DUCATI - Everything You Need to Know | Up to Speed

Ducati's Return to MotoGP

So Ducati got back in the game with their first MotoGP engine, the Desmosedici. The Desmosedici is pretty much two L-twins next to each other. It took five years but in 2007, Ducati rider Casey Stoner rode a Desmosedici to Ducati's first MotoGP World Championship title, baby! You could even get your hands on a road-legal version of Ducati's MotoGP bike, the Desmosedici RR. All you needed was $72,500 and you can join the likes of Tom Cruise as one of the few owners of the motorcycle. Only 300 were sold in the US.

On the production side of things, the 2000s brought a host of new models to the market. We got the Multistrada in 2003, an upright adventurer. The Hypermotard, 2007, was across between a supermoto and a street bike. And in 2007 Ducati went back to the drawing board and built a completely new flagship two-wheel rocket, the 1098.

Going back to the beautiful look of its great granddaddy, the 916, the 1098 got some classic Italian styling with sharp lines, a single-sided swingarm, and horizontally placed headlights. It even did pretty good in the racing game. The FIM reached a deal for the 2008 season, allowing twins up to 1200cc to race. Ducati won 12 races during that season and the world title.

Ducati took advantage of the new World Superbike rules and bumped up the displacement to 1198cc of buff biker power! The 1198 even got traction control, one of the first production bikes to have that feature. From the 1198 spawned the 1199, the 1199 had the highest power-to-weight and torque-to-weight ratios of any production motorcycle when it hit the market.

But like all things Ducati, that wasn't good enough, so they built a version called the Superleggera, which means light weight in Italian. You just learned something. The Superleggera used magnesium monocoque chassis, magnesium wheels, and carbon fiber body panels. It made 200 horsepower and only weighed 342 pounds.

It would have held the title for highest power-to-weight ratio of any street bike ever, but again in true Ducati fashion, they proceeded to push the envelope even further! Its newer, younger, hipper brother, the 1299 Superleggera, went fricking crazy with first-time features. It was the first ever factory motorcycle equipped with a carbon fiber frame, subframe, swing-arm, and wheels.

Add in carbon fiber body panels, an aluminum tank, and 250 horsepower, and you have a motorcycle that is unbelievable! Which brings us to Ducati's latest and greatest, the V4. In 2018, Ducati ended an era of putting their signature L-twin engine into their top-of-the-line superbikes.

Their Italian competitor, Aprilia, had come out with a V4-powered motorcycle in 2010 and found immediate success. It was so good that the bike got banned from racing the following year. Ducati knew looking forward that it would be in their best interest to start working on a competing V4, so the Panigale was born.

As Ducati's first large production street bike with a V4, it ended almost 60 years of Ducati using Taglioni's L-twin. From an engineering standpoint, it's another masterpiece, pulling from the MotoGP world. The V4's engine rotates in the opposite direction of the wheels, which helps the bike make quicker inclination changes.

It has traction control, wheelie control, and fricking drift control, and even winglets that hang off the fairing to help keep the front end planted. Fricking canards on a motorcycle, dude. We got one right here! It's gorgeous.

Right now, you can go down to a Ducati dealer and get a 200-mile-per-hour screamer, one of the world's fastest vehicles for the price of a well-equipped Camry. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna take that bad boy and go pop some wheelies. If you guys wanna see more motorcycle content, let me know in the comments.

