Ducati motorcycles 2

Design and Build

Though in 1954, with the entrance of the Fabio Taglioni brand, Ducati models had a sportier direction with powerful cylinders, the Italian racing bikes followed the classic trend. In 1963, at the urging of the Berliner brothers, U.S. bike importers, the bike Apollo was designed.

This design responded to an offer from the United States police.  The Apollo had 4 90º V cylinders.  1,270cc.  But, with the bike's excessive weight (270 kg) and the impossibility of finding tires that could withstand the power of the engine, the project was aborted.  Only 2 bikes were manufactured and only one currently remains in a Ducati museum.  After the failure of this project, the company focused from this moment on single cylinder bikes.  In 1970, the last evolutions of the Ducati single cylinder appeared, equipped with racing aesthetics.  These bikes were greatly successful owing to their quality/price/performance ratio.

In 1975, trying to change and develop production (also because their single cylinder series was already becoming old-fashioned), Ducati developed some twin-cylinder parallels, 350 and 500cc, in different versions.  GTL, GTV and Desmo.  But the mediocre appearance, the poor performance and the excessive weight of the bike was not a triumph.

This failure marks a before and after in the Italian brand.  That same year, the two most spectacular and mythical bikes from this brand came on the market: the 900 SS and the MHR.  These bikes incorporated the celebrated twin-cylinder Vs with 900cc power. Following this engine model, some bikes with a lower displacement came out for ordinary riders: the bike was called the "Pantah" and had a potency of 500cc.  The Pantah engine is mythical for the brand.

In 1986, now under direction of the Castiglione brothers, the model Paso (in honor of the driver Renzo Pasolini, who had a tragic death) came out.  This bike, with a Pantah engine, was the first tourist bike that included the engine underneath the cowling.  They initially made available the 700cc, though later they also made the 900cc. 

These Pantah engines were a testament to the creation of mythic models in the Italian brand like the 750, 900 and the 1000 SS, or the Monster, the ST2, 3 and 4... bikes that were a great triumph to the Italian racing teams in competitions. 

When the Pantah engines began to reach the limit of their possibilities, Ducati launched the "Desmoquattro" that, although still being a V-twin, had four valves per cylinder, was water-cooled and fed by electronic fuel injection.

This engine model equipped all the models of "Superbikes" from the 851 and 888, to the 1098, passing the 91, the 749 and the 999.  All these bikes have left their mark on motorcycle lovers. The last great date for the Ducati brand was in 2004, with the announcement of its intention to launch production of the Desmosedici RR, adaptations to highway bikes of the Moto GP machines, Loira Capirossi or Sete Gibernau. These bikes were presented in June of 2006. 

Its improved aesthetics and its technology derived from the Moto GP bike, they guessed it would have a great reception in the world of motorcycles, but, unfortunately for many, they only produced 400 models a year.  Its commercialization will begin at the end of 2007.