Forbidden fruit, marketing demons
I was walking around for weeks with a twitchy throttle hand when we had the rumors of the RSV450 a few years ago. I've always thought that Ducati could sell a fleet of neo-Mach Is - light, agile Singles at newbie prices - if they ever had the drive to make one. I'm constantly irritated by the reality of (increasingly hard-edged, increasingly pricey, increasingly insurance-y) 600 Supersports being the first really desirable models in any of the Big 4's lineups.
Aprilia doesn't even have a decent entry-level bike, for God's sake. (At least until the Shiver comes online - let us pray....) Somebody - somewhere- please do the right thing!