We have a second channel now, can you believe it? It's called Donut Podcasts, it's got our podcast, Past Gas, on there, it's going to have all of our podcasts. Make sure you hit that bell so you get notified. I love you.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(motorcycle engine roaring)- It's the two-wheeled Italian Stallionfrom the land of lasagnathat gets motorcycle lovers buzzingin their leather breeches.They rose up from the rubbleof their bombed out factoryduring World War II to become the largestItalian motorcycle manufacturer ever!(motorcycle engines roaring loudly)They build race bikes thenthey throw on a headlightand turn signals and call it street legal.(motorcycle engine roaring)Grab your leathers and strap on a helmetbecause this is everythingyou need to knowto get up to speed on Ducati!(energetic bouncy music)(horse neighing)(lightning banging)If you're a biker boy or a bike gal,I'm sure that you've leta little drool dribblewhile fawning over one of the company'ssexy two-wheeled steedsbut before Ducati even started makingsome of the worlds finest motorcycles,they were buildingsomething pretty unsexy.Radios.Radios were the smartphonesof the old days.It's like Twitter but for your ears.Literally everyone had a radioso naturally there wereentrepreneurs lookingto capitalize on thisnew electronics market.Three italian brothersby the name of Adriano,Bruno and Marcello Ducati,happened to be some ofthose entrepreneurs.Adriano was a highlygifted physics student,working in this newlydeveloped field of radioand had a few patents to his name.So in 1926Adriano and his two bros formed theSocieta Scientifica RadioBrevetti Ducati, reallyrolls off the tongue.Great branding.Working out of a smallfactory in Bologna, Italy,Ducati began manufacturing the smaller,electrical components for radiosuntil eventually selling complete units.Another complete unit is Nolan.By 1935, the Ducatibrothers built a new factorythat was considered one of the mostmodern manufacturingfacilities in the whole worldand they employed over7000 workers by 1940.Now around that same timethere was also this littlewar that was startingto gain traction, youmay have heard of it,it's called World War II.This German dictator, who I won't mention,but his name rhymes with Fitler,had forced the Ducati factoryto manufacture militaryradios for the access powers.Now in a war radios are very important!It's how you communicate, it'show your enemies communicateand one way to stop yourenemies from communicating isto bomb the absolute(beep) out of the factorywhere they're building their radiosand in October 1944 AmericanB-24 Liberator bomberscarried out Operation Pancake.It took 15 minutesand 750 bombs to flatten thestate of the art Ducati plant,ending it's radio making days for good.(upbeat music)During the war, Germansoldiers would forceItalian soldiers back to Germanyto fight on the front lines.Now Ducati would take inItalian soldiers who escapedand give them uniformsand badges showing their recruitment datea year before they'd actually arrivedand the German soldierswould show up to the factoryand be like, where arethe escaped soldiers?And Ducati would be like,I don't know what you talking about, dude.These guys, they beenhere for, like, ever.Pretty cool.After the war, likemany European countries,Italy was left withthe task of rebuilding.So they fixed their eyes on the marketof cheap transportation,the only problem wasDucati didn't have any experiencebuilding anything transportation related.So they went to the Italiancar tuning shop, Siata.Siata was building a small,clip on, four-stroke enginethat would turn yourboring pedal bicycle intoa fricking bad (beep) motorized bicycle.The engine Siata builtwas called the Cucciolowhich translates tolittle puppy in Englishand they did thisbecause the motor soundedlike a little puppy.(barking)No, no barking.(engine humming loudly)It had 1.5 horsepower andgot you 180 miles per gallon.It wasn't fast but it was economical.Siata couldn't keep up with the demandso Ducati struck alicensing deal to go offand build the frickout of the puppy sounding bicycle engine.And once Ducati took over theystarted churning out 25,000a year.Ducati would continuebuilding the Cuccioloand improve upon it'squality and functionalityand in 1950, Ducati, builttheir first true motorcycle,the 60 Sport.