Ductalk

These Ducati's are superb sport-touring machines that­ lean heavily toward the sport side of that classification.

Years sold: 1998-2007
MSRP new: $12,495 (1998 ST2) to $15,295 (2003 ST4) to $12,495 (2007 ST3)
Blue Book retail value: $2855 (1998 ST2) to $5950 (2003 ST4) to $7670 (2007 ST3)
Basic specs: A V-Twin sport-touring bike with a full fairing, detachable hard saddlebags (standard in some years but optional in others) and legendary Ducati twisty-road handling. The ST series began as a single-overhead-cam, two-valve-per-cylinder model (hence the “2” in ST2) in 1998 and was joined by the four-valve ST4 in 1999. The ST2 went out of production in 2003, but the ST4 remained until replaced by the three-valve-per-cylinder ST3, which first appeared in 2006 and finished its brief run in 2007.
Why It Won: It didn’t. Ever. Maybe it should have taken home a Ten Best trophy, but it always got nipped by some other bike in the category. Nevertheless, these are superb sport-touring machines that­—no surprise, given their heritage—lean heavily toward the sport side of that classification. They’re quite capable long-distance mounts on the straight-and-not-so-narrow, but they don’t really come into their own until the road gets twisty, the more so the better....more