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

2011 Ducati Mega Monster Leaked Sketch

This leaked sketch was found on a Ducati forum where the forum member claims he received it from the dealer that sold him his Streetfighter.  Motorcycle.com published an article last week that shows some spy shots of the new cruiser on the road along with some other information on the potential new bike from Ducati. See the official statement from Ducati after the jump. Statement from Ducati: As many you may have noticed, there has been quite a bit of activity in the past few weeks surrounding a supposed new Ducati model.

Ducati Multistrada at Pikes Peak [video]

This promotional video was shot by Ducati at this years Pikes Peak International Hill Climb where Greg Tracy and the Ducati Multistrada 1200 took first place in its class.  You can find the 2010 motorcycle results from this years event on motorcycle.com here. Get the Flash Player to see this player.

New: Alpinestars Flat Out Leather jacket

Looking like you’ve created a rip in the space-time continuum, pulling up in modern Britain on a ’70s Ducati 750 sporting huge sideburns and aviators. Alpinestars’ Flat Out leather jacket may have retro styling but the protection is definitely up-to-date. Highlighted features include CE-approved Bio Armor elbow and shoulder protection with the padding included in the chest and back.

Ducati Desmosedici for £339.99 (well almost)

IF A £40,000 Ducati Desmosedici is out of reach, like it is for most of us, then what about this bad boy?The 1/15th scale radio-controlled model comes complete adjustable oil-filled suspension, disc brakes, slick tyres and factory Ducati MotoGP paintjob.At £339.99 including delivery it's certainly not cheap! Radio-controlled Ducati

Ex-Rutter Ducati 888 on eBay

WANT TO stand out from the crowd on a piece of 90s retro trackday cool?An ex-Michael Rutter 1992 Ducati 888 SPS is up for grabs in eBay, ridden by the man himself in the 1992 season.Imported by Hoss Elm (now there's a name I've not seen for a while) boss of former Ducati UK Importers Moto Cinelli, the bike's fitted with all of the factory Corse parts that were available at the time, including full Termignoni exhaust system, lightweight flywheel, titanium rods, Magnetti Marelli ECU with Eprom race chip.Other stuff:Brembo 320 mm brakes upgraded to machined from solid calipersOhlins supension rebuilt and set-up by Ohlins factory. Ohlins steering damper.Corse close ratio gearbox.Magnesium cases.Marvic mag wheelsMichelin intermediatesFull carbon kevlar bodywork, recently repaintedCarbon Corse tankCarbon Corse wishbone intake system and airbox.Carbon HandlebarsMagnesium yokesCarbon rear discSpares include, complete carbon bodywork set, sprockets, electric start, standard flywheel set, ally selector drum, track stands, plus loads more.It's road registered, too!The downside? It's £25,500, but the seller's open to offers.

2010 NCR Millona 16

Take one Ducati Desmosedici 200+hp engine and put it into a super lightweight NCR chassis and you’ll quite possibly have the world’s fastest and most powerful motorcycle. At 145kg dry weight it’s lighter (even) than a MotoGP bike… The 989cc V4 produces a staggering 200hp @13.800rpm and 116Nm @10.500rpm. We’re going to have a chat with Michele Poggipolini of NCR about this bike, but we strongly suspect it’s a one off special.

Nicky needs to slide

Following Joe Kopp's historic win on a Ducati in AMA flat track, alarms bells have been going off in the heads of many, "Hey why doesn't Nicky Hayden jump on the Duke flat tracker?" Well the guys at the excellent American publication Road Racer X are running an online petition and a great marketing wake-up call for Ducati to get Nicky on board the bike for the Indy Mile on August 28th. If he won, and it's a big if considering he hasn't raced flat track in a long time, Nicky would complete the AMA Grand Slam which encompasses victories in the following; half-mile dirt track, mile dirt track, short track, TT, and a Superbike race win. It's an exclusive club with only four members, Dick Mann, Kenny Roberts, Doug Chandler and Bubba Shobert.

Ducati Strada Tech jacket

Most of you will know that Dainese design make most of Ducati’s top class performance wear and this new jacket is no exception. Designed in conjunction with the launch of the new Multistrada 1200 this great looking jacket can be separated with the interior lining usable as a stand alone windproof jacket. It’s good to see brands using mountainwear technology for things like zips and seamless stitching as it blocks out so much water and wind.

10 points if you can guess what this bike is

Spotted outside my hotel in Assen. I'm not talking about the big red bike with DUCATI written on the fairing, no. I'm talking about the one it's locked together with.

Ford Ranger Wildtrak: part three

Clocked over five thousand miles in the Ranger, lugging bikes to track events, back to importers and dealers, that sort of thing. It’s freeing up, especially the suspension. I can drink a cup of coffee now without inhaling it.