(motorcycle revving loudly)Now it used a 60 cc pull-rodengine that made twoand a half buff horse-prsand went 40 miles per hour,it was the first to useDucati's own frame witha built in gas tank.Three speed transmission andfront and rear drum brakes.Woo!Ducati would continue to makethese types of motorcyclesand mopeds well into the '50sbut in 1954 they hired oneman that changed the directionof the company forever!By the mid 1950s Ducati grew tiredof building small displacement,docile, boring motorcycles.There was this thing calledthe race of all races,was the Motogiro d'Italia.300 kilometer endurancerace that tested the speedand durability of the machinesand the men that enteredand for any motorcyclemanufacturer that won,it would be a guaranteed bump in sales.Ducati's rival, Mondial,had just won this prestigiousrace with their 125 Racer.On their staff was a youngengineer by the name of,Fabio Taglioni.Now Fab played a large part in the successin helping Mondial win the coveted racebut Mondial snuffed the young Taglioniby not inviting him tothe post race party.Big mistake.So doing the most Italian thing ever,he quit the company the next daybut he wouldn't tell anybody why.I'm pretty sure it'sbecause he didn't get invited to a party.Ducati's general managerapproached the newly unemployedItalian engineer and presenteda proposition to him,work for Ducati, notonly building race bikesbut to save the company from bankruptcy.Look, you got the skills kid,the skills to pay the bills.I need you to build me a race bike.Yes, I can do that.Also, Ducati is on the verge of closingso we're really counting on you.Wait, I just started towork here, are we closing?No, we not closing!You just said we are closing.We not closing, we fine, we rich!Arrivederci!Ciao!(motorcycles rumbling)At the time, Ducati wasstruggling to stay afloatwhich is why they needed towin the Motogiro d'Italia.Taglioni accepted the challengeand was hired on asDucati's chief designerand technical director.He went to work and builtDucati's first racer,the Grand Sport Mariana.Named after the sauce!The bike weighed less than 180 poundsand could run up to 120 miles per.This is the '50s, that's scary!A year later Taglionibuilt a 125 cc versionwith racer Juliano Maogi on theseat, the 125 Mariana scoreda first place win in the 1956Motogiro d'Italia.Wanting to improve hisracing machine even further,Taglioni, startingworking on another bike,a motorcycle that would goon to shape the company ina way that is still preserved to this day.In 1956,he built the 125desmodromic Racer.The Trialbero.What made this Racerunique from the Mariana isthat it used a camshaft to bothopen and close it's valves.Get your learning caps onbecause we're goinginto the Tech Talk zone.(bouncy tech music)Now to understand why Taglioniused desmodromic valvesin is engine design, youfirst need to understandhow the more common springreturn overhead valves work.Valves are opened by a camand closed by a return spring.In the early days of engine design,motors would blow up dueto valve spring failure.This was a problem earlyon when the metal usedto make springs was crappy.Instead of using springs to return valves,a desmodromic system replacesthose springs with cam lobesand collars.It forcibly pulls the valve to close it,perfectly timed with therotation of the crankshaft.So why is that better?Well, for one you don'thave to worry about thesprings failing and your motor blowing up.The second thing desmosystems avoid is valve float.It's inefficient and you lose powerand Mr. Fabio was a racer at his coreand he was always searching for.That's right, he's still gone.Okay, yeah, roll the auditions.(machine buzzing)- I needmore power, baby!- More power, baby!- More power, baby, more power, baby,more power, baby, more power, baby.- More power, baby!- More power, baby.- More power, baby!- No, none of those people are right.Some of them were prettygood, especially the kids,they were very cute, butit's just not the same.If you have any informationleading to the locationof the audience member, please,post on Instagram or Twitter, #uptospeed.Now Taglioni didn'tinvent the desmo systembut he did implement thetechnology into his engine design.Ducati still uses it inall of their engines today.The new 125 desmo Grand Prix,Trialbero Racer debutedin The Swedish Grand Prixat Hedemora in July 1956.It made 19 horsepower with 12,500 RPM.It could rev all the way up to 15 K.An engine revving that high in1956, is fricking crazy, man!Factory rider, Degli Antoni,took the new desmo-powered race bikeand lapped the entire fieldon his way to victory!It fricking spanked!Ducati continued to use racingas a way to sell motorcyclesand in 1959, they hired ayoung and up and coming racer,Mike, The Bike, Hailwood asone of their factory riders.The 19 year old Oxfordshirechap had the skills to winand his dad, Stan Hailwood,had a sound faith in hisson's racing ability.So much faith that he went to Ducatiand asked them to build his son a bikethat would dominate thecompetition and they said,okay, but for it to befinancially worth it,you have to buy 2000 of them.So like any good father, Stan, said,sure, put it on my Oxfordshire Express.And 2000 of the newly designed250 desmo Twins were made,not only was Stan Hailwood a dope ass dad,he was also the firstDucati dealer in Britain.