As a Ducati-mad teenager years ago, inspired by Mike Hailwood’s TT heroics, I had a strange motorcycling ambition. There was a temptingly smooth and wide S-bend on the A41 a few miles from my Hertfordshire home, and I dreamt about riding through it at 100mph on a Ducati 900 SuperSport, the most raw and racy superbike of its day.
I never got close to owning a 900SS, let alone cranking it through those sweepers at a ton. But decades later I suddenly find myself aboard a bright red SuperSport 950, heading down the A41 and looking for an opportunity to put Ducati’s current bearer