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

Exclusive interview with the Pope

The Pope, graciously took ten minutes out of his hectic Third World Tour of an aggressively atheist county to speak to us of his recently publicised passion for motorcycles So, Jo, you like your bikes? ‘Ja, Very much. I haff liked motorcycles since a very early age during my time in ze Hitler Youth organisation, in fact.

RSVP from an RSV4

Aprilia’s RSV4 Factory has to be one of the most interesting and adrenaline-inducing literbikes around, and that’s just part of why we gave it an Honorable Mention in our Best of 2010 Sportbike category. We recently had opportunity to put on a poor but passing Max Biaggi imitation with one particularly fine example. This RSV comes courtesy of our friend Kaming Ko, who often helps us on test rides.

So that's how they do it ...

KEIRA KNIGHTLY has been recruited as top model in a new Karl Lagerfeld ad campaign, showing the British babe aboard a Ducati, on the Place de la Concorde in Paris.Knightly is seen astride the V-twin motorbike, complete with tight catsuit, coordinating helmet and, er, stabilisers.Suddenly, she doesn't quite seem as sexy, somehow.

Hayden rides dirt track (again)

So Nicky Hayden's signed for another two-years at Ducati. He must be chuffed with that deal, I mean it's not as if he's wowed anyone with his performances on the Desmosedici, but he is a grafter. And perhaps the perfect team mate to play second fiddle to Rossi?

Rossi goes karting with racing mates

REIGNING MOTOGP World Champion Valentino Rossi has been out on four wheels again - this time joining his motorcycle racing buddies at Jeepers Kart track, Cattolica.The nine-time world champ, who recently announced he is to race for Ducati from 2011, was joined by Marco Simoncelli, Andrea Iannone and Mattia Pasini at the karting venue.Rossi, an accomplished racing driver, turned down an offer to move to Ferrari F1 in 2011, after impressing team bosses when he drove the squad's 2009 car in Spain.

And it's goodbye from him

THIS IS Valentino Rossi's farewell letter to his Fiat Yamaha team following the announcement the flambouyant Italian is to head to Ducati MotoGP in 2011.The hand-written letter, mistakes and all, is written in almost a 'my first romance' kinda way. It's touching, if a little bizarre. Some of the letter reads:“Unfortunately even the most beautiful love stories finish, but they leave a lot of wonderful memories, like when my M1 and I kissed for the first time on the grass at Welkom, when she looked straight in my eyes and told me ‘I love you!'"Somehow, we can't see Casey Stoner gushing quite as freely when he leaves Ducati for Repsol Honda.

Valentino Rossi to Ducati? Not so fast!

In today’s news that really isn’t news, an interview of Ducati CEO, Gabriele del Torchio, by Bruno de Prato found on Cycle World’s website on August 3rd, reveals the CEO speaking in a matter-of-fact tone about Valentino Rossi’s status as a team member on Ducati’s MotoGP effort. In the CW article, Del Torchio states that the 2010 racing season “will not bring to Ducati any crown in the sport,” but that he looks “forward to Valentino Rossi teaming up with Nicky Hayden.” “Nicky is a wonderful person and a great rider. This year, he greatly contributed to improving our Desmosedici racer.

130mph on sand: £6k and big balls needed

I spotted this for sale on another website. It's not every day one of these comes up for sale. And there's probably a reason for that - not everyone needs to do 130mph on sand...

Ford Ranger Wildtrak: part four

Took Rieju’s little sports 50 (£2499) to Whilton Mill kart track near Daventry the other day. Didn’t even need the ramp to load it in – such are the delights of 50cc bikes. Got my resident stunt monkey to test it out round the track but things were a bit hampered by a stubborn gear selection process.

So that's why he's called RANDY de Puniet

RANDY de Puniet may well have just been ejected from his LCR Honda RC212V MotoGP racer during qualifying for Sunday's Sachsenring GP but that ain't gonna stop him from bringing one of the company perks with him to Dr Costa's on-circuit surgery. The Frenchman crashed during qualifying after hitting oil and water spilled on track by Jorge Lorenzo's Fiat Yamaha, after it spewed its guts along almost the entire length of the start finished straight. Following the crash De Puniet was whisked away on a stretcher with a suspected broken foot.