(motorcycle revving loudly)Now Ducati would continue tomake more economical road bikesin the '60s, producing some of thefastest half cars money could buy.The Ducati Diana or the Daytona,as it was branded in the States,was a $719, 24 horsepower,road going beaut!Based on the Diana, theyreleased the Scrambler.Yeah, those modern styled Scramblersthat hipster dudes love these days,they are updated versions ofthe Scramblers from the '60s.In 1964, Ducati built the Mach 1,which was the fastestproduction 250 in the world,reaching speeds in theaccess of 100 miles per.They built their first productiondesmodromic model in 1969,with their Mach 3D, a350 cc single cylinderthat went 112 miles perand they built a biketo try and kill Harley Davidson.They called it the Apollo.Ducati was approached by theBerliner brothers to createa rival bike to sell topolice departments in the US.Now Taglioni was taskedwith building the bike,he came up with a air-cooled1257 cc, two valve, V4that made 100 brake hrsprs,almost twice as much as theHarleys of a similar size.The bike had so much power, baby,that it would destroy tires.The material used tomake tires in those daysweren't strong enough tohandle all the hrsprs,so they detuned the bike to 80 hrsprsand that was still too much,so they detuned it to 65 hrsprs.After all that detuning theApollo was now underperforming.Ducati didn't find successwith the concept V4but they did find success withtheir first production Twin,the 750 GT and it couldn'thave come at a better time.Ducati was in financialtrouble and by 1969,they were completely takenover by the Italian government.Honda had hit the scene withtheir super popular CB750and Ducati quickly realizedthey also needed a 750 sized biketo compete against thepopular Japanese superbike.So the company went to, you guessed it,(beep) Fabio Taglioni, their Lordand savior to design such a bike.The 750GT used Taglioni's new, L-twin,they call it that becauseof the 90 degree anglebetween the cylindersand also to differentiateitself from Harley's V-twin.The 750GT's stiff frame andquality suspension gave the bikean edge over other superbikesbut it still lacked power.(motorcycle engine roaring)So Taglioni went and developeda desmo version of the bike,the 750 Imola desmo andin 1972 at the runningof the Imola 200, Britishracer, Paul Smart,and Italian racer, Bruno Spaggiari,won first and second place ontheir new Italian stallions.(motorcycles buzzing loudly)The Imola 200 is Europe'sversion of Daytona 200so having a Ducati as the winning bike wasa huge fricking deal.By 1974 you could walkinto a Ducati dealershipand drop some liras onon a 750 Supersport,a production bike built on the foundationof the Imola race bike.Only 401 of them were built in 1974,it was pretty much a racebike with a headlightand turn signals.It might be considered the mostsignificant production bikein the company's history andby far the most sought after.Just look them up,they're super expensive.Ducati would close out the'70s on top with their boy,Mike, The Bike.After an 11 year self-imposed retirement,Mike Hailwood decided to throwhis leg over Ducati again,this time at the Isle of Man TT.Aboard his Ducati 900 SS, Hailwood,shocked the motorcycle sceneby winning the Formula 1 class.Their 900 SS went on to becometheir number one selling bikebut in the eyes of Taglioni,he knew that to keep thecompany from closing in yearsto come they needed to keep evolving,which is why Donut isbringing a bunch of new showsto you guys in 2020, tomake sure you don't miss anyof those hit that notification bell, baby!Taglioni knew that his bevel engine designwas too expensive to befeasible for any longer.He developed a new twin thatused the same 90 degree,L layout but replaced theexpensive bevel system witha cheaper, easy tomanufacture rubber belt.To this day, Ducati still usesbelts to drive their cams.