Ha! Ron - KNEW you wouldn't be able to resist!
Ahhh.... can't help Ducati management getting cold feet on the SBK after the vociferous complaints from the old timer Duc guys. Look how WRONG they were with both the Hypermotard and the Sports Classics (ready years ago), both of which seem to have been instant successes, at least from current feedback.
Sales performance?- well, you wanna bet a few month's salary that the MV Agusta sales is nowhere NEAR the Duc SBK - yet in an identical market? Any reason for MV going bang and needing saving OTHER than styling? Of course! ...and that's my point.
The Ducati SBK sales performance is NOT a styling issue! Non Ducati riders and the publick LOVE the looks of the Ducati. Have you ever heard any non Duc rider say anything bad about the styling? The only things I've ever heard are "reliability issues?", "price", "not enough power", "cost of servicing" - but I hear LOTs of "beautiful bikes!"......
I say it's NOT an styling issue so much as a performance/cost issue. It's an issue with the competition raising the performance bar in recent years, after the 916 was introduced, to the point now where the Duc is handsomely thrashed by any of the top Japanese sportsbikes at half to one-third the price.
The market for the expensive exotic drops as soon as there is no performance advantage.
Don't talk to me about Ducati's great performance in BSB and World Superbike racing classes - rather take a stock Duc that you or I can buy, and compare it to a Japanese sportsbike from 600cc and up, as happens in magazine comparisons the world over - and tell me why some kid will want to spend 2 to 3 times the amount on a bike that can barely compete with the japanese on performance terms, and cannot compete in reliability and service costs and price?
There's a VERY limited market for huge price premiums when there is no performance advantage.
The Duc makes an average rider like myself feel great on the track. I don't ride much on the street anymore - it's too damned uncomfortable, and frankly my 996 is a pig on the street. Get into the twisties or on the track, and it's great. Fantastic. But still slower than most of the 600's you can buy. I KNOW that, and accept it....but this is an ENTIRELY different situation to when the 916 was introduced. Then you had the old heavy Gixxer slingshot 1100 in its last years, the Fizzy 1000 and Honda 900, the Kawa 750/900, and that's about it - and it was a performance leader against those bikes in anything except perhaps a dead straight line. Not true today.
Today, a Honda CBR600 has better roll-on performance than the 999 (look at the numbers), and every Japanese superbike is lighter and handles about as well (most are more agile with better transitions and have better weight distribution, but don't have the expensive Ducati suspension), and EVERY Japanese superbike absolutely anihilates the 999 in a straight line. Not even close.
I would be willing to bet a fairly large sum of money that if the 999 was 30 pounds lighter, and had 30 more HP, sales would go through the roof, despite the price premium - because the performance tables would be turned again (at least for now) - and no matter what we Duc owners think or try to rationalize away, the attraction of a performance leader counts in this market. I think you are missing the point when you (or even Ducati management now) thinks the sales performance is due to STYLING.
Ducati - tackle the REAL issues here - improve your reliability, reduce service costs, increase power, reduce weight, improve weight distribution...and leave the damned styling alone. Who wants another bland Japanese-esque face? It should be uniquely Ducati, and instantly recognizable. Not some half-arsed Honda clone or 916 retro update. PLEASE!