The Best Italian Motorcycles Of All Time [2023 Edition]

Why We Picked It:

These days, it seems like manufacturers want to play it safe, keeping within the regulations for racing without really truly going "Out there" as they did in the old days. Moto Guzzi's Otto Cilindri race bike was the definition of "Out there," for one very compact but odd reason.

That reason, as you may have surmised, is the fact that the engine had 8 cylinders. It was a transverse V8, and an absolute gem of engineering. Liquid cooled, 499cc, DOHC, each cylinder with its own throttle body and Dell'Orto 20mm carburetor. It put out a hefty (for the time) 80 HP, and the frame was made as lightweight as possible. It was then wrapped up in the most aerodynamic shape as understood back in the 50's.

The result was a racing bike that could reach 170 MPH. In 1954. It was way before its time, as the drum brakes, the tires, even the riders were not able to handle its massive power and speed, and after being crashed a few times, as well as the economic recession in Italy in 1957, the Otto Cilindri was withdrawn from racing, and the only two ever made are in Moto Guzzi's museum and archives.

Why We Picked It:

The word perfect is a very powerful term. It means that there's nothing wrong at all with something, and as the saying goes, "Nothing's 100% perfect," which is true. But damn, does the 1994 Ducati 916 get to 99.9999%!

Not quite the street version of the World Championship Ducati 888 bike, the 916 was the first of their long line of sport bikes to carry the Desmoquattro L-twin engine. Originally designed for and used only for racing, it was prohibitively expensive to manufacture as it was the first powerplant for the street with four valves, not two, per cylinder.

Then you have the body, styled and designed by the maestro of motorcycles Massimo Tamburini. Every line, every curve, every little bulge or concave section had a purpose, with the concept of the bike being a racing bike with a plate holder, turn signals, and mirrors. It was so close to perfection that F1 legend Ayrton Senna, an avid motorcyclist, after just seeing it, authorized Ducati to make a special edition of the special edition. He unfortunately died just a few days later at Imola, so he never got to see the bike that bore his name.

The result was the Ducati 916 Senna, which has a carbon fiber body and carries the Senna S logo, which rarely gets approved to be on anything. It is impossibly rare, and if you want one in good condition, expect to pay well North of $100,000

Why We Picked It:

Just before the calendar flipped over to the year 2000, MV Agusta had for years been suffering some severe financial woes, even though they were propped up by the Castiglioni family. The outlook was dire, so MV Agusta threw one of the biggest Hail Mary throws of all time, releasing the F4 series of motorcycles.

The bike was made by a literal dream team. Massimo Tamburini led some of the best engineers, fabricators, and designers, assembled specifically for this project, and was given carte blanche to make the ultimate superbike. They even went as far as contracting in Ferrari to help with the engine design, which was based on an early 1990's Formula One powerplant.

When the bike was revealed at EICMA in 1997, many jaws met the floor, and the first edition of 300 bikes, the 750 Serie Oro, were all pre-bought on the display prototype alone. It hadn't even gone through much testing by 1997! Through testing and refinement, the Series Oro was followed by the 750 S in 1999, the mass production version, which had record sales for MV Agusta globally, and quite literally pulled the company out of the red.

Why We Picked It:

it is fair to say that Italian race bikes are instrumental to the entire Italian motorcycle industry, most often with trickle down tech making it to the streets eventually. The Laverda 750SFC (Super Freni Competizione, literally Super Brakes Competition) is one of the extremely rare examples of trick up technology.

Based on the Laverda 750SF, it was a hand built race bike that used the massive 744cc four-stroke parallel twin from its road going brother, but with some serious modifications done to it. Higher compression, larger valves, an entirely new and reprofiled camshaft, and a high-flow oil pump were just the tip of the iceberg, but the result was a bike that pumped out 70 to 75 HP and were ridiculously reliable.

The bikes were released in batches, with incremental upgrades for each batch. The first batch from 1971 were so reliable that they dominated motorcycle endurance racing that year with 6 overall wins. The most desired and sought after bike by collectors are the last 33 bikes from the 4th Batch in 1975-1976, with serial numbers in the 18### range. While all 168 of the bikes made in the 4th Batch had electronic ignition and an oil cooler to boost the reliability to even crazier levels, the final 33 were given cast wheels and a higher-lift cam, which were optional on the other bikes of the run.

Why We Picked It:

After Cagiva bought Ducati in 1985, they allowed the team and company to keep their name and bike development internal. However, they did have access to all the blueprints, design sketches, all of it, as they were the parent company. They spun up a factory team that raced Cagiva bikes, but the truth was that under the fairings, it was nearly 80% Ducati.

The third evolution of the race bike, preceded by the C587 and C588, the C589's key item was its powerplant. A 492.6cc two-stroke inline four, it produced a whopping 150 HP, and was capable of reaching 190 MPH. It was also a rolling piece of art, with carbon fiber splashes here and there, an aluminum twin-spar frame, and one of the best overall looks of a race bike as it was penned by Massimo Tamburini.

