Question Ducati

[franzkait]

Do we have any Ducati fans in the Forum ?

[John McKenzie]

Do you remember Desmodromic valve Ducati ..................Seem to remember this based on pre war Mercedes .???

[franzkait]

Mercedes still had Desmo in 1955 .

[j ferguson]

I had a '59 125, a '60 200, and two '62 250s all with the single overhead cam, lots of gear noise, and none really reliable. The 125 had a DelOrto Carb with a velocity stack which turned out to be a really good flamethrower. Running one day at maybe 50 mph, the intake valve (IIRC) broke allowing the flow through the carburetor to reverse making a flame that shot out the right side of the bike where my leg was and gave me a pretty good burn before it coasted to a noisy stop. The witnesses assured me that my pain was worth the sight of thie event - astonishing.

I would say that Ducati must have inherited a barn full of bevel gears. IIRC correctly there was a Desmo 125 which must have been a real wonder with a huge head with all of the gearing sitting on top of a cylinder a bit bigger than a coffee-cup - not counting fins.

I understand that today's Ducati has nothing at all to do with those machines.

btw, the 250s, Monza I think they called them, cost abut $495 in the US in '63.

I should add that the quality of the alloy castings on these bikes was very good - much better than the Honda 305 Dream which hit our shores about that time. Honda castings had what appeared to be hairline cracks all over and were coated with something to make this less obvious. I'm sure the Japanese knew full well how to do nice alloy casting but for some reason didn't on Honda motorcycles.

As a further O/T excursion, friend who had the 305 also had the shop manual. It clearly was translated word for word from the Japanese by someone who wasn't really sharp on English and maybe didn't know anything about machinery. It had an entire chapter entitled "The Magic of the Sparkmaker" which included almost everything known about spark plugs at the time including the alumina, the porcelain coating, geometry, electrical characteristics etc. - far more than you needed to know to service the thing.

Another sign of intelligent life in the universe is that you don't see aliens driving old Ducati's either.

[Brad]

Udo are you planning to put a Ducati in an aircraft replica??

[franzkait]

Ducati still has Desmo today , but no bevel gears any more . About 28 years ago they went from bevel gears to belt drive .
This engine would have a fantastic weight to power ratio for an aircraft .

[John McKenzie]

Does anyone remember the 4cyl ? Lambretta ( or was it Issetta?) , prototype GP Race Bike ( prob 500cc) , that was made about early 1960's ....[ this was all latest ideas then ]..........
Reason for its manufacture , it was said , ...was to warn off the Motor Cycle industry not to get into The Scooter industry .

It was painted mostly red , ...That's about all I can remember ,.... it was displayed in a Showroom of a motor cycle Dealer ( Alec Bennett) who competed in GP races .

[John McKenzie]

Turns out the memory was playing tricks ....It was a 250cc GP racer ...V twin ,( Crankshaft in line with frame) ....All to do with treat of scooter production from Moto Guzzi ....a bit earlier also ...1953 !

[j ferguson]

Originally Posted by John McKenzie

Turns out the memory was playing tricks ....It was a 250cc GP racer ...V twin ,( Crankshaft in line with frame) ....All to do with treat of scooter production from Moto Guzzi ....a bit earlier also ...1953 !

John, was it the Black Prince that Vincent made that did look like a scooter albeit bigger wheels? It was about that time.

[franzkait]

From today there is a bevel gear kit available to convert a belt drive Ducati into a bevel gear drive for the camshaft . Looks much better and runs better .




With the weight to power ratio it would be a magic engine for a small aircraft .

You are right !
Another sign of intelligent life in the universe is that you don't see aliens driving old Ducati's either.