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 Ducati 899 Panigale Revealed

Traditionally,  Ducati saves its big reveals for the EICMA Show in November in its native Italy, but with the company now under the helm of Audi, we will have to start looking to Germany for the major announcements. Case in point is the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show where today Ducati officially pulled the covers off its new 899 Panigale, revealing a new “Supermid” version of the 1199 Panigale using the same monocoque frame concept and Superquadro 90-degree V-Twin engine design. Our own Troy Siahaan will be attending the press launch, so check back soon for his review.

2014 Ducati 899 Panigale Spied

Spy photographers have snapped images of what is reportedly a pre-production version of the rumored 2014 Ducati 899 Panigale. At first glance, the motorcycle pictured appears to be the familiar Ducati 1199 Panigale until you look at the swingarm. This sportbike has a double-sided swingarm instead of the single-sided swingarm found on the 1199 Panigale.

Dainese Offering Free Back Protectors With Purchase Of D-Dry Or Gore Tex Jackets

From now until November 17th 2013, participating Dainese dealers in the U.S. and Canada will be offering a free back protector with the purchase of a Dainese D- Dry or Gore-Tex jacket. Dainese created the first back protector over 30 years ago in an effort to promote safety in riding.

Q&A With Nicky Hayden Inside Dainese D-store At Indy MotoGP

The Dainese/AGV D-store in the Vendors Marketplace garages at the Indianapolis MotoGP is hosting a Q&A session with 2006 MotoGP World Champion, Nicky Haden, this Friday at 4:15 PM. Earlier Friday morning at the Pramac Ducati garage Dainese/AGV will unveil the custom Pista GP helmet, selected by Andrea Iannone, from hundreds of fan-submitted designs, to be used for the Indianapolis race weekend. Other events and signings will take place at the D-store which is open Friday 10 a.m.

Ben Spies to Ride Specially-Modified Ducati Diavel at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Ben Spies will attempt to make his long-awaited return from injury to MotoGP racing action this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but before he gets on his Ducati Desmosedici, Spies will ride a specially-modified Diavel drag racer. Spies will ride the modified Diavel at 5 p.m. local time on Thursday, Aug.

Ducati Diavel DVC by Moto Corse

Diavel is the name of the last muscle naked launched by Ducati. The custom bikes that have been built on this base are few and far between.Moto Corse, an Italian / Japanese company specialize in special parts for the most famous italian motorcycle brand, and they created a new performance version of the Ducati's maxi naked, called "Diavel DVC". This bike shows all the special parts that Moto Corse has prepared for the Diavel, also painted in a particularly elegant white livery.

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.