The world’s sexiest motorcycle

Following Ducati’s recent unveiling of Jack and Pecco’s 2021 Desmosedicis, and a subsequent twitter marathon, there was only one thing for it; a lesson in how a racing motorcycle should look. Personally, I appreciate prototypes for what they are – function over fashion – and styled to please the stopwatch, not the showroom (Steve ‘Wilf’ Moore, 2021). Gone are the halcyon days of completely open rules and, as teams chase every tenth of a second possible, aero packages have become ever more important to MotoGP, which has led to Ducati’s latest offering. I’m sure Gigi and the team at Ducati Corse are devastated upon discovering social media’s dislike for the ‘21 Desmosedici’s aesthetics. I bet they can’t sleep at night knowing this isn’t the world’s sexiest motorcycle.

This is the world’s sexiest motorcycle. As someone who is nearing the dreaded four zero, who grew up idolising two-stroke 500 pilots, the noise, the smell, and the relative simplicity, I may be slightly impartial here but anyone with a beating heart should acknowledge the Cagiva C594 as the world’s sexiest motorcycle. To be honest, you could have a field day picking several examples of Casey-inducing 500s from the 1990s; Rainey’s ’92 YZR500, Schwantz’s ’93 (or any Pepsi liveried bike) or any of the Rothmans Hondas, yet the C594 has an intangible connection in the gusset region like no other bike.  

If all the porn in the world was banned, I’d happily tow myself around the room looking at this beauty stare at this all day if I had to. As Michael Laverty pointed out yesterday, it’s just a taller screen away from perfection and you can watch it here…

With around 175bhp and weighing just 130kg, the C594 was the last of Cagiva’s 500cc efforts. I’m not going to pretend I have an extensive knowledge of its technical spec because that would mean plagiarism. What I do know is John Kocinski finished third on this jizz machine in the 1994 world championship, winning the Australian GP and collecting another six podiums on the way. This was also Cagiva’s most successful season in GPs since the Varese factory’s debut in 1980, and their last. What a farewell.   

And the best thing about 2021 so far? You can buy Kocinski’s bike, albeit the earlier 1992 C593 model complete with carbon swingarm. The auction takes place in Las Vegas between the 28th of April and the 1st of May. Can someone please buy this? Or can we crowdfund it? Thanks. Bye.

F4G4N