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

Brough Superior Fetches $427k At Bonhams Auction

The ex-George Brough, Brough Superior SS100, which was projected to sell in the neighborhood of $235k – $300k, actually brought in nearly half a million dollars Sunday. Registered in 1939, the motorcycle was campaigned by George Brough himself in the London-Edinburgh Trial that same year.The grand final tally for the Bonhams Stafford Sale of Pioneer, Vintage, and Collectors’ Motorcycles & Memorabilia totaled $3,419,981. “We are delighted with the results achieved for this long and well-established sale.

2014 WSBK – Assen Results

Heavy rains and a fortuitous red flag were the difference in the World Superbike Championship‘s visit to The Cathedral of motorcycle racing, the TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands. Aprilia‘s Sylvain Guintoli captured his second win of the season in Race 1, which was halted early by a red flag with five laps to go just as it looked like reigning WSBK champion Tom Sykes was gearing up for a final challenge. The second race was also shortened, not by a red flag but because of a rain, turning the 21-lap race into a 10-lap sprint.

Ducati Offering Free Ticket To World Ducati Week If Coming From Outside Europe

World Ducati Week 2014 will once again be held at the Misano World Circuit in Italy from July 18th to 20th. This year, Ducati is offering something really special for Ducatisti: if you’re traveling to WDW from somewhere outside Europe, Ducati will offer you a free ticket! During the three-day event, there will be plenty of on-circuit attractions to entertain participants looking for excitement and an adrenaline kick.

2014 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Touring D|Air Revealed

Ducati officially presented the D|Air-compatible version of the Mulitstrada 1200, which claims to be the industry’s first motorcycle wirelessly connected to a wearable airbag. Available only for Europe, the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Touring D|Air combines onboard sensors and Dainese‘s D|Air Street motorcycle jacket airbags into one integrated safety system. A joint project between Ducati and Dainese, the Multistrada 1200 S Touring D|Air uses two triple-axis accelerometers mounted to the fork bottoms and another two mounted under the seat with a D|Air electronic control unit.

2014 WSBK – Aragon Results

Reigning World Superbike Champion Tom Sykes put on a clinic this weekend, leading every lap in both races to claim a pair of wins at Spain’s Motorland Aragon circuit. Sykes’ Kawasaki teammate Loris Baz was right there with him, recording a pair of second-place podiums to give Team Green a pair of one-two finishes. Sykes and Baz were also one-two in the Superpole qualifying on this nearly flawless weekend for the Kawasaki factory team.

Colin Edwards Announces Retirement At End Of Season

Colin Edwards has announced he will retire at the conclusion of the 2014 MotoGP season. The announcement came during the pre-event press conference ahead of this weekend’s Austin MotoGP race — Edwards’ home round. The two-time World Superbike champion cited a lack of progress from winter testing as one reason for the decision.

Massimo Tamburini: 1943 – 2014

Massimo Tamburini, creator of some of the industry’s most iconic motorcycle designs, has succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 70. Tamburini was diagnosed with the disease last November and underwent chemotherapy treatment but passed away April 6. Earning renown for designing motorcycles such as the Ducati 916 and the MV Agusta F4, Tamburini’s name will be forever linked with those two companies, as well as Cagiva and helped found Bimota (Tamburini is the “Ta” in the company’s name.) Massimo Tamburini (right) with another late motorcycle industry icon, Claudio Castiglioni.

Touring The Ducati Panigale Superleggera Factory Line + Video

The Ducati 1199 Panigale Superleggera (Super Light) represents the pinnacle of Ducati’s might in the superbike segment. Taking the already impressive 1199 Panigale, Ducati says the Superleggera tops 200 horses and weighs under 400 lbs. Those are astounding numbers, especially for a production motorcycle.

Son joyrides his dad's Ducati 996 SPS...And crashes!

According to the son (who uploaded the video), his parents - including his dad who owns the 996 SPS - were away on holiday. So off he goes on his short test ride, 50 metres down the road and he's stacked it, apparently there was a small oil leak which caused him to crash. What he doesn't mention is that you can see 37 seconds in that he forgot to put the kickstand up, there's also a nice trail of kickstand-shaped evidence scratched along the road too.

2014 MotoGP Qatar in Pictures

The opening round of the 2014 MotoGP season is complete, and if the Grand Prix of Qatar is any indication, it looks like it’ll be an interesting season. If you haven’t yet, read up on the recap for the Qatar MotoGP race for the details on what transpired at Losail International Circuit in Doha. Here then are some of the (mostly spoiler-free) photographs from the Grand Prix of Qatar, including images from the MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 classes.