Milan Show 2009 
TUESDAY 10TH November 2AM
My alarm clock goes off at 2am and despite only a few hours sleep I'm up and raring to go, the prospect of seeing so many fantastic new bikes and taking in the atmosphere of the Milan show makes it a whole lot easier to get up in the middle of the night!
I drive to John Hackett's to collect him as we then both head down to Luton airport for the 6.45am flight to Milan. We soon bump in to some of the Ducati UK guys and also some of our Ducati Coventry customers at Luton airport who are obviously heading over to the show too, conversation soon towards to the new Ducati Multistrada 1200 and we are all eager to see it up close and personal.
We arrive at Malpensa Milan airport on time and transfer to a coach which takes us straight to the arena. We arrive at the entrance to the hugely impressive building, the excitement is building already as we are all keen to get in and see just what 2010 will have to offer the biking world. With the show spread over 7 halls, it's a question of where to start? Needless to say both John Hackett and myself made a bee line for the Ducati stand! Having arrived at the show shortly after 10am, it was soon filing up and it was quickly evident the majority of the masses were heading in the same direction as us, to the Ducati stand!
And their it was, looking absolutely fantastic, Ducati had made a huge effort on their sizeable stand, every current model was on show in many of the various colour options available not to mention the many bikes fitted with some of the finest trick parts from the Ducati Performance range. Ducati had obviously put a lot of time and effort in to the design and layout of their stand, even with so many bikes on show, their was room to have a good look round each bike from all angles. The first bike to hit us as we approached the stand was the gorgeous new 1198R sporting the all new Ducati Corse colour scheme,
what a clever use of the new Ducati corporate logo, top marks to whoever thought of that one! And yes that is a gloss lacquered aluminium fuel tank, how trick is that! Needless to say, the star of the show and the bike we had all really come to see was the new for 2010 Ducati Multistrada (MTS) 1200, we were not disappointed. Ducati had the 3 MTS versions on show taking pride of place in the centre of their stand in red, black and white, some lavished with Ducati Performance parts such as carbon bodywork, full Termi exhaust systems, luggage kits etc. Both John Hackett and myself were standing studying these gorgeous new bikes when a guy tapped John on the shoulder and asked "what do you think of my new bike?" It was none other than Claudio Domenicali, the boss of Ducati, turns out John and Claudio go back some years. Claudio described the technical features of the new MTS 1200 to both John and myself and we spent some time talking about all things Ducati, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to stand and chat with him, like most of us involved with Ducati, he's as passionate about them as we all are! John Hackett was so impressed by the looks of the bike not to mention the ground breaking technical specification that he ordered one for himself there and then. Other impressive bikes included the new Hypermotard 1100 Evo SP with a beautifully engineered pair of Ducati Performance spoked wheels fitted.
what a clever use of the new Ducati corporate logo, top marks to whoever thought of that one! And yes that is a gloss lacquered aluminium fuel tank, how trick is that! Needless to say, the star of the show and the bike we had all really come to see was the new for 2010 Ducati Multistrada (MTS) 1200, we were not disappointed. Ducati had the 3 MTS versions on show taking pride of place in the centre of their stand in red, black and white, some lavished with Ducati Performance parts such as carbon bodywork, full Termi exhaust systems, luggage kits etc. Both John Hackett and myself were standing studying these gorgeous new bikes when a guy tapped John on the shoulder and asked "what do you think of my new bike?" It was none other than Claudio Domenicali, the boss of Ducati, turns out John and Claudio go back some years. Claudio described the technical features of the new MTS 1200 to both John and myself and we spent some time talking about all things Ducati, it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to stand and chat with him, like most of us involved with Ducati, he's as passionate about them as we all are! John Hackett was so impressed by the looks of the bike not to mention the ground breaking technical specification that he ordered one for himself there and then. Other impressive bikes included the new Hypermotard 1100 Evo SP with a beautifully engineered pair of Ducati Performance spoked wheels fitted.
After taking a good look round the Ducati stand and chatting to a few familiar faces we headed off to see our good friends Massimo and Silvia Pierobon on their stand. Again we bumped into more of our Ducati friends from Italy and spent a good hour catching up, we could have chatted all day but with so much to see John and myself had to head off and continue our tour of this fantastic show.
Next it was off to a see our friends at Accossato (brake and clutch component manufacturer) and discuss future plans and ideas.
A quick spot of lunch to refuel and we set off to go to a few more scheduled meetings, then with a couple of hours to spare we took time to see as much as we could and see what other manufacturers were offering for 2010, I think most people will agree, the new Ducati MTS1200 really was the star of the show and stood head and shoulders above its competition.
6pm and it was time to head back to the coach and straight back to Malpensa airport for the 9.45pm flight home. Seems many others had the same idea as again we bumped in to more of our friends and customers at the airport, and yet again, same as we started off the day talking about the new MTS1200, that's exactly how we ended it, we all agreed March 2010 couldn't come soon enough (delivery of the MTS 1200).
We all had a quiet flight home as we were all feeling the effects of a very early start and plenty of walking, but it was certainly worth the visit and I'm already looking forward to going again next year.
We are taking orders already for the new MTS1200 so don't delay, they are already in demand and rightly so!
TRACKDAYBLOG
Milan Show 2009
TUESDAY 10TH November 2AM
My alarm clock goes off at 2am and despite only a few hours sleep I'm up and raring to go, the prospect of seeing so many...
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