Duck engine looks so tall that I had to make sure that was the gas cap behind the bars and not the valve cover)... and it's really hard to top the look of a hand-welded cone pipe.

And I'm also in the camp of hating the disappearing side panels.

Saw it in person today, the hubs and gas cap look even worse in real life but I can’t imagine those will make the final cut for the production bike. The body is very smooth without many of the angles and cutouts you see with many of the other bikes. Can definitely see the MotoGP influence there

I’m curious about the same thing. No info on that seems kinda weird… but I think I can already see the V.O.R., Cannondale, aprilla, husaberg, s.w.m. Angle here…

I generally think European bikes are hideous but that is slick as hell.

Troy said during one of his interviews that this was a pre-productiin test bike and was filthy when it was crated and sent to his shop. The spent a lot of time detailing it so it could be presented at A1. 

Strong disagree 

Throw on some gold hubs and rims, add red fork guards and you have a decent looking scooter!

The hauler is awesome and worthy of the Ducati name. I find the bike to be kinda fugly.

I think it’s plain ugly

Respect your opinion. 

I feel exactly the opposite- the Ducati is far more exciting than the Triumph to me.

For the bike I saw racing in Europe, they had Monster logo's all over it.  Anybody notice that Monster is completely missing from the bike shown here in the US, didn't even see logos on their big rig.   No Monster sponsorship for them here in the US?

TLD has never had a monster partnership to my knowledge. 

Looks like the footpegs are mounted pretty high, well above the frame rails. 

Makes me wonder if you’d  case landings that you thought you’d clear. 

Huh?  I’m worried about my tires clearing not my pegs