Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. is the motorcycle-manufacturing division of Italian company Ducati.
Overview[]
Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, Ducati is owned by German automotive manufacturer Audi through its Italian subsidiary Lamborghini, which is all owned by the Volkswagen Group.
Ducati is best known for high-performance motorcycles characterized by large-capacity four-stroke, 90° V-twin engines, with a desmodromic valve design. Ducati refers to this configuration as L-twin because one cylinder is vertical while the other is horizontal, making it look like a letter "L". 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 use wet clutches (with the spinning parts bathed in oil) Ducati previously used multiplate dry clutches in many of their 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, but the clutch plates can wear more rapidly. Ducati has converted to wet clutches across their current product lines.
Ducati also extensively uses a trellis frame, although Ducati's MotoGP project broke with this tradition by introducing a revolutionary carbon fibre frame for the Ducati Desmosedici GP9.
Year | Model | Image | Appearances |
---|---|---|---|
2003 | Monster S4R | Asphalt Urban GT 2 | |
2003 | 999R | Asphalt Urban GT 2 | |
2007 | Desmosedici RR | Asphalt 3: Street Rules | |
2007 | 1098 | Asphalt 4: Elite Racing | |
2008 | Monster 696 | Asphalt 4: Elite Racing | |
2009 | 1198 | Asphalt 5 | |
2009 | Monster 1100S | Asphalt 5 | |
2016 | Monster 1200 | Asphalt 8: Airborne | |
2017 | SuperSport S | Asphalt 8: Airborne | |
2018 | XDiavel S | Asphalt 8: Airborne |
Trivia[]
- Ducati has a wide range of accessories, lifestyle products and co-branded merchandise bearing their logos and designs. The company has a licensing agreement with Tumi Inc., launching a collection of eight co-branded luggage pieces in 2006 sold through both of the brands' retail outlets.