X-Nico

9 unusual facts about Ducati


Assisted-opening knife

The first assisted opening knife was designed by Blackie Collins in 1995 and was named the "Strut-and-Cut"; it was based on the strut of his Ducati motorcycle.

Cimatti

The company is survived by a struggling small group of Italian motorcycle companies, including Moto Guzzi, Aprilia, Piaggio, Laverda and Ducati.

Ducati Moto

There are also eleven upgradeable Ducati motorbikes, and eight different riders to choose from.

Engine balance

In a V-twin with a shared crank pin (e.g. Ducati 'L-twin'), the strong vibration of the 360°-crank parallel twin is divided into two different directions and phase separated by the same amount of degrees as in the V angle, with 13. unevenly spaced firing as well as the imbalances 4., 6., 14. and 16.

National Tyres and Autocare

Their main rider, Chris Walker, came close to winning the Championship that year, only engine failure with three laps remaining allowed Ducati rider Neil Hodgson to pass him and take the title.

Peg Perego

These toys have become more advanced, and the company now sells battery-powered John Deere, Polaris, Cub Cadet, Ducati, and Vespa ride-on toys for children.

Rover K engine

The aluminium engine blocks were fitted with spun cast iron cylinder liners that were initially manufactured by GKN's Sheepbridge Stokes of Chesterfield, but replaced by spun cast iron liners made by Goetze after some seminal research conducted by Charles Bernstein at Longbridge, which proved influential even to Ducati for their race engines.

Valvetrain

Other mechanisms can be used in place of valve springs to keep the valves closed: Formula 1 engines employ pneumatic valve springs in which pneumatic pressure closes the valves, while motorcycle manufacturer Ducati uses desmodromic a system to mechanically close the valves.

William S. Price III

Price would be involved with all of TPG's investments, most notably Beringer, Continental Airlines, Petco, Ducati and Grohe.


Al Melling

The finished model of the Nemesis weighed 217 kg - Carl Fogarty (the most successful world super bike rider of all time) rode it and stated that it was more compact and lighter than his Ducati race bike.

AMA Formula Xtreme

Manufacturers represented in the AMA Formula Xtreme Series included the Big Four; Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha, and in 2008 BMW, Ducati, Triumph and Buell were represented as well.

Berliner Motor Corporation

To get themselves off the hook from Ducati, they turned to Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) in the UK, and used the leverage of the vast USA market they controlled, informing AMC that they would be needing no more of the struggling factory's Matchless motorcycles unless AMC found someone to purchase the unwanted Ducati shipment.

Davide Tardozzi

After his shock departure from Ducati at the end of the 2009 season, Davide Tardozzi made a no less surprising move to become the new team manager of the official BMW Motorrad racing team in the 2010 World Superbike championship.

Desmodromic valve

In 1956, Fabio Taglioni, a Ducati engineer, developed a desmodromic valve system for the Ducati 125 Grand Prix, creating the Ducati 125 Desmo.

With the onset of the 800 cc era in 2007, they are generally still considered to be the most powerful engines in the sport, and have powered Casey Stoner to the 2007 MotoGP Championship and Ducati to the constructors championship with the GP7 (Desmosedici) bike.

Ducati 1098

The main reason for Ducati to re-model this bike was to celebrate Troy Bayliss' victory in the 2008 Superbike World Championship season riding for Ducati, after which he retired.

Ducati Bipantah

It remained at prototype stage and gave very good performances during dyno-tests, but the project came on halt in late 1982, when VM Motori, which owned Ducati in those days, decided not to build the bike that would have been powered by such engine.

Ducati V-twin motorcycles

The Multistrada 1000DS uses Ducati's signature trellis frame with fully adjustable 160 mm travel Showa forks up front, and a single-sided swingarm, with an Öhlins fully adjustable rear shock coupled with a rising rate, height-adjustable suspension system at the rear.

In the same way Ducati had sought Seely’s frame expertise in 1970, Cagiva now went to Massimo Tamburini of Bimota to design a new frame and look for the 750 F1.

In 1974, Australian importer Ron Angel entered a "Ducati 860 SS" in the Unlimited Production event at the Easter motorbike races at Bathurst, on the mountain.

Giandrea Fabbro

He gained notoriety when he was given the responsibility to design the next generation of Ducati's Superbike line, the 1098, after Pierre Terblanche's 999 failed to gain the popularity and success of the iconic 916 designed by Massimo Tamburini.

Lorenzo Lanzi

A series of 8 successive top ten finishes earned him a promotion at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz round where he raced for the Xerox sponsored Ducati factory team in place of the injured Régis Laconi.

Marco Melandri

With Rossi struggling to find consistency, he was a major challenger, along with Ducati's Loris Capirossi and Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa.

Max Neukirchner

Max Neukirchner (born 20 April 1983 in Stollberg, Germany) is a professional motorcycle racer currently competing in the World Superbike Championship aboard a Ducati 1199 Panigale R.

Motorcycle history

Recent years have seen a resurgence in the popularity around the world of many other motorcycle brands, including BMW, Triumph and Ducati, and the emergence of Victory as a second successful mass-builder of big-twin American cruisers.

MV Agusta

In 2005 MV Agusta introduced the Tamburini 1000, which is named after its creator, Massimo Tamburini, who had previously worked for Ducati, where he designed the Ducati 916.

Parade lap

At the 2009 Valencian MotoGP, Ducati rider Casey Stoner crashed at the second turn of the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, and missed the race.

Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma

Pier Luigi and his son, Ottavio, declared they would have pay 9,000 golden ducati every year to the Holy See, and, in exchange, they gave back the Duchies of Camerino and Nepi.

Sete Gibernau

After a few months of speculation, on the 23rd of October at Valencia, it was officially confirmed that he would return to race in 2009 on Onde 2000 Ducati, a Ducati satellite team run by Angel Nieto.


see also