About
Racing history
Ducati has a long history with racing, still subscribing to the
"win on Sunday, sell on Monday" business model
allocating 10% of the companies revenue (approximately $60 million) on racing
Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. is a motorcycle manufacturer in Bologna, Italy. It
produces motorcycles for both road use and motorcycle racing.
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.
For 2009, Ducati Marlboro Team campaigned their Desmosedici GP9 with former
World Champions Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden.Ducati also supplies customer
bikes to the Alice Team, with Mika Kallio and Niccolò Canepa riding for the team
in 2009.
Ducati has announced that for the 2011 season, nine-time world champion
Valentino Rossi will ride for Ducati Corse.
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