Vintage Ducati Bikes

Ducati Apollo
The 1964 Ducati Berliner 1260 Apollo was a prototype 1,250 cc (76 cu in) V4 engine motorcycle producing 100 bhp (75 kW) and capable of over 120 mph (190 km/h). It was never put into production, but did influence other production Ducatis that followed. Both Ducati and their US distributor, Berliner Motor Corporation, were experiencing declining sales of existing small capacity single cylinder models, and sought to create a bike to compete with Harley-Davidson. Berliner Motor was keen to have a model that could win lucrative police motorcycle supply contracts, and that could also sell as a civilian touring bike.

Ducati Performance
Initially it was putting out 100 bhp @ 7000 rpm, and could exceed 120 mph (190 km/h). The Harley of the time made 55 bhp. The first test rider Franco Farne came back from his first ride, and said it “handles like a truck.” Farne normally rode small racers. It soon became evident that even specially made tyres were not up to the power of the engine. A tyre disintegrated at speed on the Autostrada, and the test rider rated his survival “a miracle”. The engine was detuned to give 80 bhp. Tyres continued to disintegrate. The engine was brought down to 65 bhp, and the survival rate of the tyres became acceptable. This was late 1963. (In 1958 Moto Guzzi had used a 20 inch rear tyre on the Grand Prix 500 cc V8, and they had worn rapidly with 78 bhp.)

In March 1964 a gold painted prototype was handed over in a formal ceremony.
The reduction in power meant that the Apollo could now be outperformed by the British and BMW twins, which restricted the anticipated market to police forces. Berliner was printing advertising, demonstrating the prototype to Police Chiefs, and genuinely preparing to market the Apollo.

Berliner specification sheet
This is from a promotional flyer distributed by Berliner Motor Corporation,[8] which also included a front three quarter black and white view of the gold bike. The US$1,500 selling price would be US$10229 in 2008.wikipedia.

Vintage bike - Ducati

Old ducati 350 Sebring, 65 TS and Cruiser, 125 Desmo Ducati
Ducati singles were single cylinder motorcycles, made by Ducati from 1950 to 1974. Chief Engineer Fabio Taglioni developed a desmodromic valve system in these years, a system that opens and closes the valves using the camshaft, without the need for valve springs. This valve system has become a trademark feature of Ducati motorcycles.
Ducati Cucciolo
During World War II, Ducati developed a small engine mounted on a bicycle, called the Cucciolo ("little puppy") and in 1950 began producing its own complete 98-pound motorcycle with the same name.

Ducati 65 TS and Cruiser
The market was moving though, towards bigger motorcycles and Ducati's IRI management felt diversification was the only answer. Ducati made an impression at the early 1952 Milan Show, introducing the Ducati 65 TS cycle and the Cruiser, the world's first four-stroke scooter. Despite being described as the most interesting new machine at the 1952 show, the Cruiser was not a great success. A couple of thousand were made over a two year period before being withdrawn from production.
By 1954, Ducati Meccanica SpA was producing 120 bikes a day, but cheap cars were entering the markets, and sales for many motorcycle manufacturers would decline.

OHC 98 cc Gran Sport
Ducati's single overhead-cam 98 cc Gran Sport, designed by Taglioni, became the blueprint for all future Ducati singles. It had an air-cooled cylinder inclined forward 10 degrees from vertical, gear primary drive, wet-sump lubrication, battery ignition and camshaft drive by vertical shaft and bevel gears. This bike came to dominate its class in Italian racing. In 1956 there was a dohc 125 cc version of the Gran Sport.

125 Desmo Ducati
The high rpm's needed to produce competitive power in a small engine generated valve float, which Taglioni believed could be overcome with a desmodromic cylinder head. The 125 Grand Prix could produce 16 hp at 11,500 rpm, its true rev limit, while the Desmo could crank out 19 hp at 12,500 rpm and could “safely” (bottom end permitting) rev further to 15,000. Big-end life was short at these sorts of revs and new crankshaft bearings were put in for every race.

Ducati Diana Mark 3 Super Sport
This machine first appeared in 1962 in Europe where it was named the 'Mach 1'. It was derived from the production 250s but was considerably tuned and had 5 gears instead of the 4 of its predecessors. Several European magazines tested it and were able to exceed 100mph, making it by far the fastest production 250 on the market. It was later introduced to the American market where, under the name of Diana Mark 3 Super Sport, it proved again to be the fastest 250 street bike in the world that year.

1965 Ducati 350 Sebring
In 1965, the first new concept bike arrived. The 350 Sebring was the largest Ducati of the day. Typically, Ducati built a racing 350 first. The 350 class was not common in the United States, so when Ducati team rider Franco Farne went to America to race at Sebring race, he had to race in an event catering to 251-700 cc machines.

Ducati the Bikes

Ducati is best known for high performance motorcycles characterized by large capacity four-stroke, L-twin (90° twin-cylinder)engines featuring a desmodromic valve design. 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. Desmodromic valves are closed with a separate, dedicated cam lobe and lifter instead of the conventional valve springs used in most internal combustion engines in consumer vehicles. This allows the cams to have a more radical profile, thus opening and closing the valves more quickly without the risk of valve-float, which causes a loss of power, that is likely when using a "passive" closing mechanism under the same conditions.

While most other manufacturers utilize wet clutches (with the spinning parts bathed in oil) Ducati uses multiplate dry clutches in many of their current 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, and the clutch plates can wear more rapidly.

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.