(motorcycle engine rumbling loudly)The new engine wasfirst put in the Pantah.The 500 cc Pantah not onlyfeatured Taglioni's new motorbut Ducati's new trellis frame.This design lets the frameflex in lateral direction,which in layman's terms,it helps the bike hook up in cornersand corners is good for racing.(motorcycle engine roaring)Only a few years would go bybefore Ducati released their750 F1 to acclaimed success.For the first time on a Ducati road bike,it got Ducati's signature dry clutch.If Harley V-twins are known for theirplop plop exhaust note,Ducati is known for it'sbag of bolts clutch rattle.(motorcycle engine rattling loudly)It's very distinctive,some people like it,some people don't but it's unmistakable.Even the sales success ofthe F1 was overshadowedby Ducati's deep financial woes.It seemed no matter how goodor how many motorcyclesDucati built and sold,they were always on theverge of closing down dueto financial troubles.Remember, this was Italy in the 1980s,they were still undercommunist rule and Ducati wasa state-owned organizationand the state of Italy was no bueno.Ducati needed capital to stay afloator else they'd have to close their doors.Lucky for them, there wasanother Italian companylooking to save Ducati's (beep).Cagiva.Cagiva was a young motorcycle companyowned by the Castiglioni brothers.When Cagiva bought Ducati in May 1985,they knew the Japanesemanufacturers were already aheadof the game and they neededa bike in their line upthat could compete with thepowerful Japanese four bangers.They needed a new, powerful engine.(motorcycle engine revving loudly)The desmo Quattro, aliquid-cooled, multi-valve,fuel-injected evolutionof the 750 cc L-twin.The new motor would form the basisof their new flagship sport bike, the 851.The 851 was a screamer.It made roughly 100 hrsprs,making it the most powerfulDucati ever built at the time.It set the stage forthe World SuperbikeChampionship series dominance.Since the series wasformed in 1988, Ducati,has more World Superbike titlesthan any other manufacturercombined!The 851 was the bikethat started theirdominance in the series,taking the Championship in 1980.It paved the way for Ducati's of the '90sand more specifically the most famousand beloved motorcycleDucati has ever built.The 916.(motorcycle engine roaring loudly)The 916 may go down asDucati's most beautiful bike.Overnight it seemingly changedthe world of superbikesas we know it.Not only from a performance standpointbut in the looks department.This Italian beauty wasthe belle of the ball.The shape of the bike wasbased on the shape of a woman.I'm not making this up.When the dudes wereexplaining how the bike looks,the designers said, the916 has the silhouette ofa voluptuous woman.(gasping)Curvy hips!To be fair,if you ask any Italian guywhat inspired his design,of anything, he willprobably say it was a woman.The 916 had exhaust pipesthat went under the seat,which improved aerodynamic performanceand while it didn't make as much poweras the Japanese bikes at the time,the L-twin desmo engine produceda more even torque spread,which made it easier to ride fast.Combine that with it's awesomehandling and amazing brakes,it was unstoppable!It was the 1995 Motorcycle of the Year.They kept the overall packageof that bike for the next 10 years,using the 916 as the foundationfor the 996 and the 998.Over that 10 year period, Ducati,won six world titles, 65 pole positions,115 racesand 306 podiums.Around the same time the 916 came out,another bike was releasedthat helped cement Ducatias one of the mostbeloved motorcycle brandsacross the world.Il Mostro,or, The Monster.(motorcycle revving loudly)Designer, Miguel Angel Galluzzi,took inspiration from the streetfighter bikes of the '80s,when riders would removetheir crash fairingsto reveal the frame and engine,they also called them naked bikes.If there's one thing youdon't wanna mess with,it's a naked street fighter.Just a little tip from big bro.With no fairings, The Monster,exposed it's trellis frameand signature L-twin engine,showing off the engineering beaut.Interestingly enough, TheMonster, was a parts bin special.The engine and front halfof the frame came off the900 Supersport, the bottomsection of the frame off an 851,the forks from a 750 Supersport,the motorcycle that would go onto account for half ofDucati's sales by 2005,was more or less a beautiful,Italian, Frankenstein.He's alive!After years of success withtheir current sport bike lineupand The Monster bikes, Ducati,pissed off a bunch of puristswith their new sport bike, the 999.The more futurist shape of the 999 turneda lot of diehard Ducatistas