Twin camshaft 125 from 1956. The Desmo is on its way
I
n a book published in 1987, written by
motorcycle journalist Alan Cathcart,
he stated that “Few of the world’s
motorcycle marques, either present or past,
have excited such interest and passion in
so many countries as Ducati”. This of course
could be said of many other motorcycles
from many other countries, but as the saying
goes ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’.
Devotion to one marque or the other is
unquestionably a matter of personal choice.
How we all come to have what we loosely call
favourites, is complex, and I’m sure there is no
understandable reason why certain people
are devoted to particular marques, or models
of motorcycle.
In this case we are talking about Ducati, that
extraordinary marque which emerged during
World War II. Another remarkable Italian,
Moto Guzzi, began on the road to success in
the 1930s, so Ducati had a long way to catch
up, and it did so quickly and effectively. But
this is not a competition between Italian
motorcycle brands, simply an observation of
the length and depth of the industry in that
country. It is extraordinary how, following
the mass destruction in Italy during World
War II, within a few years MV Agusta, Gilera,
and Moto Guzzi were rampant on race tracks
around the world.
Ducati began, in the usual way, with very
small practical models that would help fill the
gap in commuter starved post-war Italy, and
eventually emerged as an industry giant. In
the middle 1950s Ducati had 700 employees
and an output of some 20,000 machines
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