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

Audi Announces Ducati Q2 2013 Sales Results

Ducati sold 26,007 motorcycles over the first six months of 2013, a 4.8% decrease from the 27,316 units sold over the same period in 2012. Last year’s numbers however were on the books for Ducati’s previous ownership and the latest figures represent the first report for the period under Audi ownership. According to Audi’s second quarter report, Ducati’s sales decrease actually fared better than the worldwide demand for 500cc and larger motorcycles which contracted by 6.9% over the first six months of the year.

Cal Crutchlow To Join Ducati MotoGP

Reports are coming in from Europe stating in 2014 Cal Crutchlow will be once again teaming up with Andrea Dovizioso, this time on the unruly and uncompetitive Ducati Desmosedici. This despite his current Yamaha Tech 3 team receiving financial assistance from the factory to give Crutchlow a significant pay increase, something Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis said was “unusual.” The deal is set to be officially announced Friday. While the Yamaha offer was alluring, the former World Supersport champion has been putting in strong performances this season — securing a pole position and occasionally beating factory riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo — which has prompted him to demand a factory Yamaha M1 by 2015.

Roland Sands-Built Ducati Desmosedici Dirt Tracker For Sale

For sale on Ebay right now is this controversial 2008 Ducati Desmosedici. The exact one Roland Sands turned into a dirt track racer as a very special one-off project for a friend in 2011. The “Desmo Tracker” as it’s called, is a fully road legal motorcycle featuring nothing but top-shelf parts and world-class attention to detail, as one would expect from a RSD custom.

New MotoGP Rules for ECU and Factory Status for 2014

The Grand Prix Commission released new rules for the 2014 MotoGP season regarding the standard electronic control unit and what constitutes “factory status” for manufacturers. Starting in 2014, the official MotoGP ECU including internal datalogger from Magneti Marelli will become mandatory. Factory teams will be allowed to program their own ECU software while privateers will be required to run the standard software.

NASCAR Star Greg Biffle Also Plays On Two Wheels – Video

I’ll admit, as a fan of road racing (both two- and four-wheeled), I’ve never really understood the allure of NASCAR. I know that series runs on a few road courses throughout the year, but the racing never attracted my attention. As such, I dismissed many of the drivers, too.

2013 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show Report

The 22nd edition of the annual LA Calendar Motorcycle Show marked its return to the Queen Mary Seawalk Village in Long Beach, California with hometown boy Sam Baldi taking the Bike Building Championship’s Best of Show trophy with a Jimmy Todorovith/Profile Cycles built Big Twin custom named “Lost Angel.” This year’s Calendar Show showcased not only top builders but selected vendors and exhibitors, and of course the Calendar Girl Music live performances. And as always, this year’s show celebrated the world premiere of the 2014 FastDates.com Motorcycle PinUp Calendars, featuring the world’s top SBK World Superbikes, sport and cafe bikes, and custom motorcycles with the beautiful Calendar Kittens. On hand throughout the day to meet with fans and pose for pictures were Calendar Kittens Apple Price, together with official SBK World Superbike grid girls Jessica Harbour and singer/songwriter Sarah Horvath.

WSBK 2013: Moscow Race Report

Marco Melandri captured his third win of the season, the Ducati 1199 Panigale scored its first podium while Sylvain Guintoli regained the championship lead despite dislocating his collarbone days before the race. But the big news at Moscow Raceway of course was the tragic death of Andrea Antonelli in the World Supersport race. The opening-lap crash in severely wet conditions naturally led to the cancellation of the rest of the events as the World Superbike community mourns the loss of the 25-year-old Antonelli.

Like Playing The Air Guitar? Play The Ducati Air Bike Challenge

If you’re wondering whether riding an air bike is similar to playing an air guitar then, yes, you’re on the right track. However, if you choose to enter the Ducati Air Bike Challenge, the reward for immortalizing your silliness on Youtube may be far greater than any air guitar prize — Ducati is providing the opportunity to win a paddock pass to a MotoGP race of your choosing. To enter, create a video of you riding your air Ducati.

MotoGP Rider Andrea Iannone To Visit D-Store San Francisco, Wednesday July 17

Ahead of next weekend’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Pramac Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone will make a stop at the D-Store San Francisco, Wednesday, July 17, starting at 5pm. Complimentary posters will be given out, and there will also be a raffle benefitting Riders for Health. Prizes for the raffle will include donations from photographer Scott Jones, grand stand seats from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and more.

Lightning Electric Superbike Beats All Motorcycles At Pikes Peak

On June 30, Lightning Electric Motorcycles made history when its rider, current motorcycle record holder Carlin Dunne, completed the famous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in 10:00.964, beating all other motorcycles — gas or electric, 82 in total — to the 14,000-foot summit. This marks the first time in a major motorsport event an electric motorcycle has beaten its gas counterparts. In fact, Dunne’s time is still within the top 10 when you include the four-wheel competitors as well.