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

Nicky needs to slide

Following Joe Kopp's historic win on a Ducati in AMA flat track, alarms bells have been going off in the heads of many, "Hey why doesn't Nicky Hayden jump on the Duke flat tracker?" Well the guys at the excellent American publication Road Racer X are running an online petition and a great marketing wake-up call for Ducati to get Nicky on board the bike for the Indy Mile on August 28th. If he won, and it's a big if considering he hasn't raced flat track in a long time, Nicky would complete the AMA Grand Slam which encompasses victories in the following; half-mile dirt track, mile dirt track, short track, TT, and a Superbike race win. It's an exclusive club with only four members, Dick Mann, Kenny Roberts, Doug Chandler and Bubba Shobert.

Ducati Strada Tech jacket

Most of you will know that Dainese design make most of Ducati’s top class performance wear and this new jacket is no exception. Designed in conjunction with the launch of the new Multistrada 1200 this great looking jacket can be separated with the interior lining usable as a stand alone windproof jacket. It’s good to see brands using mountainwear technology for things like zips and seamless stitching as it blocks out so much water and wind.

10 points if you can guess what this bike is

Spotted outside my hotel in Assen. I'm not talking about the big red bike with DUCATI written on the fairing, no. I'm talking about the one it's locked together with.

Ford Ranger Wildtrak: part three

Clocked over five thousand miles in the Ranger, lugging bikes to track events, back to importers and dealers, that sort of thing. It’s freeing up, especially the suspension. I can drink a cup of coffee now without inhaling it.

2010 Vyrus 987 C3 4V [video]

The new Vyrus 987 flies high even in the rarefied air of ultra sportbikes. It marries a 185-horse Ducati 1198R engine with a hub-center-steered Bimota chassis unlike anything else on the market. Still not cool enough for ya?

That used to be a Ducati 1098

I spotted this on my tinterweb travels. It's allegedly the demonstrator bike from a Ducati dealers on the isle of Jersey, in the English channel. The only information to hand is that the bike spat the rider off and the bike hit a tree - the only one for miles - and burst into flames.

If Rossi went to Ducati...

BY THE WAY he's been enthusing about Yamaha over the last few months, the chances of Valentino Rossi defecting to Ducati for his final stint in MotoGP looks increasingly slim. But if The Doctor did decide to end his illustrious motorcycle racing career with Ducati, then this is what his Desmosedici racer could look like, says bike design guru Oberdan Bezzi. Looks cool in Martini colours, yes?

Ford Ranger Wildtrak: part two

Been ‘modifyin' the Ranger this weekend, as those Max Power toss-pot types would say. But I haven’t fitted a four-inch diameter penis-substitute tailpipe. No, I’ve made the pick up bed more useful.

Learn on track with Mackenzie and Whitham at Focused Events

Focused Events Rider Development Days at Silverstone offer a new, intense tuition-based experience on a selection of new Supersport machines, hosted by high-level instructors including Niall Mackenzie, Jamie Whitham and Steve Plater.The courses will be situated at Stowe circuit, Silverstone and will be aimed at Novice and Intermediate riders. Dates for the events have been confirmed as 14th May and 2nd September.Pupils will not only be taught by World class instructors, the machinery available for use will be high-end Supersport machines from Ducati, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha. Total cost for the day is £339 including bike hire with a £50 premium for use of the exotic Ducati 848.Chief Instructor and Visordown Road Test Editor Niall Mackenzie explained, “A track day can be an intimidating place to learn circuit and road skills, especially for less experienced riders.

2010 Ducati Multistrada: crashed

THIS IS WHAT a 2010 Ducati Multistrada looks like when it's been slung up a gravel road at well over 60mph. The word on the street is that journo Costa Mouzouris of CMGonline is the culprit behind the battled-scarred machine; reports say he lobbed it while on the bike's world press launch in Lanzarote. In true Ducati post-topple fashion, the bike appears to have spewed the contents of its sump over the floor, as well as sustaining a fair bit of cosmetic damage.