The History of Ducati

Ducati Motor is an Italian motorcycle and spare parts company headquartered in the Borgo Panigale district of Bologna.

The history of the company's foundation begins in 1926, when Antonio Cavalieri Ducati and his three sons, Adriano, Marcello and Bruno, founded the Ducati Radio Patent Scientific Society in Bologna to produce vacuum tubes, capacitors and other radio components.

The company's products were intended for the burgeoning market for radio equipment and components. The first product to gain recognition was the Manens capacitor, followed by a succession of other successful products such as horns and loudspeakers.

Production continued during World War II, even though the Ducati factory was repeatedly targeted by Allied bombing. After the war, the demand for radio equipment plummeted, and the company was taken over by the state. At that time, it was important for Italy to create cheap means of transportation, so Ducati's activities were reoriented to the production of means of transportation.

The first products were engines, the design of which was created by engineer Aldo Farinelli, which was the second birth for Ducati. Their first bicycle was called Cucciolo (puppy), and it differed from the existing bicycles on the market with the engine volume of 50 cc and excellent traction at low revolutions. The first Cucciolos were only available for mounting on customers' standard bicycles, but the company soon introduced complete motorcycle units for sale.

Already in the early 1950s, Ducati won half of the Italian motorcycle market. By this time, lightweight motorcycles were becoming increasingly popular, and already in 1952 the Cruiser model was released. The new motorcycle was equipped with an electric starter, 175cc engine, electronic ignition and automatic transmission. These were the first bikes to feature a telescopic fork, a spine frame and a rear swingarm. A little later, Ducati decided to try their hand at the sporty direction and released the 98 Sport model, which reached 95 km/h at 6.5 hp.

In 1954 a young engineer Fabio Taglioni became the chief designer. It is him who is associated with the main achievements of Ducati. His first motorcycle Ducati 100 Gran Sport with a 98cc engine immediately appealed to riders. Fabio wanted to increase the power of the motor by increasing the speed, placing the camshaft in the cylinder head, the engineer was able to achieve a power of 9 hp, which allowed the motorcycle weighing 80 kg to reach a speed of 130 km / h.

Ducati produced several motorcycle engines, including different numbers of cylinders, type of valve train and fuel supply. Ducati is best known for its L-twin V-shaped engine, which is found on most of the brand's motorcycles. Ducati also makes engines with one, two, three or four cylinders of valve-operated traction and pushrods with single, dual and triple overhead camshafts. Two-stroke and even one stage small diesel engines were produced, many of which were used to power boats, generators, garden equipment and emergency pumps (such as firefighting).

On today's Ducati engines, with the exception of the Desmosedici and 1199 Panigale, the valves are driven by a standard valve camshaft, which is rotated by a timing belt driven directly by the engine. The cogs on the belt hold the camshaft drive pulleys. On older Ducati engines prior to 1986, the drive was by means of a solid shaft, which was transmitted to the camshaft via bevel gears. Do not forget to use Ducati VIN decoder in order to avoid potential problems when buying a used car.