It's easy to get Marnie Keenan talking about her motorcycle. Like many Harley owners, she has emblazoned her bike with what she loves. On one side of the gas tank a painted motorcycle pulls a wheelie amidst orange and yellow flames. The big, black Friesian horses she owns adorn the tank's other side Except this isn't a Harley It's not even a cruiser It's a 1999 900S Ducati Monster, and Keenan wouldn't have it any other way. “The whole bike has more of a Harley look,” she muses. “I have a friend who looked at it and said, ‘Oooh, your bike looks cruel.’ I said ‘Cruel? Yes. Excellent!”

Harleys and Ducatis are worlds apart for various reasons, chief among them being the differences between cruisers and sport bikes. Yet Keenan, who owns the Palm Beach Ducati & Triumph dealership in Boynton Beach, Florida, doesn't see her unique Monster as a contradiction.  “To me, Harley-Davidsons and Ducatis both have a mystique about them.” She begins addressing two imaginary bikes in front of her, “Harley-Davidson, excellent, need one. Ducati, excellent, need one.”

Keenan has had her share of both over the years. She says in addition to the shared mystique, both brands seem to stir the same level of passion from their faithful female followers. Women already account for 10 percent of Monster sales. And that was before the company started importing the Monster 600 this year, with its lighter clutch and lowered seat height.

Love Over Money

What gets women to open their purses for Monsters? Maybe it's the Ducati image. "When you ride a Duc or a BMW or a Harley—you consciously or unconsciously align yourself with an image," says Kathy Gill of Seattle, who, last year, raised money for breast cancer research by riding 6,000 miles in two weeks aboard her M900 in the Pony Express Ride for the Cure. "I don't think Japanese bikes carry that same emotional context."

Before Gill bought her Duc, she had considered the Suzuki SV 650. "Something was missing. Passion? Soul? Aesthetics? I don't know, but the SV 650, while a competent bike, didn't make my heart sing. So I bought the Ducati M900."

Maybe it's the Italian design. "I have always preferred the minimalist look," says Cher Stanley, a Web programmer in Rochester, New York, who owns a 1999 Monster 750 Dark. "A motorcycle should look like a motorcycle, not a baggage car or personal rocket ship. I want to see the engine. I was never a big fan of customizing. I'd rather use a backpack than put saddlebags on my bike. I really dislike the looks of windshields, fairings, chrome, and hate most of those funky skateboard- graphic-like paint jobs."

Maybe it's the quality of the ride. ''They're light and incredibly maneuver-able," gushes Keenan. "The center of gravity is low so you don't have the feeling of being slightly out of control!"

"When I ride the Monster, I feel as though I am part of the bike," says Stanley. "On other bikes I feel more like a badly misshapen seat bag hanging off of it."

That Ducati Mystique

Ducati, as a company, is positioning itself much the same way Harley has over the last two decades, as a must-have, elusive brand. Harley had American heritage on its side when the company experienced its turnaround nearly two decades ago. Ducati has that exotic Italian mystique attached to it much like Italian luxury icons Gucci, Versace, and Ferrari do.

Plus, over the last several years, Ducati has branched out into higher-margin accessories and apparel aligning itself with some top-name designers like Donna Karan (also a sponsor of a Ducati race team). And last year, it formed a marketing partnership with the ultraglam cosmetics company MAC to help push sales of its Monster line to women.

It's all about lifestyle. Saying you ride a Harley-Davidson conveys a certain image. Women who ride a Ducati feel that riding that brand says some-thing about them, more than just saying they ride a motorcycle. It alludes to an image of excellence, exoticness, and eccentricity.

For more info, visit www.ducati-women.com.