Oh no. Anther teaser campaign

Here's a message to all marketing people: 'teaser' campaigns are awful. We get the idea, you want to hype your forthcoming product, create an air of anticipation, get our attention so when you finally launch the thing we're all on the edge of our collective seats.

Sure, with some products – mobile phones, computer games, whatever – the teaser campaign probably works. But at some stage manufacturers have to realise that the people who buy bikes aren't just normal consumers; we're rabid enthusiasts with a far more extensive knowledge of the products and the market than the buyers of everyday goods. As such, teaser campaigns don't tend to get our mouths watering; we know what to expect from most new models, just as we know how to discard the hype spun around them by their makers. Equally, there's already such a rampant rumour mill running around every significant new machine that teasers tend to offer little in the way of details that haven't already been at least speculated upon if not entirely confirmed. Snatched glimpses of new bikes are, all too often, far less revealing than spy photos taken weeks or months prior to the launches (either with or without the manufacturer's knowledge and approval).

The latest is this video from Ducati, it's not just a teaser, but a video teasing about the forthcoming start of a teaser campaign. Brilliant. So we're going to get drip-fed information about a new model for the next two months before it's unveiled in a fog of dry ice and semi-naked models at the Milan show in November.

Not wishing to spoil anything, but the very fact it's Troy Bayliss presenting the teaser-for-a-teaser gives away the fact this campaign will revolve around the new 1199 superbike, or whatever it ends up being called. That will be the same bike that's been being spied for the last couple of months, has appeared on the front pages of various magazines and is probably the worst kept secret since, er, the Ducati Diavel.

Haven't heard about it? It's the production bike with the aluminium monocoque frame/airbox inspired by the Desmosedici's controversial carbon chassis and the reason why Ducati is so against the idea of switching to a conventional beam chassis on its MotoGP bike. It's got a totally new V-twin engine, gear driven cams, an ultra-short stroke and big bore giving incredible revs for a big two-cylinder (aided and abetted by the inevitable desmo valve gear). It's got endless traction control settings and such computing power that it probably works on string theory research at the same time as saving your ass from an otherwise-inevitable highside.

Search the web and you'll find pictures from most angles, plus plenty more detail and speculation.

Oh, sorry Ducati, were you going to be teasing us with that lot over the next few weeks?

Still want more? Well Ducati's official 'little bit of a taster' on YouTube will be out on Wednesday.

By Visordown