The Most Collectible Bikes from World Ducati Week

In early July, Ducati enthusiasts rode 8,000 motorcycles to the ninth-biennial World Ducati Week, gathering for festivities at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli—a road racing track located on Italy’s Adriatic Coast. The Ducatisti were celebrating their marque’s 90th anniversary, many venturing about 90 miles inland to stop at Ducati’s headquarters in Bologna. Those willing to make the trek were the first to see the newly renovated museum, which documents the company’s progression from a manufacturer of radios and shavers prior to World War II (and ordnance during it) to some of the world’s best road and track motorcycles in the postwar period. Activities at Misano brought together current and past Ducati racing legends for dirt-track competition on new Ducati Scramblers, drag races on the first-generation Ducati Diavel, and stunt riding on a range of current Ducati bikes. Of course, there was also the opportunity to see the full panoply of Ducatis. Here are nine of our favorites, with valuations from Nick Smith, U.S. head of motorcycles at Bonhams auction house.