km : Motorcycle News

If you haven't read our recent piece about Ducati's legendary 916, let us tell you right now it'll be worth your while. Even if you're not a rider and are just here for the car content, seriously--it's worth your time. You don't even need to use your browser's back button if you just go ahead and click right here.

Now that you're all studied up on the bike, allow us to present this special piece of design that didn't quite make it into the broader look back on the regular production-series 916. The photos you see here are actually from the 916 SPS Fogarty Replica, a special homologation bike of which only 202 were built and individually numbered, a production-run excuse to get a new frame into competitive racing. It was never sold in the United States, but through some connections, Kilometer was able to track down one of just two supposedly in the country, making the studio photos down near the bottom of the article pretty special. One could look at this bike for hours and be continually amazed by new things.

But back to the cool detail we're talking about. The pictures you're looking at above and below are from under the SPS bike's tail section. That whole body piece made of carbon fiber for weight savings, and was pretty progressive for the mid-nineties. Not wanting to waste some of that effort by attaching heavier clips to the carbon fiber to run the taillight wiring, Ducati instead fashioned special rectangles of a carbon-kevlar weave. Bent just right and with the proper tension between them, the clips were bonded to the inside of the body panel and in went the wiring. Don't they just look expensive?

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