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

Larry Pegram’s EBR 1190RX AMA Race Livery Looks Sharp!

In January news broke that Larry Pegram would be teaming up with Erik Buell Racing to race the 1190RX in AMA Superbike. At the time no official photos were revealed, but that’s all changed as Pegram posted these pictures of his completed 1190RX in full race livery on his Facebook page. These photos were captured during team testing in Florida, and the colors show off the all-American design motif.

It's official: Ducati's Diavel IS a cruiser

OKAY, it's not official. But a deserving way to gain a moniker you don't like is to go around telling people not to call you it - and Ducati has just released this promo video for the new Diavel titled 'Don't call me a cruiser'. So it's officially forever a cruiser to us.

2015 Ducati Diavel Revealed in Geneva – Video

Ducati revealed an updated Diavel at an event hosted by parent company Volkswagen for the Geneva Motor Show. The 2015 Ducati Diavel receives the latest dual-spark version of the company’s Testastretta 11° engine, most recently equipped on the new Monster 1200. New pistons increase the compression ratio to 12.5:1 from 11.5:1.

Rossi, Pedrosa Fastest In Second Sepang MotoGP Test

Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa topped the time sheets at the conclusion of the second MotoGP test at the Sepang track in Malaysia. Both clocked identical times of 1:59.999 to become the only riders to dip under the two minute mark the entire test. The hot and humid conditions in Sepang meant times wouldn’t be faster than they were in the first test here only a few weeks prior, and indeed, Rossi and Pedrosa’s time is 0.466 second slower than the fastest lap Marc Marquez set at the last test.

Official 2014 MotoGP Entry List Released

The International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) released the official entry list for the 2014 MotoGP Championship including 23 riders representing 13 teams. The final entry list also lists each rider’s status as either a Open or Factory class rider. The eight Factory riders are allowed to use their teams’ own proprietary ECU software but are otherwise limited by a freeze on engine development, a limit of five engines for the whole season and just 5.3 gallons of fuel per race.

Ducati Announces Record Sales of 44,287 Motorcycles in 2013

Ducati announced a new annual sales record of 44,287 motorcycles sold in 2013, an increase over the previous year’s total of 44,102. Revenue figures were not released, but we expect those numbers to be released with parent company Audi‘s annual report in a few weeks. “We are very proud and satisfied with our results in 2013,” says Claudio Domenicali, chief executive officer of Ducati.

Ducati to Race Under MotoGP’s Open Class

Ducati announced its MotoGP team will compete under the new “Open” class instead of the “Factory” class the other major manufacturers are adopting. Ducati declared its decision on the Feb. 28 deadline for teams to declare which of the two different class regulations they will use for the 2014 season.

Results From Day 1 Of Second Sepang MotoGP Test

With the absence of Marc Marquez from the second Sepang MotoGP test, due to a broken leg suffered in a training accident, another Honda rider took his place at the top of the time sheets, though it’s not who you might think. Alvaro Bautista on the Gresini Honda set the fastest time at the end of the first day with a 2:00.848. The time is 1.3 second slower than the fastest time Marquez set at the last Sepang test.

Pierobon Create Frame For Ducati Panigale

Pierobon, a company whose primary claim to fame is producing chassis components for Ducati motorcycles, wasn’t deterred when Ducati introduced the 1199 Panigale, the first Ducati which uses the engine as its main stressed member. Instead, the company saw the Panigale as an opportunity to essentially build a frame for the “frameless” motorcycle. This is the result.

2014 WSBK – Phillip Island Results

When he signed with the team, Eugene Laverty said he would give all he possibly could to bring Suzuki back to the top of the podium once again. Well, it sure didn’t take the Northern Irishman long to accomplish that goal, winning the very first race of the 2014 season at Australia’s Phillip Island course. The win was Laverty’s third in a row, including the final two races of the 2013 season when he raced for Aprilia.