Photo: a massive breach of brand trust and honesty

To say the least, Ducati's Diavel is controversial. JT Nesbitt called it a massive breach of brand trust and honesty and later penned the McQueen/Hasselhoff conundrum. Back in December Wes wrote a story entitled Who's buying the Diavel. The underlying idea behind these stories is that regardless of how good of a motorcycle the Diavel is, it was designed to attract a new type of customer, one that is drastically different from previous generations of Ducati owners. People like this guy.

That new customer is what JT would describe as "a low information buyer," decidedly on the Hasselhoff side of the scale. This customer is attracted to shiny new things loaded with whiz-bang stuff and wild looks over usability, intelligent design and classic good looks. The prediction was made over a year ago and now that Diavels are showing up on the road, we've got the opportunity to see if it's true.

While hanging out at the SoCal DMC benefit BBQ on Saturday, I stumbled across this mythical beast. Dressed like a cruiser rider from an alternate reality where Harley-Davidson has been replaced with Ducati, he's wearing a Ducati-branded jacket and Ducati-branded road-racing boots, not for safety of course, but because they match the bike. By all appearances, both he and his friend walked into Del Amo Motorsports and bought their cruisers at the same time. How do I know that the rider isn't wearing those boots to keep his ankles safe? The flat-black half-helmet that also matches the bike and exposed hands tell us that this rider is obviously not concerned with safety. Or at least lacks the information to make intelligent purchasing decisions. Looks like JT was right. Here's your massive breach of brand trust and honesty.

Check out our Ducati Diavel tag page for all our Massive Breach content, including two overtly positive reviews.