Hodaka minibike Motorcycles

This ground-breaking 500 twin established the pattern which Ducati would follow for the next 20 years and on.  Ducati's foray into the world of vertical parallel twins in the mid-1970s proved to be a horrid experience, so designer Fabio Taglioni called a halt to those 350 and 500s and went back to the drawing board. The result was the Pantah 500 SL which first appeared in Milan in 1979 and went on to spawn entire subsequent generations of belt-driven, OHC, 90-degree V (or L) Ducati twins.The first Pantah used the engine dimensions from the Grand Prix racer of 1973 at 74mm by 58mm to give 499cc. Apart from the bore and stroke dimensions, this was an entirely new design of air-cooled engine although the five-speed gearbox was a development from earlier machines.