Try to think of a vehicle, any consumer product, from the early 1990s that still looks good. The Land Rover Defender and The Simpsons still hold up, maybe. The Plymouth Prowler and frosted tips, never again.
No matter the era, it's a feat to create something that has as much visual impact now as it did 20 years ago. The Ducati Monster motorcycle still has that effect. It proves that, however clichéd, less is more, even when the industry and society is wildly different from the environment in which it was created.
Ducati recently launched the Monster 1200R, a 1198-cc fire-breather that's exemplary of that brand's ability to simultaneously be charismatic and excessive. The low stance of a territorial bulldog, exhaust pipes tuned to broadcast the engine's 160 horsepower, and a bunch of computers inside to keep all that power from overwhelming the rider.
The Tesla-grade color dash aside, this 2016 bike it isn't far removed from the design that Miguel Galluzzi, father to the monster, drew in the early 1990s. "When a design is a good design, it doesn't have time," Galluzzi says. Pleasing lines don't conspicuously age, which is why an entire genre of motorcycles has developed in his bike's image.