This is truly the best Ducati bike that you are likely to get your hands on, considering that the Desmosedici RR MotoGP replica is probably out of reach and certainly sold out. Don’t feel bad, though, ’cause the 1098 R is a most excellent consolation prize. We never did hate on the 999 like many Ducati loyalists seemed to, but we still recognize the 1098 R as a vast improvement. The details read as you might expect, such as the bigger bore, bigger stroke, bigger valves, and bigger throttle bodies housed inside the sand-cast engine cases that ought to adequately hurtle the Öhlins TTXR single rear shock and fully adjustable 43 mm Öhlins fork with low friction Titanium Nitride towards the next apex. Keeping up appearances is the carbon fiber bodywork, tri-colored color scheme (plus natural carbon fiber finish) and gold Marchesini Y-shaped forged wheels. Bello indeed.
Leading the list of electronic goodies is the traction control system, which is enabled with the included track-only ECU tuning. We imagine, however, that many riders will run the upgraded programming on the street regardless. Can’t blame ‘em if they do, and they’ll be rewarded with a boost from 180 horsepower to 186. Every little bit counts, right?
[Source: Ducati]

Proving once again that it is always easier to tear things apart than it is to build them is the Australian monster, as seen above. The builder, Ray Baumann, says that “this is a way of taking a bit more care,” if you can believe that. You see, his previous job was as a stunt driver. He claims that it is much safer riding this monster bike crushing cars than it was to jump them on a much smaller machine. Weighing in at 13 tons and standing about 10 feet tall, the monster doesn’t appear to have any suspension travel at all. The frame appears to be an upside-down ladder design, with wheels and tires from Caterpillar. What does it take to move this maxi-machine? A Detroit Diesel engine hooked to a 6-speed Allison automatic transmission.

[Source: World Car ]