By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way: In my humble opinion, there are few records as all-around awesome as Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. I had a vinyl copy of this album before I even had a turntable, and there was a period of about a year where I would wake up and play “EMI” before I did anything else. So I was stoked when I saw a press release titled “Ducati Welcomes Sex Pistols Guitarist Steve Jones into the Family.” But I also cracked up, because seriously, when the Sex Pistols were in their heyday, the odds that any corporation would have welcomed them anywhere were about as likely as Rick James being elected president. According to the press release, Jones took delivery of a Hypermotard S at Ducati headquarters, which tells me he’s just as big of a bad-ass off-stage as he his on it. He’s also set to revive DJing duties in Los Angeles this fall—he hosted Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 103.1 FM from 2004 until January of this year—and you can bet your ass I’ll be listening. Hit the jump for the full text and to see what Jones had to say about his new Ducati.

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Well, I’m happy that I didn’t have to declare this week’s Showroom Showdown an "epic fail," as a few initial comments suggested some of our readers are downright hostile to the idea of bikes. Given the amount of mail CarDomain gets asking to add motorcycle makes and models to our vehicle database, I have to say that caught me a little off guard. But most of you were good sports. Of the Italian Stallions, the Ducati 1098 was the clear victor, beating the Aprilia by a two-to-one margin. For all the haters, don’t worry. Rob will make sure next week’s match up features cars. Stay tuned…

Rob is still out of town, and he left Showroom Showdown in my hands. After racking my brain trying to think of some cars to compare, I thought it might be fun to make this week’s showdown about motorcycles. After all, this is the perfect time of year to get on a bike! Both contestants are dead-sexy Italian V-twins with razor-sharp handling, and both will accelerate like cruise missiles. The Ducati comes with 15 more horses—160 compared to the Aprilia’s 145— but it costs $2000 more—$16 grand compared to $14—and Aprilia is marque that’s definitely seen less in the wild. So if you had to pony up some of your hard-earned cash, which would you choose?

Suzuki’s GXR1000 and Yamaha’s R1 are incredible machines, and both pack more power than virtually anyone can handle—but there’s nothing like a Ducati. The company is calling the new 1098R the "most advanced, most powerful twin-cylinder motorcycle ever built," and they aren’t joking. With a weight of 364lbs and 180 horsepower engine, the bike is mind-numbingly powerful, but it’s the laundry list of MotoGP parts—eight-stage traction control, digital dash, independent ride height adjustment mechanism—which really make it sing. This baby was born to win races, and if Ducati’s recent success in Qatar is any indication, it’s going to deliver in a big way. Get all the details over at Gizmag.

While it’s still a long-shot, it’s not a complete impossibility. Back in November, the seven-time F1 champ took MotoGP champ Casey Stoner’s factory Ducati around Spain’s Valencia course at a pretty good clip—a mere five seconds off the lap record—which had onlookers amazed. At the time that he said he had no plans to race, but his longtime manager recently refused to dismiss the idea, saying "anything is possible." While 38 seems a little old to start a motorcycle racing career, if he decided to join the MotoGP fray, Schumacher would surely be a formidable opponent. What do you think? Should he get on a bike? More info over at Winding Road. Photo: Motorcycle News.

Even with the burly spiked tires, around a corner, a decent speed skater could probably hand this 200MPH MotoGP bike its ass. But the ability to ride one of these monsters on clean, dry pavement is something even an extremely experienced biker wouldn’t take lightly. So watching this maniac take a race-prepped Duc onto an ice rink is beyond impressive. Wow. Thanks Bikes in the Fast Lane!