A Ducati Too Hot To Handle
Last week, an unfortunate event occurred on our lovely continent. No, not the release of the 2nd Avengers Infinite trailer, but the highly reported fire of a fairly new 2018 Ducati Panigali V4. The motorcycle that for the last few months has be hailed as the sexiest & fastest Ducati ever produced. You instantly ascend to god like status when riding one.
The story pans out like this. On March 15th, while cruising the streets of Vancouver,stopped at a light the fire revealed its self. It was at this time he realized that the Italian moto-gods decided curse his week. There is a nice picture spread on Motorcycle.com which reveals all of the horrific destruction that took place that day.
The story doesn’t end there though. The rider, known on the forum Ducatiforum.com as Nitrouz was not hurt. Also, Ducati North America quickly replaced the bike and reported that they would be looking into this unfortunate incident.
Whats Next
The question that popped into everyone’s head was this: Is this bike a danger?? The answer to this question is a resounding YES. With a slight disclaimer. ALL motorcycles are dangerous. They wont all spontaneously combust however. Until there is more information , there is hardly reason to think this is a system failure. For now, we wait and watch. There will be more info coming out.
Fires Happen
One event is hardly an epidemic. Each year there are hundreds and even thousands of vehicle fires. Cars, trucks, boats, motorcycles, and even school buses catch fire. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA.ORG) and their report of annual averages between 2006 and 2013 there were 223,300 vehicle fires annually.
Of those fires, 1600 were reported as motorcycle fires. That represents an amount that is in the 1% range. School buses , while also in the 1% range, were higher. 2130 fires involving school buses on their report.
Its reassuring that Ducati North America acted quickly to replace this damaged bike and we can only hope that company leaders will respond appropriately if there are risks to other Panigali owners.