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

2014 WSBK Provisional Entry List – 27 Riders and 9 Manufacturers

The International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) released a provisional entry list for the 2014 World Superbike Championship. The provisional list includes 27 riders riding motorcycles from nine different manufacturers. Of these riders, 12 are riding in the new EVO sub-category which limits engine upgrades and electronics to Superstock class rules.

Ducati 1098R with RS parts

This is one properly sorted Ducati. It's a 1098R dripping with factory RS parts. It's located in France and owned by a friend of mine.

2014 MotoGP Ducati Ticket Package At COTA

Ducati island, a yearly landmark during the MotoGP race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA, is moving to Austin’s Circuit of the Americas (COTA) for 2014. To celebrate its new location Ducati is offering an exclusive MotoGP ticket package. For the second round of the 2014 MotoGP season, April 11-13, Ducati will descend upon COTA’s “Grand Plaza” which is centrally located within the facility, in close proximity to the racetrack ticket office and main fan entrance.

Highlights From The Troy Bayliss Classic – Video

For the second year running, three-time World Superbike champion, Troy Bayliss’, self-titled slick track motorcycle race was full of action. However, unlike last year, Bayliss took home the crown in front of a capacity crowd of over 6000 people at the Taree Motorcycle Club. Bayliss didn’t win the title easily, as American, and 2009 AMA Grand National champion, Sammy Halbert, set the fastest time during Superpole and challenged the Australian for the first half of the 21-lap race.

Ducati Celebrates The Start Of Production For The Monster 1200

Ducati loves having a reason to celebrate, and as the very first Monster 1200 rolled off the production line Monday, yet another reason to party presented itself. Following Ducati tradition, the start of production (SOP) for the Monster 1200, as well as of every new Ducati model, is met with a small ceremony. Here’s how it went down: in front of the entire factory, Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali and Production Director Silvano Fini started the new bike.

Wood-Rotax SJ676 Grand Prix

Until yesterday I'd never even heard of this bike let alone seen one. I didn't know anything about it. I still don't, really but I dug up these words on the bike and thought I'd share them.

Larry Pegram To Race EBR 1190RX In 2014 AMA Superbike

Larry Pegram and Erik Buell Racing will be partnering up in 2014 to race an EBR 1190RX in AMA Superbike. This will be Pegram’s third different OEM in as many years, as he rode a Yamaha last year, BMW before that and Ducati in 2011. Supporting Pegram will be his long-time title sponsor, Foremost Insurance Group, along with EBR sponsors AMSOIL and Hero MotoCorp.

FIM to Revise WSBK Homologation Requirements

The International Motorcycling Federation is considering modifying its homologation requirements for the World Superbike Championship following Bimota‘s somewhat surprising plans to re-enter the series. Under current regulations, manufacturers must produce a minimum number of motorcycles for it to be eligible to compete in the production-based WSBK championship. The official regulations currently require a minimum of 125 units produced for an initial homologation inspection, 500 units produced by June 30 of the current year, 1,000 units by the end of the current year and 2,000 units by the end of the following year.

Radical Ducati Closing Its Doors

Radical Ducati, the Madrid-based motorcycle shop known for its wild and exquisite custom Ducatis, has suddenly ceased operations.  On its Facebook page, Pepo Rosell who runs the shop alongside Reyes Ramon, posted, “It has been more than 15 years of passion, designing, fabricating, riding and developing my dreams. Now is time to stop and make a change in my life. I want to thanks all of you for your support and for share our passion.” The loss of Radical Ducati is certainly unexpected. While it’s a sad sight to see them go, thankfully the duo have created some of the most beautiful custom Ducatis on the planet, which will live on as a reminder of their legacy. So in their honor, I’ve created a photo gallery below of just a sampling of some of Rosell and Ramon’s best work.

Davide Tardozzi Returns To Ducati, Now In MotoGP

After four years away, former racer turned team manager, Davide Tardozzi, is back with the Ducati brand. This time he will be in charge of the organization and logistics of the Italian squad in the MotoGP World Championship. The former Bimota racer had a very successful career as Ducati team manager in Superbike, collaborating with champions of the caliber of Fogarty, Bayliss, Corser, Toseland and Hodgson, and contributing to the conquest of seven rider’s titles in the production-based racing series.