The Ducati MH900e (or Evoluzione) is a

retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from the past, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. It has been argued that there is a nostalgia cycle in popular culture. Definition The term ...

sport motorcycle A sports motorcycle, sports bike, or sport bike is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfort, ...

made by

Ducati Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A () is an Italian motorcycle manufacturing company headquartered in Bologna, Italy. History Barely a month after the official liberation of Italy in 1944, SIATA announced its intention to sell this engine, called ...

in 2001 and 2002, in a limited production run of 2,000 units. It was designed by

Pierre Terblanche Pierre Terblanche is a South African motorcycle designer born on 6 November 1956 in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape. He started his career in advertising but felt the need to move into the design world. After moving to Germany and working with ...

as an homage to

Mike Hailwood Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood (2 April 1940 – 23 March 1981) was a British racing driver and motorcycle road racer, who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from to , and Formula One between and . Nicknamed "the Bike", Hailwood was ...

's 1978

racing motorcycle The motorcycle sport of racing (also called moto racing and motorbike racing) includes motorcycle road racing and off-road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing an ...

. In 1984 Ducati had made the 900 MHR street bike, also an homage to Hailwood's 1978 bike.

Concept

Ducati 900 cc Mike Hailwood Replica 1984

The motorcycle's concept by the Ducati designer Pierre Terblanche was a homage to the racing motorcycle

rode to win the 1978

Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May and June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907 Isle of Man TT, 1907. The event begins on the UK Spring Bank Holiday at the e ...

. The MH in MH900e is Hailwood's initials, and the ''e'' suffix is for ''evoluzione'' in Italian, evolution in English. In September 1998, the sketch was presented to the general public at the

Intermot INTERMOT Cologne is a biennial trade show for motorcycle manufacturers. The trade show began in Munich in 1998, though it was founded in Cologne. Since 2006 it has moved to '' Koelnmesse'' in Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of ...

Show in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Ducati decided to post a questionnaire on their website to test the interest of the MH900e fans. Federico Minoli and Massimo Bordi (General Manager of Ducati) produced a limited run of two thousand hand-built bikes. The first one thousand bikes would be produced in 2000 and the second thousand would be produced in 2001. Ducati made the decision to sell the new bike directly to the consumer exclusively via the Internet. The Ducati website opened for orders on January 1, 2000, at 00:01am GMT at a price of Euro15,000. The first 1,000 units were sold out in 31 minutes. The remaining bikes were sold over the next few weeks. Individuals made purchases from 20 different countries. The estimated breakdown of the sales was 30% from Europe, 30% from the US and 39% from Japan.

Production

The production of the MH900e was originally going to be sourced out to

Bimota Bimota is an Italian manufacturer of custom and production motorcycles. It was founded in 1973 in Rimini by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri, and Massimo Tamburini. The company name is a portmanteau derived from the first two letters of each of ...

with production beginning the summer of 2000, but the collapse of the small company resulted in Ducati keeping the production in-house. The bike would be hand-built in a corner of the Bologna Factory at a rate of 4-5 bikes per day. Due to the unexpected changes, there was a late start in production with the first bike being produced one-year after its introduction in December 2000. Production continued into 2002 resulting in two different production years associated with the VINs (2001 and 2002).

Suit over Hailwood name

In 2001 Pauline Hailwood, Mike Hailwood's widowed wife, sued Ducati for using her late husband's name in connection with Ducati's MH900e. Mike Hailwood never rode the MH900e and Ducati defended that the motorcycle was "inspired by the Ducati motorcycle that Mike Hailwood rode at the Isle of Man TT race in 1978". The case was settled with a retroactive license.Hailwood v. Ducati Motor Holding, Spa, 2:01-cv-03403- JAG (D NJ, filed 19July01)

References

{{Ducati MH900e Sport bikes Motorcycles introduced in 2001 Motorcycles designed by Pierre Terblanche Motorcycles powered by V engines