Ducati Motorcycles

About Ducati

Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. is an Italian company that designs and manufactures motorcycles. Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, Ducati is owned by Audi through its Italian subsidiary Lamborghini.

In 1926 Antonio Cavalieri Ducati and his three sons, Adriano, Marcello, and Bruno Cavalieri Ducati; founded Societa Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati in Bologna to produce vacuum tubes, condensers and other radio components.

At the small Turinese firm SIATA (Societa Italiana per Applicazioni Tecniche Auto-Aviatorie), Aldo Farinelli began developing a small pushrod engine for mounting on bicycles. Barely a month after the official liberation of Italy in 1944, SIATA announced its intention to sell this engine, called the "Cucciolo" (Italian for "puppy"). The first Cucciolos were available alone, to be mounted on standard bicycles, by the buyer; however, businessmen soon bought the little engines in quantity, and offered complete motorized-bicycle units for sale.

So in 1950, in collaboration with SIATA, the Ducati firm finally offered its own Cucciolo-based motorcycle. This first Ducati motorcycle was a 48 cc bike weighing 98 lb (44 kg) with a top speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) had a 15 mm carburetor giving just under 200 mpg-US (1.2 L/100 km; 240 mpg-imp). Ducati soon dropped the Cucciolo name in favor of "55M" and "65TL". The chief designer of most Ducati motorcycles in the 1950s was Fabio Taglioni

In 1952 Ducati introduced 65TS cycle and Cruiser (a four-stroke motor scooter).

In 1953, management split the company into two separate entities, Ducati Meccanica SpA and Ducati Elettronica, in acknowledgment of its diverging motorcycle and electronics product lines.

In the 1960s, Ducati earned its place in motorcycling history by producing the fastest 250 cc road bike then available, the Mach 1.

In the 1970s Ducati began producing large-displacement V-twin motorcycles and in 1973, released a V-twin with the trademarked desmodromic valve design.

In 1973, Ducati commemorated its 1972 win at the Imola 200 with the production model green frame Ducati 750 SuperSport.

In 1993 Monster model appeared, a bike with exposed trellis and engine. It makes about half of all sales.

Ducati is best known for high performance motorcycles characterized by large capacity four-stroke, 90° V-twin engines, featuring a desmodromic valve design. Ducati refers to this configuration as L-twin because one cylinder is vertical while the other is horizontal, making it look like a letter "L". Modern Ducatis remain among the dominant performance motorcycles available today partly because of the desmodromic valve design, which is nearing its 50th year of use.

While most other manufacturers utilize wet clutches (with the spinning parts bathed in oil) Ducati previously used multiplate dry clutches in many of their motorcycles. The dry clutch eliminates the power loss from oil viscosity drag on the engine even though the engagement may not be as smooth as the oil bath versions but the clutch plates can wear more rapidly. Ducati has converted to wet clutches across their current product lines.

Ducati also extensively uses the Trellis Steel Frame configuration, although Ducati's MotoGP project broke with this tradition by introducing a revolutionary carbon fibre frame for the Ducati Desmosedici GP9.

Moto blog

Third Annual ‘The MEET’ at ACM

More than 2,000 attendees visited America’s Car Museum for its 3rd annual Vintage Motorcycle Festival ‘The MEET’ last weekend in Tacoma, Washington, where over 300 motorcycles and scooters were showcased on the Haub Family Field at LeMay. The event drew pre-1981 motorcycles and scooters from the U.S. and Canada, including an antique motorcycle display, swap meet, cruise-in and a 78-mile roundtrip tour from ACM’s Anderson Plaza to Mt. Rainier.

NHTSA Launches Recall Look-up by VIN Tool

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have launched a new free online tool that should make it easier for consumers to inspect their vehicles’ safety recall histories. The new search tool, available at http://www.safercar.gov/vinlookup, allows people to look for recall campaigns by entering Vehicle Identification Numbers.

Ducati Revs America Track Day At COTA With Jason Pridmore’s STAR School

If you’ve been eager to ride at America’s world-class Circuit of the Americas, and get equally world-class instruction to boot, listen up. Ducati and Jason Pridmore’s STAR School today announce “Ducati Revs America,” a premium two-day track experience to be held at the prestigious Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, on September 29-30, 2014. Registration is now open to the public and is limited to only 90 participants.

“The Meet” Vintage Motorcycle Show This Saturday

The stage is set for ”The Meet at ACM” motorcycle show this weekend in Tacoma, WA. While festivities will begin on Friday evening, America’s Car Museum (ACM) will host the third annual Vintage Motorcycle Festival on Saturday from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Organizers expect 450 vintage motorcycles and scooters from all over the nation to attend.

Audi Reports Ducati’s Q2 2014 Sales Results

Ducati sold 26,740 motorcycles worldwide during the first half of 2014, up 2.9% from 25,982 motorcycles sold in the same period last year. Sales revenue however saw a drop of 2.2% in the opening six months of the year. According to the second quarter report from its parent company Audi, Ducati saw increased demand in the U.S.

Stefan Bradl Signs with NGM Forward for 2015 MotoGP Season

NGM Forward Racing has signed Stefan Bradl to race in the 2015 MotoGP season. Bradl will ride the Forward Yamaha Open class machine next season after spending his entire premier-class career with the LCR Honda team riding the RC213V. “It’s with great pleasure that we welcome Stefan Bradl in our team,” says Giovanni Cuzari, Forward Racing team owner.

Cal Crutchlow Leaves Ducati for LCR Honda

Cal Crutchlow has signed on to race for the LCR Honda team for the 2015 MotoGP season. To make the jump, Crutchlow secured an early termination to his contract with Ducati. The switch comes as a bit of a surprise after Crutchlow had confirmed he would honor the final year of his contract at World Ducati Week.

A Peek Inside The Ducati World Superbike 1199 Panigale + Video

When Ducati introduced the 1199 Panigale, it announced it would take an entire racing season to develop its World Superbike challenger before entering it into competition. Being a new design for Ducati, where the Superquadro engine is the main stressed member of the chassis, meant a significant amount of testing was required to prepare the bike for battle. In this video, former racer, and now TV commentator, Steve Martin, explains a few nuances of the 1199.

2014 WSBK – Laguna Seca Results

Marco Melandri rebounded from last week’s disappointing Portimao round to win Race One at Laguna Seca while Tom Sykes extended his championship lead with a win in a red-flagged Race Two. Melandri got taken out of the second Portimao race after his Aprilia teammate Sylvain Guintoli slid into his RSV4. Melandri looked eager to make up for that DNF, leading every lap of Race One on his way to his third win of the season.

2014 WSBK – Portimao Results

Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes extended his championship lead while a Race Two collision between Aprilia teammates Sylvain Guintoli and Marco Melandri provided drama in the World Superbike Championship round at Portugal’s Portimao track. Sykes qualified on the pole in a sun-draped Superpole session but the clouds rolled in on race day, forcing teams to plan for mixed weather. An overcast sky presided over a dry Race One, leading to a mix of tire choices but all of the racers switched to wet tires for Race Two that saw the scheduled 20-lap length reduced to 18 laps.