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

Ducati Celebrates The Start Of Production For The Monster 1200

Ducati loves having a reason to celebrate, and as the very first Monster 1200 rolled off the production line Monday, yet another reason to party presented itself. Following Ducati tradition, the start of production (SOP) for the Monster 1200, as well as of every new Ducati model, is met with a small ceremony. Here’s how it went down: in front of the entire factory, Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali and Production Director Silvano Fini started the new bike.

Wood-Rotax SJ676 Grand Prix

Until yesterday I'd never even heard of this bike let alone seen one. I didn't know anything about it. I still don't, really but I dug up these words on the bike and thought I'd share them.

Larry Pegram To Race EBR 1190RX In 2014 AMA Superbike

Larry Pegram and Erik Buell Racing will be partnering up in 2014 to race an EBR 1190RX in AMA Superbike. This will be Pegram’s third different OEM in as many years, as he rode a Yamaha last year, BMW before that and Ducati in 2011. Supporting Pegram will be his long-time title sponsor, Foremost Insurance Group, along with EBR sponsors AMSOIL and Hero MotoCorp.

FIM to Revise WSBK Homologation Requirements

The International Motorcycling Federation is considering modifying its homologation requirements for the World Superbike Championship following Bimota‘s somewhat surprising plans to re-enter the series. Under current regulations, manufacturers must produce a minimum number of motorcycles for it to be eligible to compete in the production-based WSBK championship. The official regulations currently require a minimum of 125 units produced for an initial homologation inspection, 500 units produced by June 30 of the current year, 1,000 units by the end of the current year and 2,000 units by the end of the following year.

Radical Ducati Closing Its Doors

Radical Ducati, the Madrid-based motorcycle shop known for its wild and exquisite custom Ducatis, has suddenly ceased operations.  On its Facebook page, Pepo Rosell who runs the shop alongside Reyes Ramon, posted, “It has been more than 15 years of passion, designing, fabricating, riding and developing my dreams. Now is time to stop and make a change in my life. I want to thanks all of you for your support and for share our passion.” The loss of Radical Ducati is certainly unexpected. While it’s a sad sight to see them go, thankfully the duo have created some of the most beautiful custom Ducatis on the planet, which will live on as a reminder of their legacy. So in their honor, I’ve created a photo gallery below of just a sampling of some of Rosell and Ramon’s best work.

Davide Tardozzi Returns To Ducati, Now In MotoGP

After four years away, former racer turned team manager, Davide Tardozzi, is back with the Ducati brand. This time he will be in charge of the organization and logistics of the Italian squad in the MotoGP World Championship. The former Bimota racer had a very successful career as Ducati team manager in Superbike, collaborating with champions of the caliber of Fogarty, Bayliss, Corser, Toseland and Hodgson, and contributing to the conquest of seven rider’s titles in the production-based racing series.

MWR Air Filters Claim Amazing Power Improvement

From the News That Sounds Too Good To Be True But, Boy, Do We Hope It Is Department, MWR Air Filters wants riders to know that its MWR High Efficiency Air Filters are breaking new ground in air filtration technology. While the company’s name might not be commonplace among performance oriented riders – yet – some pretty big names are using MWR filters even though the company doesn’t pay sponsorship dollars. According to MWR’s press release, “the reigning WSBK champion, Tom Sykes uses MWR Air Filters in his Kawasaki ZX10R.” Also, 17 riders at the Isle of Man TT were running with MWR filters.

Recreate Rossi’s Corkscrew Pass on Stoner at Laguna Seca with Paper

Valentino Rossi‘s career is full of many incredible moments but few are as indelible as the move he made to pass Casey Stoner on the 23rd lap of the 2008 U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. The controversial cut through the famous Corkscrew was arguably the most dramatic moment of the 2008 MotoGP season (and ironically, recreated this year, with Marc Marquez turning the tables on Rossi).

Ducati Riding Experience 2014 Dates Announced

The Ducati Riding Experience is set to continue in 2014, with enrollment of the 11th edition of the Italian manufacturer’s highly successful riding school already open at www.Ducati.com. Two of Ducati’s latest models, the brand new 899 Panigale Superbike and Monster 1200 will be available for students to use. The 899 Panigale will be used for Racing 1 & 2 courses, while the Intermediate course will utilize the Monster 1200.

Ohlins Upgrades For Adventure/Dual-Purpose Bikes Now Available

Front-end upgrades are now available from Öhlins for Adventure bikes and Dual-Purpose motorcycles. The Öhlins FKA 100-series drop-in Cartridge Kits benefit from the lineage of Öhlins championship-winning road-racing kits, with applications for many mediumweight models of burly bikes. Tuned for riding long miles on difficult terrain, the Öhlins Cartridge Kits provide smooth comfort everywhere, from riding tame routes to crossing insane roots, from tarmac to terrain.