off.It didn't stop Ducati fromwinning on the track though.It won three World SuperbikeChampionships in the five yearsthat the bike raced the series.Now if you're a MotoGP fanand curious why there areno Ducati entries pre 2002,it really comes down to engines.In the early '70s,the landscape of racingwas beginning to change.In the 500 cc class,four-strokes dominatedbut soon the technology would shiftand benefit two-stroke machinesunfortunately for Ducati,they didn't have a two-stroke enginebut in 2002 MotoGP changed therules to favor four-strokes.So Ducati got back in the gamewith their first MotoGPengine, the Desmosedici.The Desmosedici is pretty much two L-twinsnext to each other.It took fives years but in 2007,Ducati rider, Casey Stoner,rode a Desmosedici to Ducati's firstMotoGP World Championship title, baby!You could even get your hands ona road legal version ofDucati's MotoGP bike,the Desmosedici RR.All you needed is72,500 bones and you canjoin the likes of Tom Cruise,as one of the few ownersof the motorcycle.Only 300 were sold in the US.On the production side of things,the 2000s brought a host ofnew models to the market.We got the Multistrada in2003, an upright adventurer.The Hypermotard, 2007, across between a supermotoand a street bike andin 2007 Ducati went backto the drawing board and builta completely new flagshiptwo-wheel rocket, the 1098.(motorcycle engine roaring loudly)Going back to the beautifullook of it's great granddaddy,the 916, the 1098, got someclassic Italian stylingswith sharp lines, a single-sided swingarmand horizontally placed headlights.It even did pretty goodin the racing game.The FIM reached a dealfor the 2008 season,allowing twins up to 1200 cc to race.Ducati won 12 races during that seasonand the world title.Ducati took advantage of thenew World Superbike rulesand bumped up the displacement to 1198 ccof buff biker power!The 1198 even got traction control,one of the first productionbikes to have that feature.From the 1198 spawned the 1199,the 1199 had the highest power to weightand torque to weight ratiosof any production motorcyclewhen it hit the marketbut like all things Ducati,that wasn't good enoughso they built a versioncalled the Superleggera,which means light weight in Italian,you just learned something.The Superleggera used amagnesium monocoque chassis,magnesium wheels andcarbon fiber body panels.It made 200 hrspr.(motorcycle engine roaring)It only weighed 342 pounds.It would've held thetitle for highest powerto weight ratio of any street bike, ever,but again in true Ducati fashion,they proceeded to pushthe envelope even further!(motorcycle engine roaring loudly)It's newer, younger, hipperbrother, the 1299 Superleggera,went fricking crazy withfirst time features.It was the first ever factorymotorcycle equipped witha carbon fiber frame,subframe, swing-arm and wheels.Add in carbon fiber bodypanels, an aluminum tankand 250 horsepowerand you have a motorcyclethat is unbelievable!Which brings us to Ducati'slatest and greatest, the V4.In 2018, Ducati, ended an eraof putting their signatureL-twin engine intotheir top of the line superbikes.Their Italian competitor,Aprilia, had come out witha V4 powered motorcycle in 2010and found immediate success.It was so good that the bike got bannedfrom racing the following year.Ducati knew, looking forward,that it would be in their best interestto start working on a competing V4,so the Panigale was born.As Ducati's first largeproduction street bike with a V4,it ended almost 60 years ofDucati using Taglioni's L-twin.From an engineering standpoint,it's another masterpiece,pulling from the MotoGP world.The V4's engine rotatesin the opposite directionof the wheels, which helps the bikemake quicker inclination changes.It has traction control, wheelie controland fricking driftcontrol and even wingletsthat hang off the fairingto help keep the front end planted.Fricking canards on a motorcycle, dude.We got one right here!It's gorgeous.Right now, you can godown to a Ducati dealerand get a 200 mile per hour screamer,one of the world's fastest vehiclesfor the price of a well equipped Camry.Now if you'll excuse me,I'ma take that bad boyand go pop some wheelies.If you guys wanna seemore motorcycle content,let me know in the comments.We may be working on a motorcycle show.Speaking of more stuff, wehave a second channel now,can you believe it?It's called Donut Podcasts,it's got our podcast, Past Gas,on there, it's gonnahave all of our podcasts.Make sure you hit thatbell so you get notified.I love you.