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

Anti clockwise Knockhill and riding in the North East with GP winners.

I was both nervous and excited for my first ever reverse direction track day last week at Knockhill. From rushing downhill into the left hand off camber hairpin to sweeping up onto the start/finish, nothing bears any resemblance to riding round clockwise. I actually raced my 350LC in the opposite direction in 1982 but it still took a few laps to get my head round what essentially is a brand new track for Scotland.

Bob Collins to ride the 848 at Oulton

Bob Collins will be riding the Ducati 848 Challenge VIP bike at Oulton Park BSB on the weekend of the 6th - 8th July. If you're into motorcycle racing, no doubt you'll have heard of Bob Collins. Former R6 Cup competitor 'Viagra Bob' as he was known, went on to win the Superstock 1000 cup in 2006 and then compete at the Isle of Man TT.

Ducati North America Sets New Monthly Sales Record

Ducati North America set a new monthly sales record selling 1,782 motorcycles in May, easily surpassing its previous record of 1,394 units sold set in June 2008. Helping drive sales was the introduction of the new 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale and the Streetfighter 848 last month. The two new models helped Ducati North America see a 49% year-on-year sales increase for the month.

2012 MotoCzysz E1PC Revealed on Isle of Man

MotoCzysz unveiled what may be the most aerodynamically designed motorcycle ever produced … and we’re not just talking about electric bikes here. The covers were pulled from the 2012 MotoCzysz E1PC electric race bike ahead of the TT Zero electric race at the Isle of Man, revealing a sleek silver and red sportbike with aerodynamically curving wings and fins. The updated E1PC is MotoCzysz’s latest stab at claiming the 10,000 British pound bounty for being the first electric motorcycle to score an average speed of 100 mph on the Isle of Man’s Mountain Course.

Cappuccinos in the Desert – Ducati Opens High-End Lounge in Dubai

Ducati has opened a new boutique restaurant lounge bar in Dubai, joining existing franchises in Rome, Shanghai and Bangkok. Like other Ducati Caffè franchises, the Dubai location offers Italian-style food and, of course, coffee, as well as Ducati merchandise. The lounge inhabits a two-floor, 4,400 square-foot unit in the Dubai mall.

WSBK: 2012 Miller Results

Marco Melandri earned BMW its second ever World Superbike victory to move into second place in the championship standings behind Max Biaggi in the series’ only stop in the United States. Melandri won a red-flagged Race Two at Utah’s Miller Motorsports Park after finishing second to defending WSBK Champion Carlos Checa in Race One to give him 142.5 points on the season, tied with Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes but behind Aprilia‘s Biaggi who leads the way with 160.5 points. Race One Highlights Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Ducati Temporarily Suspends Production after Second Earthquake

Ducati has halted production in its factory in Bologna, Italy after the region was struck by a 5.8-magnitude earthquake this morning. The earthquake comes nine days after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in the same area in northern Italy, killing seven people. Though the recent earthquake was lower in magnitude, it has already claimed a higher death toll with at least 15 people already confirmed dead.

848 Challenge: Official race report, Snetterton 300

Mike Edwards put a disappointing start to the season behind him with a win and a second place at Round Three of the Ducati 848 Challenge at the Snetterton BSB weekend. With a gritty ride to victory in Race One and a late charge to third in Race Two, Edwards (Ohlins @ P&H Motorcycles) managed to keep his championship hopes alive following a run of uncharacteristic crashes at the last two rounds.   Edwards said before Race One that he was going for a “win it or bin it” attitude this weekend as he desperately needed to make up the points he missed out on at Assen.

Ducati 1199 Panigale vs. Porsche 911 GT3 vs. Fighter Jet – Video

Car versus motorcycle race videos are pretty ho-hum these days, so how do you spice things up? What about throwing a fighter jet into the mix? That’s what happened this weekend at Brno International Airport in the Czech Republic.

Ducati Celebrates 1 Million Facebook Likes – Video

Facebook has been getting a bad rap of late with its recent IPO but that didn’t stop Ducati from celebrating its millionth “Like” on the official Ducati Facebook page. The Italian manufacturer marked the occasion with a video thanking its fans. The video is almost a real-life demonstration of how Facebook operates, following a first-person perspective of a fan visiting Ducati‘s headquarters in Bologna, Italy, and raising a thumb to “like” things he sees such the rows of L-Twin-powered motorcycles in the parking lot, Corse racebikes on display at the Ducati Museum, factory workers assembling a Ducati 1199 Panigale.