The only downside was that while they had borrowed the Ducati blueprints, they decided to modify them a little, and the result that the bikes were not balanced correctly with too much weight forward. This kept the rear tire from being able to utilize 100% of the power, and the C589 suffered from it. It was eventually fixed, but the season was pretty much over by the time it was, and development began on the C590 for the 1990 season, relegating the C589 to the history books and many teenagers walls as posters for their racing dreams.

Why We Picked It:

In 2006, Ducati designed and built the GP06 MotoGP bike, which drew a lot of attention as it absolutely tore up the track during winter testing at Jerez. It cornered on rails, it catapulted down straights, and responded to riders as if receiving telepathic commands. It was from this attention that Ducati decided that it might be a good idea to release a homologation special... despite MotoGP not having a homologation requirement.

That bike was the 2007 Ducati Desmosedici RR. While it wasn't a 100% replica of the GP06, it did have the same ultra-light swingarm, magnesium wheels, carbon fiber fairings in full Ducati racing colors, Brembo competition-grade brakes, and, in an ironic twist, was more powerful than the GP06 due to not being under formula restrictions.

This gave the 1,198 90 degree V4 in the RR near as makes no difference 200 HP, at a time when 150 HP was still being considered as the limit for road sport bikes. It also came with the shifter set up like a GP bike, up for first, then down for the rest.

It was hilariously expensive, at $72,000. That price got you the bike, priority servicing at any Ducati-authorized dealership with all fees covered, a special locking bike cover, and a separate, unbaffled, powersports grade exhaust for track use only.

Why We Picked It:

The Italian economy was in shambles by the early 1960s, a recession so deep it was almost called a depression. Every sector was affected, including motorcycles, with Moto Guzzi selling so few bikes that they explored making cars instead. Fiat contracted them out to develop an engine for their tiny 500-series cars, and Moto Guzzi returned a 500cc 90 degree V-twin. Fiat loved it, but Moto Guzzi didn't have the production capability to keep up with demand, so the deal fell through.

Yet, that V-twin engine was not tossed in the garbage. Instead, the Carabinieri (Federal Police) were looking for a powerful, fast, but reliable and easy to maintain motorcycle series for their highways division. The V-twin was bored out to 703cc, and because it was designed to power car wheels, had to be placed transversely across the frame and connected via a shaft drive. The Carabinieri loved the "V7 Police Edition" motorcycle, especially its ease of maintenance and reliability, and Moto Guzzi was awarded the contract to build a whole model series for them.

The V7 700 Police garnered interest around the world, even as far as the LAPD. With them, interested, Americans, among many other nations, sat up and paid attention. 40 HP, 100 MPH, rock steady stable yet able to corner like a sport bike. Moto Guzzi released the non-Police edition in 1967 after a lot of customer interest, and the rest is history.

Why We Picked It:

The last time MV Agusta released a statement bike, it was in 1999 with the F4, the bike that quite literally saved the company. After two decades of good sales and rapidly evolving technology, they decided it was time to drop another nuke into the motorcycle world.

The Rush 1000 is what MV Agusta is calling "the ultimate hyper naked," and we can't really find an argument against that claim. It has been specifically designed to be the best bike in both the tight, twisting, confusing mess that are city streets in Italy, as well as roar down the motorways and up mountain roads.

Apart from looking like it wants to rip your head off and eat it for breakfast, it packs a 998cc inline four that chucks out 208 HP and 86 lbs-ft of torque, in a bike that weighs 463 lbs soaking wet. It revs all the way to 14,500, with peak power arriving only at 13,000 RPM, meaning it was designed to have its neck wrung day in and day out.

Of course, this being an Italian bike, it has an exhaust that positively sings out the song of its people while the Rush 1000 is doing a pretty good impression of a cruise missile down the Italian motorways. It features a host of exotic tech and materials, one of the most powerful engines every made by MV Agusta, and also carries the price tag to match at just a hair over $50,000!

Why We Picked It:

The year was 1972, and the Ducati 750 Imola Desmo had just won the Imola 200 race. That bike was a production prototype, featuring a 750cc 90 degree L-twin engine with desmodromic valves developed by Fabio Taglioni, the legendary lead designer and technical director of Ducati from 1954 to 1989. The 750 Imola Desmo also featured the at-the-time new concept of the bubble fairing, making it incredibly slippery through the air.

Two years later, the 1974 Ducati 750SS (Super Sport) entered limited production, with only 401 being made. The moment it was on the road, it set an entirely new standard for what a production sport bike needed to achieve. It was light at 333 lbs dry, had a generously large 6 gallon fuel tank, and was barely road legal. Keep in mind, this was back at a time when there weren't that many road legality hoops to jump through, so it was in effect a Grand Prix race bike that had a license plate.

It was absolutely wicked in the corners, as it if was on rails, and howled down the motorways at speeds that would probably get the rider arrested on the spot, but the greatest impact it had was that it forced every other Italian manufacturer to up their game. They couldn't have Ducati winning the spotlight, no, that just wouldn't do, so the gigantic surge of Italian sport bikes in the 1980s can be traced back to this one bike. They are so rare these days that when they do go up for auction, some have pushed beyond $180,000 in bidding!