Ducati vrooms, eyes well-heeled bikers

There are few things Laura Wu likes more than to take her Ducati 899 Panigale for a spin on the country roads outside Beijing. With five other high-performance motorcycles in her garage, the 35-year-old represents today's Chinese biker who manufacturers are clamoring to please.

With China's motorcycle market in decline, makers of superbikes, including Ducati Motor Holding SpA and Harley-Davidson Inc, are adding lighter, sleeker and less powerful models to their offering, trying to appeal to well-heeled novice riders and, especially, women.

The strategy seems to be working. Motorcycle sales in China almost doubled for Ducati and surged 74 percent for BMW AG in the first half from a year earlier, defying a 15 percent slide in all new bike sales, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The country is poised to become the second-biggest for Ducati in three years.